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ISV-defined Hostid Processing
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RLM provides the ability to extend the native set of hostids by using your own routines to obtain host
identification which is unique to you. There are 2 methods to do this – the older, deprecated “isv-defined
hostid”, and the newer “ISV=” hostid type.

If you use the deprecated isv-defined hostid:

* You cannot use a ISV server settings file, instead, you must ship a binary, which means your 
  customers cannot get bug fixes with a new generic RLM server.
* Your customers cannot use the generic rlmhostid tool, you must write and ship your own tool.
* You cannot use the standard Activation Pro license generator; you must build a custom generator -
  which may involve licensing an additional RLM platform.
* You cannot use RLM Cloud servers.

Reprise Software recommends using the **ISV=** hostid type, which uses the ISV-defined string as set 
by the rlm_set_environ() call. 

The advantages and disadvantages of doing this, over the older ISV-defined hostid code are:

**Advantages:**

* No custom code to write (other than getting the string itself).
* You can use an ISV server settings file and avoid building an ISV server.
* You can use an Activation Pro generator settings file and avoid building a custom generator.
* You can use RLM Cloud to provide cloud-based license servers to your customers.


**Disadvantages (compared to the old isv-defined hostid):**

* Only one hostid of this type is supported on a system.
* The hostid comparison code is always a case-insensitive strcmp() function.
* This hostid can't be used for the license server itself, only for node-locked licenses.

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To use this hostid type, do the following:
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1. Determine the hostid on your system (in your application).
2. Call rlm_set_environ(....., your-hostid), immediately after your call to rlm_init()
3. Use “isv=your-hostid”, as the hostid for your license. 

.. note:: This hostid can't be used for the license server itself.

If after reading this you still want to write code to create an isv-defined hostid, please
contact Reprise Software.