Distributor Technical Overview

Network Licensing Model

The Distributor model extends basic Node Locked Standalone licensing to support floating, concurrent licensing scenarios, and can be combined with other models (such as Subscription Licensing). For an overview on licensing and details on other licensing models see http://docs.softwarepotential.com.

In the Node Locked Standalone license model, the Software Potential Runtime included with the application manages access to licensed features by querying locally stored licenses.

With the Distributor or network licensing model, the runtime can additionally request features from a central Distributor server installed on the customer premises. Multiple runtime instances each on different devices can simultaneously request features from a single Distributor instance.

Distributor Server

Distributor is a centralized network license server installed on a customer’s premises. Distributor is hosted as a Windows Service and can be installed on any Windows desktop or server machine.

The Distributor server comprises:

• A centralized licensing service which communicates with SpAgent runtime clients over HTTP. The service listens for client requests on Port 8731 by default.
• An administrative web front end that is served from within the same host process which allows one to administer the Distributor service and its associated licenses. The administration portal is on Port 2468 by default.

For more information on the installation and configuration of this component see: Sp.Distributor README.

Distributor Client

A Distributor Client DLL is required by the SpAgent Runtime to connect to the Distributor Service. This is delivered as a separate NuGet package that is installed alongside the standard licensing package.

For a more detailed guide to the Distributor architecture see: Getting Started - Distributor.