International Business Machines Corporation

Kevin Patrick Stamschror

Naresh Nayar

William Joseph Armstrong

George Francis DeStefano

Marcia Lynn Brandt

Eric Leonard Fosdick

Teresa McConville Prokop

Ramila Alexandra Mehta

An apparatus, program product and method track concurrent uses of a computer program across a plurality of logical partitions in a logically partitioned computer, such that a decision as to whether to grant or deny a request to use the computer program in a particular logical partition may be made based upon whether the requested use, coupled with other uses in other logical partitions in the computer, would violate a concurrent use software license associated with the computer program. As such, the license restrictions of a concurrent use software license can be enforced on a logically partitioned computer regardless of the particular logical partitions within which a computer program executes.

Management of a concurrent use license in a logically-partitioned computer

A license key with method of implementation is disclosed. The license key is used for accessing a licensed product on an enterprise computer system. Typically, the enterprise computer system includes a plurality of computer systems, but the computer systems are not necessarily interconnected. A first identifier code from the enterprise computer system, such as the system serial number, is used for allowing the license key to identify the enterprise. A second identifier code from a computer within the enterprise system is used, which is typically a serial number from the computer to identify it to the license key as being part of the enterprise system. Lastly, a third identifier code is used, which is selected from the licensed product to be used on the enterprise system and is tied to the enterprise system number, thereby allowing the licensed program to be accessed on the enterprise system with only a single key, irrespective of the number of computers accessing the licensed program. The setup of the license key, along with calling the identifier codes from the enterprise system, each computer, and the license product, is performed by a license manager, which also provides other services based upon the license key. The license manager provides either usage control, access control, or both, based upon information generated by the license key and found within a product information packet provided with the licensed product and based upon the enterprise system.

Method and apparatus for software license management

Growing community of inventors

Wabasha, MN, United States of America

Kevin Patrick Stamschror