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alpha@LMS Web-based License Management System

To To All partners All partners

Distribution List Distribution List No restrictions No restrictions

Author Kurt Wenger

Version 2006-08-03

Distribution The electronic file is the original and supersedes any printed copy.

Synopsis This manual provides you with essential information about purpose and use of the alpha@LMS Web-based License Management tool.

of 24 alpha_License_Management_1.06.doc Created on 2006-08-03 Last saved by Kurt Wenger on 2006-08-16

Contents 1 Overview............................................................................................................................................3 2 Concept .............................................................................................................................................3

2.1 Definitions ...........................................................................................................................3 2.2 Simplified License Flow Chart.............................................................................................4 2.3 Customer Relationships......................................................................................................5

3 Use Of The alpha@LMS Web-based License Manager...................................................................6 3.1 Login ...................................................................................................................................6 3.2 Main Screen........................................................................................................................6

3.2.1 Add New Customer ....................................................................................................7 3.2.2 Delete Customer ........................................................................................................7 3.2.3 Add New User ............................................................................................................8

3.3 License Pool / License Account Overview..........................................................................9 3.3.1 Unused Licenses........................................................................................................9 3.3.2 Assigned Licenses ...................................................................................................10 3.3.3 Details For An Assigned License .............................................................................10 3.3.4 Transfer History........................................................................................................11

3.4 License Transfer ...............................................................................................................12 3.4.1 License to Customer ................................................................................................12 3.4.2 License to Hardware ................................................................................................13 3.4.3 License as Trial License to Hardware......................................................................14 3.4.4 License from Hardware to Pool................................................................................16

3.4.4.1 Retrieve the licenses to go back to the pool .....................................................16 3.4.4.2 License play-back to the pool (reverse license input) .......................................18

3.5 Modify Account Data.........................................................................................................19 4 License Handling (Summary) ..........................................................................................................20

4.1 alpha DVR and DVS Systems ..........................................................................................20 4.2 alpha Standalone Encoders..............................................................................................21 4.3 Matrix of User Rights in alpha@LMS................................................................................22

5 Customize Design ...........................................................................................................................23

alpha_License_Management_1.06.doc of 24 Created on 2006-08-03 Last saved by Kurt Wenger on 2006-08-16

alpha technology® alpha@LMS Web-based License Management System 1 Overview The Web License Manager (alpha@LMS) is a web-based tool enabling users of alpha to manage their equipment licenses online in real time on a 24 x 7 basis.

2 Concept Every alpha technology® product that needs a license stores it either on-board (e.g. Encoders, DVR) or in a special USB key used to access and operate the equipment. Installers can buy licenses that are then stored in their web-based database account for later distribu-tion to their Subcontractors/End-users or to be applied directly to the equipment. Licenses stored in a product can be re-transferred to the license pool. The alpha@LMS offers these features: • Receive alpha licenses online from the Equipment Supplier • License transfer between OEM’s/Equipment Suppliers and their Installer/Subcontractors 24 x 7 • License Account Overview and License Transfer History at any time • Flexible management of relationships between OEM’s and their Installer partners • Manage alpha@LMS database users

2.1 Definitions In this manual the following definitions are used

Customer Customer of an Equipment Supplier or the company/supplier directly below the logged-in company in the Customer Relationship tree

User The person that integrates, installs and sets-up the alpha technology® equip-ment into the desired environment.

Equipment Supplier The organization that sold the alpha technology® equipment to a customer or end-user.

Installer The organization that integrates, installs and sets-up the alpha technology® equipment into the desired environment. Installers usually have Users.

Subcontractor Customer of a customer. The company/supplier directly below the logged-in company in the customer relationship tree

OEM Larger organization that distributes Video Recording Equipment (eventually under its own brand name). Used here synonymously for Equipment Sup-plier

Manager The company/supplier directly above the logged-in company in the customer relationship tree

Administrator Has the rights to add/delete directly related customers, their users, assign them new passwords, administrative and GUI modification rights


2.2 Simplified License Flow Chart


2.3 Customer Relationships

The following rules apply: • Companies / accounts are created from top to bottom (B can create E etc) • Licenses can be transferred down the Customer Tree (A C, B E, D L etc) • Licenses can be transferred up the Customer Tree (D A, H C, K D etc) • Licenses can not be transferred between branches (D E, J K, E F etc) • Each company / account can only manage subcontractors directly below (A can edit C but not H)


3 Use Of The alpha@LMS Web-based License Man-ager

3.1 Login Login at http://www.alpha-technology.info | alpha@LMS or http://alphalms.alpha-technology.info OEM accounts (top level) are assigned by [email protected]

3.2 Main Screen The Main Screen shows an overview of customers / accounts for the current (logged-in) user / com-pany. Selected items are shown in light green. Note: Some of the subsequent screen shots are for a user with the right to change the look-and-feel of

the Graphical User Interface (GUI).


3.2.1 Add New Customer OEM’s / customers may create License Database Sub-Accounts for transferring licenses to their sub-contractors / installers or to other departments within their own organization. See 2.3 Customer Rela-tionships. This operation requires administrator rights. Items may be ordered by clicking the respective column header.

Click Add new customer and enter the required data, then save

The Order Admin is a person who gets an eMail (BCC:) for all license transfers and thus is kept up to date about all transactions.

3.2.2 Delete Customer An existing customer may be deleted if there are no more subcontractors below it in the Customer Relationship Tree (see 2.3 Customer Relationships). This operation requires administrator rights.

the parent company in the left Select Company navigation menu Choose the My Customer entry to be deleted by clicking Switch to the Company Data entry in the left navigation column Click the Delete customer >> link Check for the correct customer in the following Company Information mask and confirm with


3.2.3 Add New User Users of the alpha@LMS may be created as simple users or users with administrator rights. At least one person of a company needs to be marked as the “administrative account”. Users with these rights are able to:

o Create next level companies (customers) o Create other users in their own company and in the next lower level company o Add/Edit/Delete/Disable persons in their own company and in the next lower level

company o Assign other persons (on the same level or directly below) administrator and GUI

modification rights Users without the administrative account rights can only edit their own personal data

Go to Select Company in the left navigation column, then the Company to which a new user is to be added. This entry is then shown in light green.

Select Users in the left navigation column Select Add new User in the left navigation column and fill in at least the required fields:

The Account Name (=user login name) must consist of min. 5 letters and is not case sensitive. The Password must consist of min. 5 letters and 2 figures. Required fields are Account, Password and Surname or First Name.


3.3 License Pool / License Account Overview This pool shows unused licenses, assigned licenses and a license transfer history for a selected com-pany.

3.3.1 Unused Licenses The licenses in this menu have not yet been assigned to a hardware ID Details can be viewed by clicking for a specific license Expired trial licenses are shown on a red background The list may be ordered by selecting the desired column header


3.3.2 Assigned Licenses The licenses in this menu have already been assigned to a hardware ID. Details can be viewed by clicking for a specific license. Expired trial licenses are shown on a red background The list may be grouped by selecting the desired dropdown list menu or ordered by clicking the corre-sponding column header

3.3.3 Details For An Assigned License From here this particular license string can be copied/pasted to the target device or exported to a li-cense file (*.lic) for later import to the target device. The list of assigned licenses and therefore the respective license strings are always available for re-trieving licenses ‘lost’ on the way to the target device.


3.3.4 Transfer History This list shows a history of all licenses that have been transferred to and from the company’s license pool.

A green arrow denotes a license flow from a license pool to the active company account. A red arrow denotes a license transfer from the active company account to the account above. See Customer Relationships.


3.4 License Transfer

3.4.1 License to Customer The customers in the Customer Tree directly below and the managing company directly above the logged-in user/company are shown and can have licenses transferred to them.

Select the desired customer and click

Select type and number of licenses to be transferred; if desired add a transfer reference number

and/or comment, click and confirm the transfer in the subsequent screen


3.4.2 License to Hardware A valid Hardware ID must be entered manually, by copy/paste or imported from a file (*.ahw). This Hardware ID can be retrieved from

VX-Manager (for channel-related licenses such as Encoders, Decoders, Codecs) or License Manager (for DVR/DVS-specific licenses ).

Only the maximum possible number of licenses of a specific type for the selected hardware type can be transferred (e.g. a maximum of 8 Real Time licenses can be transferred to an ENC8 8-channel encoder). The generated license strings are shown on the Transfer Summary screen from where multiple strings can be saved in a file and applied to the hardware. Alternatively, the licenses can be saved in the Assigned License Detail screen from where one string at a time can be saved and applied to the target hardware using copy/paste.


/UN means that an unlimited number of licenses may be generated for this device. After clicking this operation must be confirmed in the subsequent dialog. The generated licenses are then shown in a list from where they can be copied/pasted to the target device or exported to a license file (<HW_ID>*.lic) for later import in the target device(s).

3.4.3 License as Trial License to Hardware Trial licenses are valid licenses but limited for 30 days after creation date. A maximum of 3 trial licenses per license type and Hardware ID are available per account.


The procedures for generating and transferring trial licenses are similar to the procedure for real li-censes except that in the Transfer Selection screen the data for the trial license are shown.


3.4.4 License from Hardware to Pool Since alpha Software Version 5.02, licenses may be transferred from a hardware back to the license pool (reverse licensing). Licenses that can not be reloaded back to the license pool are:

Trial licenses Upgrade licenses Minimum necessary number of channel licenses for alpha blue DVR

3.4.4.1 Retrieve the licenses to go back to the pool Save the licenses with the tool depending on the license types

For licenses relating to the video channels, use the Vx Manager For licenses relating to other devices, use the License Manager

Reverse licensing with Vx Manager:

• Select the correct device • Use Modify License Assignments

icon or Menu Actions | Licenses | Modify License Assignments

• Enter device Password (default PW = pass)

• Check Export reverse licenses • Deselect the licenses that are not

needed any more


• For each license to be transferred to the alpha@LMS license pool click the > arrow once

• Confirm with OK Note: Re-importing licenses directly is not possible. They must go to the License Pool before they can be assigned again.

• Save the created Reverse License String in a file or copy it to the Clip-board

• Use the alpha@LMS Web License Management Tool to feed this string back to your license pool. Continue with chapter 3.4.4.2


Reverse licensing with License Manager:

• Select the number of licenses to be transferred to pool in the Sel. Col-umn, then set the focus to another cell.

• Choose Transaction | Export from local station to alpha@LMS

• Confirm your selection in the sub-sequent dialog

• Save the created *.rlic file for later transfer to alpha@LMS

3.4.4.2 License play-back to the pool (reverse license input) In the alpha@LMS License Management tool select Transfer Licenses| From Hardware To Pool Write the string from chapter 3.4.4.1 in the upper box or

retrieve it from the saved *.rlic file in the lower box

Check and confirm your selection in the subsequent dialog


3.5 Modify Account Data In the Personal Data menu the data of the actual user may be changed and a new password can be assigned. The password may also be changed directly in the Change Password dialog (see below).

In the Change Password dialog the actual user may change his/her password directly


4 License Handling (Summary) This table lists the essential differences in handling licenses on alpha Silver and Blue stations equipped with software versions before and above 5.x

4.1 alpha DVR and DVS Systems What Do You Want To Do? alpha technology® Software

Version 4 or Earlier alpha technology® Software Version 5 or Later

Check the maintenance /upgrade date

License Manager Note: The new release version 5 is a new Major version. This means that an upgrade from version 4.x will only be possible, if a mainte-nance date of 2004-08-28 or later is installed on the system.

License Manager Note: For version 5.x there is no mainte-nance date anymore. As a substitute it is now possible to obtain 1, 2 or 3 years upgrade support licenses (dis-played as Upgrade date). Please note that these licenses are valid for 1, 2 or 3 years after creation and can not be created for a fixed date.

Exchange licenses be-tween stations

License Manager Use the Transaction |Local SIM to string function to create license strings assigned to a specific station.

(not available)

Identify stations for licens-ing

Serial number of station The serial number identifies your station also for license handling.

Hardware ID Using the menu Transaction | Hard-ware ID to file in License Manager, the hardware ID of the selected sta-tion is saved in a *.ahw file

Import licenses License Manager: Import License string with License Manager using the String to local SIM function.

License Manager Import License string with License Manager using the String to local SIM function.

Get license updates online Please contact your OEM/Equipment supplier

alpha web-based License Man-agement (alpha@LMS) http://www.alpha-technology.info

Please contact [email protected] for account info.

Assign licenses to chan-nels (alpha blue)

(not available) Configuration Wizard Use the Camera | Licenses view to assign licenses to the desired chan-nels

Assign licenses to chan-nels (alpha silver)

(not available) (not available)


4.2 alpha Standalone Encoders What do you want to do? alpha technology® Software

Version 4 or Earlier alpha technology® Software Version 5 or Later

Identify Encoder for licensing (not available) Hardware ID Using Save hardware ID to file function in VX-Manager, the hardware ID of the selected en-coder is saved in a *.ahw file

Import licenses (not available) VX-Manager Use Add license… function to import new licenses to the device

Assign licenses to channels (not available) VX-Manager Use Show licenses function to assign licenses to channels

Export licenses to license pool

(not available) VX-Manager (alpha SW version 5.02 and up)Select the surplus licenses in a device and save a license.rlic file for later transfer to the license pool. License Manager (alpha SW version 5.02 and up)Select the surplus licenses and save a *.rlic file for later transfer to the license pool.


4.3 Matrix of User Rights in alpha@LMS

User with Menu Item Administrator

Rights Right to Change Look-And-Feel

Normal User

Transfer Licenses

To a Customer

To a Hardware

As Trial to Hardware

From Hardware to Pool

Selected Company

License Pool

Unused Licenses

Assigned Licenses

Transfer History

Users

Company Data

(only customers

below in the Cus-tomer Tree)

My Account

Select Company

Personal Data

incl. users below in the Customer Tree

only own data

only own data

Change Password

Customize Design – –

Other

Help (PDF)

Contact (LMS Admin)

Logout Legend: Modify / allowed Read only – Not available


5 Customize Design The appearance of the alpha@LMS site may be customized by all users having the right to customize the Look-and-Feel (see 3.2.3 Add New User). There are three color designs (skins) to choose from (see below). Non_customized means that the present company GUI ‘borrows’ its design from the next available design scheme upward in the Customer Tree. Top logo and top background images may be created as *.gif, *.png or *.jpg files on the user’s local PC. From there they are automatically uploaded to the alpha@LMS server when the dialog window is closed by clicking . The maximum allowable picture sizes are:

Logo: 1000 * 65 px Background: 2000 * 65 px

Available designs:

Fig 1: Design default_alpha Fig 2: Design deep_blue

Fig 3: Design red_grey


Example: This is the location of a sample logo (red), right-aligned:

Background Logo

Logo and/or background images may be deleted any time, restoring the default appearance of the alpha@LMS web page. If no specific logo or background images are selected or available, the system will display the next existing image up in the current path of Customer Tree (see 2.3 Customer Relationships)

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