Software licensing with Thales Sentinel LDK

Sentinel LDK is third-party software provided by Thales that is used by us to assign and manage licenses for certain editions of UFS Explorer software.

Depending on the software edition, the following types of Sentinel-based licenses can be issued:

  • Cloud-based License (Sentinel CL). Also known as “floating” licenses. The license is issued for a specific number of workstations and is not bound to a specific hardware or operating system. This means that software can be used on the defined number of computers at the same time, on any OS platform supported. The license requires internet connection.
  • Machine License (Sentinel SL). The license is issued for a specific computer(s) running any supported OS platform and is non-transferable. This license works in fully isolated environments and never requires internet connection. Activation of this license is performed by exchanging machine fingerprint and license activation files.
  • License on a USB token (Sentinel HL). This is the default option for UFS Explorer Video Recovery and can be available for other software editions for an additional charge. The license is written onto the USB token, and software can be started on a computer with the USB token connected. The license is transferable and doesn’t require internet access.

License issuing policy

  • UFS Explorer Video Recovery is licensed with use of Sentinel HL USB tokens.
  • UFS Explorer Technician is licensed with the use of Sentinel CL or SL licenses by default and HL license is available at an additional price. If this license is bundled with a SAN Plugin license, such license is issued as Sentinel SL or Sentinel HL at no additional charge.
  • UFS Explorer Professional Recovery is licensed using Sentinel CL by default. It is possible to request switching the license to Sentinel SL to work in an isolated environment with no internet access.
  • Demo licenses are issued in the form of Sentinel SL limited licenses.

Technical requirements

  • Sentinel CL license requires permanent internet connection.
  • Both Sentinel CL and Sentinel SL licenses require Runtime Environment version 10.12 and later installed and running. The software itself can install the required components of the Sentinel Runtime Environment.
  • Sentinel HL keys require free USB type A port for connection. Under MacOS they also require Sentinel Runtime Environment to install hardware drivers and communication support with USB token. Software running under Windows and Linux* doesn’t require RTE.

* - If software runs without ‘root’ privileges, it still requires Sentinel RTE to communicate with the USB token.

License enforcement

The software license is issued for a specific number of “seats”. One “seat” means a workstation:

  • To which the SL-based license is issued.
  • To which a HL USB token is currently connected.
  • On which the software is currently activated and running using CL-based license.

The actual number of “seats” available is defined by your license(s).

If for some reason the license becomes unavailable (license expires, internet connection is lost for CL license, USB token is disconnected etc.), the software can still run for some time. If license doesn’t become available after a reasonable period of time, the software will be “paused” with error message popup.

After connecting to the license again (license is renewed, USB token connected or access to CL license is restored), the software can resume its operations.

If there is no possibility to restore license availability, the application can be terminated only by the process termination.

Note that if the number of workstations running the software under cloud-based (Sentinel CL) license is exceed, the station that runs the software for the longest time can be deactivated. It’s advised to plan the software use to avoid interruptions of mission critical tasks.