If you work for a growing organization, you can be certain that at some point you will be faced with the job of adding or removing license certificates. This administrative task, however, is a straightforward one that should not be a cause for concern. This article highlights the procedures necessary to install or remove license certificates so that you will be able to do so with your eyes closed, although I don’t recommend that you actually do it that way. To help illustrate the ease of adding or removing a license, I have used a graphical format to explain the process.

Installing a 25-user connection license
When NetWare 5.1 is installed, containers for the server and connection licenses are automatically created. Figure A shows both of these containers, as well as the licenses that are installed in them. The following procedure demonstrates the necessary steps for adding a 25-user license certificate.

Figure A
The two containers and their respective licenses are displayed.

Installing license certificates can be done from the server console using NWCONFIG. Load the utility and then select License Options. As depicted in Figure B, select Install licenses.

Figure B
From License Options, select Install licenses.

If the license certificate is on a disk, put the disk in the A: drive and press [Enter]. If the NLF file is stored in another location, press [F3] and browse to it.

After locating the license certificates, you are required to log in as a user with administrative rights to the tree. Remember to use the distinguished name or you will be denied access. Once you are authenticated, select the correct license from the Installable Licenses list, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C
Select the appropriate license from the list of installable licenses.

When the license has been installed, an asterisk appears next to it, indicating that it has been used. You may install other license certificates at this time, if you so choose.

To verify that the license has been installed, refresh the NetWare Administrator window. You will see that a new license container has been created, and the new license certificate appears underneath it, as shown in Figure D.

Figure D
The newly installed license now appears.

Removing a connection license
At some point in time, you may be required to remove a connection license. As you will see, this process is very similar to installing a license.

From the server console, load NWCONFIG and select License Options. Select Remove Licenses. You’ll then be required to log in as a user with administrative rights to the tree. Once again, you must use the distinguished name to log in.

After authentication, you will be presented a list of currently installed licenses, as shown in Figure E. Highlight the license to be removed and hit [Enter].

Figure E
Select the license to be removed from the list of removable licenses.

A window displaying the License Contents will appear, as shown in Figure F. You should review the contents, and when you are certain that this is the license you want to remove, hit [Enter] to continue.

Figure F
The contents of the license to be removed are displayed.

If removing this license is really what you want to do, answer yes to the ensuing question. The license will be removed, and you will be returned to the Removable License screen, where you can remove another license.

To verify that the license has been removed, refresh the NetWare Administrator window. In Figure G, you can see that the license container is still present, but the license is not installed.

Figure G
The license is no longer installed.

Conclusion
While there appears on the surface to be a good deal of work required to install or remove a license certificate, the actual time to complete this task can be very brief. As your organization grows, this task will become less time consuming if you follow these basic steps and become more familiar with the process.
If you’d like to share your opinion, start a discussion by clicking Post A Comment or send the editor an e-mail.