rPath Appliance Platform/Entitlement Service:Products

From rPath Wiki

In rPath Appliance Platform Entitlement Service, a product defines a collection of services which apply to a particular software appliance that needs software license management. Services must be added or created prior to the creation of a product, and products can be modified as needed.

Access the Products page of the Entitlement Service appliance by expanding the rPath Entitlement Server menu in the rPath Appliance Platform Agent web interface and clicking Products. Use the tabs as described in the following sections.

Products

Create products as a collection of services which apply to a particular software appliance that needs software license management. Services must be added or created prior to the creation of a product, and products can be modified to add or remove these services. Go to the Products tab in rPath Entitlement Server --> Products, and complete the fields with the following considerations:

• Product Name -- DO NOT use spaces or special characters
• Entitlement Length -- only modify this if you wish to override the set entitlement length for automatically generated entitlements

Click Services next to the new product to shift to the Product Services tab, and use the left and right arrows to move Services Available (left side) to the Services Selected list (right side).

Product Services

Add and remove product services as needed to define the services associated with an appliance product. The services must be added or created prior to the creation of a product, and products can be modified to add or remove these services. Go to the Product Servces tab in rPath Entitlement Server --> Products, and select a product from the drop-down list provided. Use the left and right arrows to move Services Available (left side) to the Services Selected list (right side), and click OK when changes are complete.

Though you have the ability to modify a product by adding or removing services, installed appliances using the entitlements associated with this product DO NOT automatically adopt these modifications. To avoid the need for manual entitlement service updates for each installed appliance, make all necessary adjustments prior to the first appliance product deployments.

Product Channels

To create a product channel, go to the Product Channels tab in rPath Entitlement Service --> Products. Select a product from the drop-down list, and create the new product channel with the following considerations:

• DO NOT use spaces in the product reseller's name.
• After creating, verify that two channels appear in the list as described in the "managed and managing channels" section to follow.

If you attempt to create a duplicate channel, the Entitlement Service appliance displays a warning informing you of the error.

Reference the following sections when managing product channels.

Direct Channel

Direct channels are created automatically for each product, providing entitlements directly to individuals who are installing the product. Disable the direct channel if necessary when adding each reseller as a separate product channel. Direct channel names in the Existing channels list include the word DIRECT.

Links for Managing Channels

An entitlements.xml link appears on each direct channel. The entitlements.xml file associated with a channel should be saved to /etc/conary/entitlements.xml on each appliance product prior to shipping that product to the consumer. The entitlements.xml file ensures association between the provided entitlement and the appropriate appliance product updates.

Use the Entitlements link to go to the Entitlements page where entitlements can be generated for the product channel.

Use the Disable or Enable links to disable or enable the product channel, revoking or permitting entitlement services on that channel.

Managed and Managing Channels

After creating a product channel, two new channels should appear in the list: the direct managed channel with the reseller name, and the managing channel with that name plus a -MANAGE suffix. The managing channel provides an entitlement to product resellers so that the resellers can use a downstream Entitlement Service appliance to provide their own entitlement services for the product. Disable either of these channels if entitlements for products are not be managed on those channels. When services are provided through the managing (-MANAGE) channel, ensure the reseller has the following information for configuring Services for the local Entitlement Service appliance:

• For Service, the product name to match the local Entitlement Service appliance
• For Server Name, the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) for the local Entitlement Appliance
• For Server URL, the server URL for the local Entitlement Service appliance in the form https://<hostname>:8003/rAA/entwebui/ where <hostname> is the hostname of the local Entitlement Service appliance (DO NOT leave out the trailing slash!)
• For Entitlement Class, the managing channel (-MANAGE) on which the new entitlement resides
• For Entitlement, the new entitlement string generated for the managing channel
• For Managed Channel, the managed channel on the local Entitlement Service appliance (without the -MANAGE suffix)