License Manager usage logs
The Sentinel RMS License Manager service (LS) generates a usage log by default. The log file is first created after licenses are activated on the service, and tracks events such as license requests / returns, commuter check-ins / check-outs, and LS stops / starts.
By default, the usage log file is stored at C:\Windows\SysWOW64\lservsta, but this location and file name can be changed by creating the environment variable: LSERVSTA = C:\licenselog.txt.
If you want to look at a log’s raw contents, the data is formatted as follows, with one log entry per line.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Server-LFE | Customer-defined log encryption level. Default = 2, meaning no encryption and each record has a checksum. We recommend keeping the default setting. |
| License-LFE | Vendor-defined log file encryption level. Default = 0 = no encryption. |
| Date | The date and time at which the usage log entry is made. Formatted as: Weekday Month Date Time (hh:mm:ss) Year |
| Time-stamp | The time stamp at which the transaction took place. |
| Ver | Product version name. It is displayed as "v" without a number because we are not using Gemalto's standard versioning. |
| Trans | The transaction types are categorized and described below. Explicit entries: 0 - A license is issued 1 - A license is denied. (For a network seat. No code for a commuter denial.) 2 - The licensed application released the license token (when the release API is called). 8 - A commuter license is checked out. 9 - A commuter license is checked in. Other transaction types exist for functions that are not being used by IHS Markit. For more information, see Gemalto documentation. |
| Numkeys | The number of licenses in use after the current request / release. |
| Keylife | For how long (in seconds) the license was in use. Only applicable in a license release entry. |
| User | The user name. |
| Host | The name of the user's machine. |
| LSver | The version of the RMS Sentinel License Manager service. |
| Currency | The number of licenses handled during the transaction. |
| Comment | The data passed in by the vendor's licensed application. |
| Client ID | A 16-byte value that uniquely identifies each client request and is logged in the following transaction types (defined above): 0, 2. Using the client ID, each request log entry can be mapped with the corresponding release log entry. Also note the following behavior: - The client ID is shown in extended logs only. In plain logs, a hyphen is logged instead of the client ID. - The client ID is not maintained for commuter clients. In such cases, a hyphen is logged instead of the client ID. |
| Readable checksum | The readable checksum of the record. |
| Encrypted checksum | The encrypted cumulative checksum. |
Gemalto recommendations for log maintenance and documentation
Though the number of backup log files allowed seems sufficient to accommodate log data on a given day, we still recommend that you devise a routine procedure to move the backup files to another location to avoid overwriting them. This can be particularly helpful for usage log files where License Manager performance may degrade if many backup files exist.
Gemalto documentation can be found as follows: https://sentinelrms.gemalto.com/RMSDocumentation/SysAdmin/Content/License%20Manager%20Usage%20Logs.htm