Licensing on Linux

The following licensing methods are available:

Activation Keys - activation keys allow you to activate and generate your actual product license key, at a later point after purchase, on the machine for which you require the license.

They are provided for both node locked and floating licenses, and generate the appropriate license type once installed using the product's Licensing dialog or online using the Activate a Product page: www.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/activate-product/

Node Locked Licenses - these can be used to license an application on a single machine. They do not work on different machines and if you need them to, you’ll have to transfer your license.

Node locked licenses, sometimes called uncounted licenses, do not require additional licensing software to be installed.

Floating Licenses - also known as counted licenses, enable applications to work on any networked client machine. The floating license is put on the server and is locked to a unique number on that server.

Floating licenses on a server requires additional software to be installed on the server to manage the licenses and give them out to the client stations that want them. This software is called the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) and can be downloaded at no extra cost from our website.

Subscription Licenses - subscription licensing differs from traditional node locked or floating licenses in that a single license, or entitlement, is valid on any authorized device up to the entitlement's maximum number of activations.

For more information on Subscription Licensing, see Licensing Nuke Non-commercial on Linux.

The following instructions run through the basic options for the first two licensing methods, but you can find a more detailed description in the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) User Guide available on our website
www.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/tools/

Obtaining Licenses

To obtain a license, you'll need your machine's System ID (sometimes called Host ID or rlmhostid). Just so you know what a System ID number looks like, here’s an example: 000ea641d7a1.

NOTE:  Bear in mind that, for floating licenses, you'll need the System ID of the license server, not the machines on which you intend to run the application.

There are a number of ways you can find out your machine's System ID:

Launch the application without a license, click Status, and then scroll down the error report until you see your System ID.

Download the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) free of charge from www.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/ and then run the following command in a terminal shell:

/usr/local/foundry/LicensingTools7.0/bin/systemid

When you know your System ID, you can request a license for The Foundry products:

from The Foundry's Sales Department at sales@thefoundry.co.uk

from the product pages on our website, such as www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke-product-family

by launching the application without a license and selecting:

Buy Nuke - opens a web browser directly to The Foundry website to purchase a license.

Try Nuke - displays the 15-day trial license download screen. Enter your The Foundry account details or create a new account and follow the on-screen instructions to receive a trial license.

NOTE:  By default, if you have installed a temporary license, the application displays a dialog at start-up alerting you to the number of days remaining. If you want to disable this behavior, you can set the FN_DISABLE_LICENSE_DIALOG environment variable to 1 to suppress the warning message about imminent license expiration. See Environment Variables for more information.

Installing Licenses

When you start the application before installing a license, a Licensing dialog displays an error informing you that no license was available. The installation process is dependent on what type of license you requested:

License file - if you requested a license file, typically foundry.lic, this option allows you to browse to the file location and install it automatically. See To Install a License from Disk for more information.

Activation Key or license text - if you requested an Activation Key or license by email, this option allows you to paste the key or license text into the Licensing dialog, which then installs the license in the correct directory. See To Install an Activation Key or License Text for more information.

A floating license - if you requested a floating license to supply licenses to multiple client machines, this option allows you to enter the server address that supplies the client licenses.

NOTE:  You must install a floating license and additional software on the license server to use this option.

See To Install a Floating License for more information.

To Install a License from Disk

1.   Save the license file to a known location on disk.
2.   Launch the application.

The Licensing dialog displays.

3.   Click Install License to display the available license installation options.
4.   Click Install from Disk.
5.   Browse to the location of the license file.
6.   Click Open to install the license automatically in the correct directory.

To Install an Activation Key or License Text

1.   Launch the application.

The Licensing dialog displays.

2.   Click Install License to display the available license installation options.
3.   Click Activation Key / License Text and then either:

Enter the Activation Key string in place of Insert Activation Key Here. A license key typically looks something like this:

nuke-0101-77d3-99bd-a977-93e9-8035

OR

Copy the license text and paste it over the Copy/Paste license text here string. License text typically looks something like this:

LICENSE foundry nuke_i 2015.0929 29-sep-2015 uncounted hostid=000a957bfde5 share=h min_timeout=30 start=29-sep-2015 issued=29-sep-2015 disable=VM _ck=da32d7372f sig="60P0450MJRP97E3DP B42C99Y5UAPRMEMGNQ39PG22H4WGH3WFK2KPTXFWJTYR0GYASJBXC0PU8"

4.   Click Install.

The license is automatically installed on your machine in the correct directory.

NOTE:  Activation Keys require an internet connection. If you access the internet through a proxy server and cannot connect to the activation server, you may get an error dialog prompting you to either:

Click Use Proxy to enter the proxy server name, port number, username, and password. This enables the application to connect to the activation server and obtain a license. The license is then installed automatically, or

Click on the web link in the dialog and use the System ID (also known as hostid) provided to manually activate and install a license.

To Install a Floating License

If you requested a floating license from The Foundry, you will receive your license key (foundry.lic) in an email or internet download. You should also receive the Foundry License Utility (FLU) application to help you install the license key on the license server machine. The server manages licenses for the client machines on your network.

NOTE:  The FLU is also available to download from www.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/

1.   Make sure you have saved both the license key (foundry.lic) and the FLU application in the same directory.
2.   Run the FLU application.

The license key automatically appears in the FLU window if the FLU and foundry.lic are in the same directory.

TIP:  If they are not in the same directory, you can either copy and paste the contents of the license key or drag-and-drop the file into the FLU window.

3.   Click Install.

This checks the license file and, provided that the license is valid, installs it into the correct directory.

4.   In order for the floating license to work, you will need to install the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) on the license server machine.

For more information on how to install floating licenses, refer to the FLT User Guide, which you can download from our website www.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/

5.   Once your license server is up and running, launch Nuke on the client machine.

The Licensing dialog displays.

6.   Click Install License to display the available install methods.
7.   Click Use Server and enter the server address in the field provided. The format for the server name is: <port>@<servername>, for example, 30001@red.

NOTE:  You must perform steps 5 through 7 on each client machine that requires a license from the server.

Further Reading

There is a lot to learn about licenses, much of which is beyond the scope of this manual. For more information on licensing Nuke, displaying the System ID number, setting up a floating license server, adding new license keys and managing license usage across a network, you should read the Foundry Licensing Tools (FLT) User Guide, which can be downloaded from our website, www.thefoundry.co.uk/support/licensing/