Introducing the new License Platform for V93000 Tester

Content

Motivation and customer benefits

Motivation:

Advantest has put a new license application into operation from the 3rd party vendor Revenera, formerly
Flexera.

Customer benefits with the new license platform - technical perspective:

Drastically reduced license management efforts for renewal & changes: automated online process or simple file handling on the HTTP level
Once activated, contract licenses are automatically renewed with the annual renewal
Self Service for license rehosting
State of the Art tool with optimized GUI user-interface

Further customer benefits - commercial and operational points:

Free off-charge migration; - lead and support from Advantest with a professional project team and
established processes
A double set of licenses during the migration transition phase facilitates a smooth transition and eliminates
technical failures and risks to a great extent.

Terminology, technology, and a common approach

Terminology and technology differences:

The currently installed legacy license platform is called ‘FLEX NET PUBLISHER’ or FNP
The new license platform is called ‘FLEX NET EMBEDDED’ or FNE
Difference: FNE and FNP license servers are entirely different tools. FNE uses regenerative (replacement) licensing, whereas FNP uses iterative licensing (via dynamic license pools).

Common approach:

As for older client tester tools (Smartest versions <7.6), which are not migratable to FNE, a so-called Proxy license platform solution becomes necessary; the acronym hereto is FNX
The Proxy license platform can handle all the Smartest releases from FNE and FNP license types; this ‘mixed’ or ‘hybrid’ approach is the most applicable customer solution. See the graphic on the right-hand side.

The Proxy Server efficiently converts the new license binary data format into the older binary data format for SmarTest 6/7 when a request is sent from the tester client.

Efficient License Management: Renewal & Changes

With FNE/FNX license management means:

With an online connection to Advantest’s back-office server, zero efforts for annual license renewal are necessary
Without an online connection, all transfers from the back-office server will be done within a single file

Customer Self-rehosting 24x7

Customer self-rehosting of test tool licenses from site A to site B and vice versa
*also works for FNE platforms or in combination: FNX/FNE

Overview - New features: FNP vs. FNE or FNX

	FNP	FNE
Technology	Revenera (aka Flexera) aging technology > no support on FNP from vendor Revenera	The state-of-art technology from Revenera (aka Flexera)
Format	Multiple ASCII license files (incremental licensing) > Inefficient license management (e.g. manual handling of license files)	Single binary license file / database container (regenerative licensing) > Efficient license management
Annual renewal effort	Required to clean up license duplicates > mainly from rehosting of licenses Manual effort every year Need to manage licenses on a single license file & entitlement level.	Significantly less effort (simple server synchronization) Zero effort with online connected FNE server Allows to manage licenses on server-level Once activated, contract licenses are automatically renewed with the annual renewal
Rehost	Rehosting of licenses only via "service ticket" >Service charge fee needed	Supports self-rehosting for customers 24x7
Management	No GUI tool for license management	Provides state-of-the-art GUI based tools for efficient license management (FNE server viewer)
Stability	License clients need to keep permanent connection with Server	Increased robustness > More suitable for global license server set-ups and cloud licensing
SmarTest Support	SmarTest 5/6/7/8 No support for EXA Scale No support for SmarTest 8 Device Specific Licensing and Cloud Licensing	SmartTest 5/6/7/8, all V93000, all license models > FNE is fully backwards compatible with all existing SmarTest 5/6/7 releases via FNX server (FNE + FNP2FNE Proxy Server) > supports all V93000 generations > supports Device Specific Licensing and Cloud Licensing > Required for EXA Scale and for advanced license models (device specific licensing & cloud licensing)

High-level Migration Sample

Critical points for migrations:

For production migration without interruption, a new set of Servers / or virtual machines is required; - or at least for a workaround, a temporary Server set
For the Customer, an individual new or new server architecture solution will be proposed by Advantest experts, derived from the as-is architecture, i.e.(single Server vs. failover, online vs. offline, new FNE vs. FNX Server; - for more details, see next slide
Selective existing licenses need to be migrated from FNP to FNE format
With the parallel migration approach, a smooth switchover of individual tester clients is possible

As-is architecture cases

Target Architecture Options: FNE or FNX

Migration Decision Path

Migration Option-Matrix

Migration Chart

1. Solution Engagement, Timeline Proposal and Customer Timeline Commitment

Advantest presents migration motivation with technical guidelines
Advantest proposes project timeline
Customer gives feedback on a suitable/agreed timeline

2. As-is architecture identification and Target architecture determination

Customer checks its current setup, configuration, and SmarTest versions
Customer decides on its target solution and communicates it to Advantest

3. Provisioning new HW and Configuration

Customer sets up required HW and network configuration and confirms its readiness
Customer downloads and installs new License Server Application SW
And does a 1st. registration at Advantest’s Portal, where he receives a 1st dummy license for testing
Customer fills out license data migration form and provides it to Advantest

4. Provisioning new License Database

Advantest runs the license data migration process, and parse data to safeguard error-free database

5. Implementation of new License Database

Customer loads new License database into target systems
And does, in case of an error, an exception handling with Advantest support

6. Verification

Customer runs a new Configuration File for FNE or FNX tester clients
And checks the functioning of the new setup

Migration Roadmap, Milestones, and Next steps

FNE/FNX license server requirements

Hardware minimum configuration:

Quad core CPU, 8 GB RAM
Free hard disk space
o Primary & Failover FNX Server: 12GB (FNE) + 12GB (FNX/FNP)
o Tertiary FNP Server (incl. FNP2FNE proxy software): neglectable (< 100MB)
o Local license server with FNE/FNX on system controller as Hypervisor / VM set-up: 5GB (FNE) + 5GB
(FNX/FNP)

Operating system minimum configuration:

Red Hat Linux 7.2 or newer
Root access for installation
Java 8
License server must use fully qualified hostname (command hostname -f must not return localhost)

Tester Controllers suitable for local license servers:

Z4 G4, Z640, Z620

FNE/FNX Network Settings

FNE / FNX server:	Port	Protocol
FNE core server (for ST8.x / 7.6.x FNE clients):	7070	HTTP
FNP2FNE proxy (for ST 5 / 6 / ≤ 7.5 FNP clients):	27000, 27020, 27019	TCP
FNE server viewer:
Online Connection to Advantest’s License Portal (license.advantest.com):	7077	HTTP
-> enables online connection for fully automated renewal	443	HTTP

Project Status License Migration Sample

Phase	Project phase	Lead	Period
1	-Solution Engagement & Timeline Proposal -Timeline Agree- & Commitment	-Advantest -Customer	-1day -7days
2	As-is architecture identification and Target	Customer	2 weeks
3	Provisioning new HW and Configuration	Customer	1 month
4	Provisioning new HW and Configuration	Advantest	3 days
5	Implementation of new License Database	Customer‘s representative name	2 weeks
6	Verification of new License Database on 3x client testers	Customer‘s representative name	2 weeks
7	Project Closure	Advantest/Customer‘s representative name	1 week