Overview

OpenVMS has the capability to:

• Register and load licenses.

• Display licenses.

• Unload and delete licenses.

Unlike most UNIX systems, the licensed OpenVMS operating system is bare bones (i.e., to be fully functional, additional licenses must be purchased to create a useful system). For instance, TCP/IP, programming languages, SMP, clustering, file serving, HTTPD server, disk shadowing, and Motif (X Windows) must be licensed explicitly. This scheme means that the manager only has to pay for the features that are used. So, if the machine is to be only a server and no software development is anticipated, no language license needs to be purchased. The system manager can tailor the licenses (thus, the support level and costs) to the intended use of the machine.

All OpenVMS software requires a license, except user-supported freeware. For the purpose of initializing the system, however, the system manager may run from the console without a license. License requirements vary according to the type of CPU on which its associated software will run. Requirements also vary according to the intended usage. The order number for each product licensed by Compaq is found in the software product description (SPD) of the appropriate version of OpenVMS. Specifically, to run OpenVMS on a single CPU with interactive users, two licenses must be loaded:

1. Operating System Base License, which permits one login from the console

2. OpenVMS Concurrent-Use License, specifying how many simultaneous users are permitted to log in

If the computer has multiple CPUs that is, symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) one more license...