License Management
The Schrödinger Suite installed on a Virtual Cluster needs access to a valid license. This section describes different supported configurations for installing or accessing licenses.
Access to Externally Hosted License Servers#
The recommended configuration for a Virtual Cluster is to either connect to a license server hosted by Schrödinger (SLM Cloud) or a separate license server hosted by the customer.
To facilitate this connection, it is essential to ensure that the cluster instances can access the external license server on the specified TCP port (default: 53000).
If the Virtual Cluster needs to connect to a license server hosted by Schrödinger, the public IP address of the cluster must be safelisted by Schrödinger. You can obtain the public IP address of the cluster instance by executing the command:
curl https://ipecho.net/plain
on the terminal of any cluster instance.
Additionally, a client license file needs to be installed on the Virtual Cluster with the following command:
$SCHRODINGER/licadmin install -s <LICENSE_SERVER_NAME>:<PORT>
This will create a client license file (file extension .lic) containing the following two lines:
{
"licenseFileType": "server-identifier",
"serverAddress": "<LICENSE_SERVER_NAME>:<PORT>"
}
in the /opt/schrodinger/licenses directory. Alternatively, this file can be created manually.
The Schrödinger Suite will obtain the information about the external license server from this file and
will try to connect to it. It is recommended to test whether the license checkout works
correctly by executing the command:
/opt/schrodinger/licserver/bin/lictool test-server <LICENSE_SERVER_NAME>:<PORT>
License Server Hosted by the Virtual Cluster#
Note
The recommended way to connect a Virtual Cluster to a license server is to follow the method outlined in Section Access to Externally Hosted License Servers. This recommendation is particularly important when licenses are checked out by external installations, such as those on desktops or laptops.
As an alternative method, the frontend instance of the Virtual Cluster can act as a license server for the Schrödinger Suite installation on the Virtual Cluster and any external installations, e.g., on on-premises computers. The diagram below shows this configuration.
A license file can be installed on the frontend instance by executing the command:
sudo -u licserver /opt/schrodinger/licserver/bin/lictool install -k <LICENSE_KEY>
as user with admin authorization level
(see Authorization Levels) where
<LICENSE_KEY> is the license key provided by Schrödinger. Note, it is crucial that the above command
is executed on the frontend instance, as the license file will be generated using the machine-id
of that instance. The new license file is placed in a directory where it is automatically
recognized by the license management service (schrodinger-licserverd). After the license
file has been installed successfully, run the commands
sudo systemctl enable schrodinger-licserverd
sudo systemctl restart schrodinger-licserverd
to enable and (re-)start the license server, respectively. Next, create a client license file for the frontend instance by running
$SCHRODINGER/licadmin install -s frontend.virtual-cluster.lan:53000
which will create the file in the /opt/schrodinger/licenses directory.
To test whether the license check-out works correctly, execute:
/opt/schrodinger/licserver/bin/lictest test-server
If this command succeeds, the license is available within the whole Virtual Cluster.
To access and share the license with any resources external to the cluster, such as on-premises systems, it must be ensured that TCP connections to the frontend instance of the cluster can be established on the TCP port used by the license server daemon (the default port is 53000).
Any corporate firewall needs to be configured to allow outgoing traffic on this port and, additionally, the firewall settings for the Virtual Cluster need to be configured to allow incoming traffic on this port. It is recommended to configure the access rules as restrictive as possible, i.e., allow incoming traffic on the license server port only if it originates from the corporate network.