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- LANimation(TM) NetWare Application Software Control Program
-
-
- ■ 1990 Strategic Data Systems, Inc.; All Rights Reserved.
-
- Object program modules release into the public domain.
-
-
- Strategic Data Systems, Inc.
- Attn: LANimation Group
- 8350 N. Central Expwy
- Suite 610
- Dallas, Texas 75206
- (800) 752-SDSI
-
-
- Release Date January 16, 1990Introduction
-
- The LANimation(TM) Netware Application Software Control Program
- consists of two programs and a data file which allow a network
- administrator to control simultaneous access to any applications
- software program on a Novell Network (Version 2.0a and above). This
- is useful in those situations where a limited number of licenses
- for a particular software package have been purchased, but access
- is required from any station in the network (and the license allows
- such access).
-
-
- MEDIT Program
-
- The MEDIT program is the administrative module of the package and
- provides the tool necessary to set up your applications for
- metering.
-
-
- METER Program
-
- The meter program uses the parameters you establish to control the
- number of users simultaneously operating a particular program on
- the LAN.
-
-
- Installation for Experts
-
- The MEDIT.EXE, METER.EXE, and the MET_CTL.FIL should be installed
- in the PUBLIC directory of the file server. The MET_CTL.FIL should
- be flagged Shareable, Read-Write, while the EXE files should be
- flagged Shareable Read-Only.
-
-
- Setting Up Applications to be Metered using MEDIT
-
- After installation, log in as SUPERVISOR (with a search drive
- mapped to PUBLIC). Execute the command MEDIT from the DOS prompt.
- This should pop a window on the screen. The contents of the window
- reflect the contents of the MET_CTL.FIL loaded in the PUBLIC
- directory. You will notice that the file already contains an entry
- for the TURBO.EXE program and this program has been set with a
- maximum session count of 2. This means that any time the METER
- program is used to start the TURBO.EXE program on this file server,
- the number of other METERed TURBO users will be checked first and
- if the simultaneous session count has been exceeded, access to the
- program will be denied.
-
- To insert a new application, press the INS key. The program will
- ask you for the name of the program to be metered. Enter the name
- of the command (without options or parameters) along with the
- program's extension (COM or EXE). It is important to enter the
- extension with the command name.
-
- After entering the name, the program will ask for the number of
- simultaneous sessions to allow. This number is the maximum number
- of simultaneous users that you have licensed the software package
- for. Enter the number of simultaneous sessions you wish to allow.
-
- After completing input, the entry is added to the list. <ESC>
- aborts input during data-entry. The <Del> key deletes an entry. To
- edit an entry, highlight it with the up or down arrow keys and
- press Enter.
- That's all there is to it. Press <ESC> on the main screen to exit
- the program.
-
-
- METER Operation
-
- To perform a controlled start of a program, simply issue the
- command METER followed by the command you would normally use to
- start the program:
-
- >METER LOTUS COLOR
-
- The METER program will check the network to see how many other
- METERed copies of the LOTUS program are currently executing. If the
- number is less than the number you specified, the METER program
- will start up LOTUS along with the COLOR startup option. If all of
- the LOTUS program's sessions have been exhausted, a message will
- appear indicating there are no more sessions available. An
- ERRORLEVEL of 6 will be set in this case.
-
- METER will only count the number of other sessions of a program
- which were also started with the METER command. Program copies
- which were started conventionally are not registered. For this
- reason, it is a good idea to use common batch files to start
- METERed programs.
-
- METER will execute programs across search paths.
-
- METER will only work with .COM and .EXE files.
-
- METER may be used to start programs that have not been set up using
- MEDIT. METER will simply see that the program is not in the list
- and execute the program without restriction.
-
- METER requires about 10k of memory overhead from the METERed
- program at execution time only (it is not a TSR).
- Multi-Server Networks
-
- The count of simultaneous users is maintained on a server-by-
- server basis. That is each server's program counts are independent
- of the others in the internetwork. When a user is logged-in to more
- than one server and a metered program is executed, the server which
- is checked is determined by the default drive mapping at the time
- METER is executed. Therefore, if system-wide metering is required
- in a multi-server network, make sure that the default drive points
- to a central server prior to running METER. A version of METER
- which overcomes this limitation, as well as shows real-time
- statistics plus some other features is available from:
-
- Strategic Data Systems, Inc.
- Attn: LANimation Group
- 8350 N. Central Expwy
- Suite 610
- Dallas, Texas 75206
- (800) 752-SDSI