Quick Start Guide Neat Video v5 OFX floating licensing

Neat Video v5 OFX floating licensing

Quick start guide
RLM
Neat Video uses the Reprise License Manager (RLM) from Reprise Software to provide the floating
licensing capabilities.
This guide will help you set up an RLM license server and configure client machines to check out
Neat Video’s licenses from the server.

1. License Server
Using Neat Video floating licenses requires an RLM license server to be running and accessible in
your organization’s network in order to manage the software licenses. The complete RLM server setup
consists of three parts:
• The RLM server executable: rlm (Linix, MacOS) or rlm.exe (Windows), provided by Reprise
Software;
• The Neat Video-specific server settings: neatlab.set, provided by Neat Video team after purchase;
• The Neat Video license file: neatvideo.lic, provided by Neat Video team after purchase.
Each client machine in your organization’s network must check out a license from the RLM server to
be able to run an instance of Neat Video software.
The total number of computers that can simultaneously run the Neat Video software is therefore
determined by the number specified in the floating license installed on the RLM server.

2. Platforms
The RLM server software is available for many platforms including Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS,
Unix and Linux. The 64-bit version of the OS is required.

3. Installing
At the time of purchase you were asked to choose a server machine in your organization’s network
to host the RLM server and then you provided us with it’s hardware ID. The RLM server software,
Neat Video-specific server settings and license file must be installed on that server machine.
The recommended method of installing the license server is to put all three components (rlm or
rlm.exe, neatlab.set and neatvideo.lic) in the same folder on the server machine.
Please follow through these steps to set your server and clients up and running:
• Step I. Download the RLM server executable1
• Step II. Install a new RLM server
• Step III. Install Neat Video server settings and license file
• Step IV. Run Neat Video and configure client machines

1 If you already have an RLM server v12 or later running in your network, you can skip the steps I-II. Please contact your system
administrator for assistance.

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 Quick Start Guide Neat Video v5 OFX floating licensing

3.1. Step I. Download the RLM server executable2

Please open https://www.reprisesoftware.com/admin/software-licensing-downloads.php to download an
End-User Bundle from Reprise Software for the platform that matches your server machine’s operating
system and architecture.3
For example, for Linux you should download x64_l1.admin.tar.gz, for MacOS 10.5 or later -
x64_m1.admin.tar.gz for x86_64 architecture and arm64_m2.admin.tar.gz for ARM64 architecture, etc.

3.2. Step II. Install a new RLM server

Unpack the downloaded package (or run the downloaded self-extracting exe if you use the Windows
version) into a new folder on the chosen server machine. For example in MacOS and Linux, you could
choose one of the following locations:
/opt/rlm/
/usr/local/rlm/
and in Windows, you could use
C:\RLM\
C:\Program Files\RLM\
(you may need administrative permissions to copy files to these folders)
The server will then work from that folder.
Try starting the server by executing (in terminal) the following command in that folder:
rlm
Please make sure that no errors or warnings are reported in the output. Correct the issues (if any)
before proceeding to the next step.
One of the errors that you may face in this step looks like this:
(rlm) Web server starting on port 5054
...
(rlm) Cannot bind Web server port 5054, exiting
It indicates that the port RLM tries to open for incoming connections to its embedded Web-server is
already in use, either by another instance of RLM server, or by some other software running on your
server machine.
You can pass the following command line arguments to the RLM server on startup in order to override
the default Web-server port: -ws XXXX. Substitute XXXX with the port number of your choice, or to
disable the Web-server altogether, pass the following argument: -nows.
Please stop the server now (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C) to install the settings in the next step.

3.3. Step III. Install Neat Video server settings and license file
Unpack the license.zip file attached to the e-mail where you found this quick start guide. The zip
contains two files: neatvideo.lic and neatlab.set.
The RLM server requires at least two TCP ports to be configured and open for incoming connections
in the firewall of the server machine. The first port, 25053 by default, is used by the RLM server
to listen for connections from the clients. The second, 25153 by default, is used for communication
between Neat Video clients and Neat Video-specific instance of the RLM server.
Make sure to open both TCP ports in the firewall of your server machine.
Modify the first line of text in the neatvideo.lic file with the actual name of your server machine. If
necessary, you can modify the ports in the first two lines.1 The correct lines should look like this:

2 If you already have an RLM server v12 or later running in your network, you can skip the steps I-II. Please contact your system
administrator for assistance.
3 Only 64-bit architectures are supported.
1 Do not modify any other parts of the license file, because this will invalidate the license.

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 Quick Start Guide Neat Video v5 OFX floating licensing

HOST rlm_server_machine XXXXXXXXX 25053

ISV neatlab port=25153
Here rlm_server_machine is a fully qualified domain name or an IP-address of your server
machine, XXXXXXXXX is the hardware ID of your server machine (do not change the value provided
in the file), 25053 and 25153 are the two ports mentioned above that the server will use. You can
change the ports if you need to, otherwise just make note of their values as that will be required to
configure client machines.
After modifying neatvideo.lic, move the neatlab.set and neatvideo.lic files into the folder of the RLM
server executable.
Now start the RLM server again. If everything was done correctly, you should see the following lines
in the output:
(rlm) Using TCP/IP port 25053
...
(rlm) Starting ISV server neatlab on port 25153
(rlm) New thread created to watch ISV neatlab
...
(neatlab) Server started on rlm_server_machine (hostid: XXXXXXXXX) for:
(neatlab) neatvideo-ofx
(neatlab)
(neatlab) License files:
(neatlab) neatvideo.lic
(neatlab)
Please make sure that no errors or warnings are reported in the output. Correct the issues (if any)
before proceeding to the next step. Do not go further if any issues remain unresolved. Instead please
contact support for assistance and quote the whole log containing those errors or warnings.

3.4. Step IV. Run Neat Video and configure client machines
Once the RLM server is running, you need to point all client machines (that need to run Neat Video)
to that server. In order to do this, you should start (on a client machine) the video editing application
that would use Neat Video.
A configuration dialog will be presented to you when you open Neat Video plug-in window for the
first time.2 Specify the domain name or IP address of the RLM server machine there. If necessary
adjust the server port (by default it is 25053) as well. Press OK to apply changes.
An attempt to connect to the server and check out a license will be done immediately. A successful
checkout will indicate that the client machine is configured correctly. If the plug-in cannot obtain a
license from the RLM server, then it will report an error with additional diagnostic information and
present you with the same configuration dialog again.
In cases when running the video editing application and opening Neat Video plug-in window is
not practical (for instance, when configuring a headless render node), an RLM client can be set up
manually. To do this for the current user only, navigate to1
/Users/ username¡/Library/Application Support/ABSoft/NeatVideo5-OFX/RLM/,
or, alternatively, to configure for all users, navigate to
/Library/Application Support/ABSoft/NeatVideo5-OFX/RLM/.
Create a text file named neatclient.lic in that folder and put the following text into it:
SERVER rlm_server_machine ANY 25053
Where rlm_server_machine should be substituted with the RLM server’s machine domain name
(or IP address). If necessary adjust the server port as well.
Please note that the neatclient.lic file placed into the user-specific folder takes precedence over the file
in the global (all users) folder if both files are present.
2 In simple single-segment networks the client might detect the server automatically by issuing a broadcast request. In that case
manual configuration would not be required.
1 Create the folder if necessary.

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 Quick Start Guide Neat Video v5 OFX floating licensing

4. Management
The RLM license server comes with an embedded web server, which provides a browser-based
management interface. Once RLM is running, the management interface is available on port 5054 by
default. If the RLM configuration was customized2 , the web interface may be on a different port, or
not running.
To access the management interface, point your browser to: http://rlm_server_machine:5054

5. Further information
Advanced topics of RLM server installation, management and troubleshooting are covered in RLM
End-User Manual available from https://www.reprisesoftware.com/RLM_Enduser.html

2 Refer to Step II. Install a new RLM server for details.

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