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# About the RMS License Manager and its Clients

The RMS License Manager is a program that coordinates the use of a licensed application by multiple users and computers. This program usually runs on a computer that is located on the same subnet as any computer that needs to run the application. It runs as a system service on Windows and as a background process on UNIX. Being cross platform, clients running different operating systems can obtain licenses from a centralized License Manager.

The License Manager reads the licenses from the license file or can have them added into its memory. Each license identifies the valid uses of a single application or feature. There may be multiple licenses in a single license file. You generally add license codes to the license file by using the lslic utility.

The computers that run the application are called clients. When a licensed application is started on the client, it sends a request for a license across the network to the License Manager. The License Manager grants the request if possible and returns an authorization message back to the client. The licensed application is installed separately on each client computer.