[comp.os.vms] Multi-terminal service and licence key

RALPH@UHHEPG.BITNET (05/14/88)

Date: 13-MAY-1988 16:14:18.47
From: Ralph Becker-Szendy RALPH AT UHHEPG
To:   0::"info-vax@kl.sri.com",RALPH
Subj: Re: Multi-terminal service and licence key
Andy Wing <V2002A%TEMPLEVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> wrote

> Six terminals are controlled by a single job which opens the terminals
> as slave devices.  A second job communicates with the first to verify
> the data entry and update the master files.  It runs detached. My
> questions are if we port this thing to the uVAX...
>      1) Will the six slave terminals be counted as a single user
>         if under the control of the master program?
>
>      2) If the answer to 1 is yes, then will this conflict with the
>         8 user license agreement?  These slave terminals will be
>         operating in addition to up to 7 Allin1 users.  So in
>         theory we could have 13 'users' on an 8 user system.
>         I believe a 'SHOW USERS' would show 7 Allin1 users and
>         a 'CONTROL' user.  The control user would have a sub-process
>         (the data verification and file update) and six devices
>         under its wing.

This brings up a followup question: on a microVMS system with a limited
number of users (for example a two-user licence) and with a large
number of terminal ports, I start a whole bunch of subprocesses using
SPAWN/NOWAIT/IN=TTxx/OUT=TTxx
SPAWN/NOWAIT/IN=TTyy/OUT=TTyy
SPAWN/NOWAIT/IN=TTzz/OUT=TTzz.

Se, as long as the master process doesn't log out (which can be
prevented) I have four people working on four terminals with only a
two-user licence. Disadvantage: the other processes don't have LOGINs,
so security is pretty bad, but that may be okay for many applications.
Question: is that possible (I don't see why not), and if the answer is
yes, is it against my licence agreement ?

Disclaimer: I don't have a microVAX and we have an unlimited regular
VMS licence. I am just hacking around, us usual.

Ralph Becker-Szendy                            RALPH@UHHEPG.PHYS.HAWAII.EDU
University of Hawaii / High Energy Physics Group        RALPH@UHHEPG.BITNET
Watanabe Hall #203, 2505 Correa Road, Honolulu, HI 96822      (808)948-7391
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