# How Does Capstorm License Management Work?

This article explains how Capstorm license management works and provides tips on diagnosing license management problems.

When a Capstorm product connects to Salesforce it also checks for a valid product license in the file “license.txt”. The “license.txt” file will be located in the same directory as the script used to launch the Capstorm product. If a license.txt file is not found or a valid non-expired license is not found in the file, the Capstorm product will issue a request to the Capstorm license service to retrieve (or generate) a license.

When issuing the license request to the Capstorm license server, the [CapstormCustomerKey.txt](/best-practices/customer-key-file-management.md) file will be used to identify the installation. If the CapstormCustomerKey.txt file is not valid, a message indicating the issue will be shown.

If a Capstorm product fails to retrieve/generate a license it is usually because the connection is blocked by a firewall rule. Diagnosing and confirming this condition can be done using a web browser. Here’s how.

To retrieve or generate a license, a Capstorm product makes a https request in the following form:

* <https://license.capstorm.com/LicenseStore/GetLicense?sfdcOrg=salesforceOrgId&product=productName&version=productVersion&instanceType=sandbox>

Where:

* salesforceOrgId is the full 18 character unique identifier of your Salesforce organization.
* productName is the name of the product for which a license is desired.
* productVersion is the version number of the product.

For example:

* <https://license.capstorm.com/LicenseStore/GetLicense?sfdcOrg=CAPSTORMTEST000000&product=CopyStorm/MySQL&version=Test&instanceType=sandbox>

If the request is successful the license server will return a JSON string in the following form:

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```json
{“license”:{“id”:1,”ipAddress”:”38.114.70.254″,”licenseKey”:”2520b633-13fd-4488-800e-449526035835″,”product”:”CopyStorm/MySQL”,”version”:”Test”,”sfdcOrganization”:”CAPSTORMTEST000000″,”grantDate”:”2013-08-10″,”createdDate”:”2013-08-10″,”modifiedDate”:”2014-04-02″,”lock”:”q/nI2XtrIaof6u0CdEVSe28EDxjiUUW21uB8h9mpQfE\u003d”,”note”:””,”ipOrganization”:”Capstorm”,”ipDomain”:”wisperisp.com”,”ipCity”:”Edwardsville”,”ipCountry”:”United States”,”ipRegion”:”Illinois”},”successful”:true}
```

{% endcode %}

Information from the JSON string will be added to the product’s license.txt file.

If a firewall is blocking access to the Capstorm license server then pasting a license request into a browser will almost always provide a meaningful message. If you receive a “Connection Refused” response then a firewall is likely blocking access to license.capstorm.com. You need to tell your network administrator to open ports 80 and 443 to license.capstorm.com (75.2.67.235).

Here are a few URLs you can click on to test the connection to the license manager:

| Product              | Test URL                                                                                                                                           |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| CopyStorm/MySQL      | <https://license.capstorm.com/LicenseStore/GetLicense?sfdcOrg=CAPSTORMTEST000000&product=CopyStorm/MySQL&version=Test&instanceType=sandbox>        |
| CopyStorm/SQL Server | <https://license.capstorm.com/LicenseStore/GetLicense?sfdcOrg=CAPSTORMTEST000000&product=CopyStorm/SQL%20Server&version=Test&instanceType=sandbox> |
| CopyStorm/Oracle     | <https://license.capstorm.com/LicenseStore/GetLicense?sfdcOrg=CAPSTORMTEST000000&product=CopyStorm/Oracle&version=Test&instanceType=sandbox>       |
| CopyStorm/PostgreSQL | <https://license.capstorm.com/LicenseStore/GetLicense?sfdcOrg=CAPSTORMTEST000000&product=CopyStorm/PostgreSQL&version=Test&instanceType=sandbox>   |
| CopyStorm/H2         | <https://license.capstorm.com/LicenseStore/GetLicense?sfdcOrg=CAPSTORMTEST000000&product=CopyStorm/H2&version=Test&instanceType=sandbox>           |
| CopyStorm/Restore    | <https://license.capstorm.com/LicenseStore/GetLicense?sfdcOrg=CAPSTORMTEST000000&product=CopyStorm/Restore&version=Test&instanceType=sandbox>      |


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```
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```

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