How Does Rhino for Windows Find a LAN Zoo Server?

Product: LAN Zoo
Summary: An overview of how Rhino for Windows finds a Zoo license manager server.

When Rhino needs a license from a LAN Zoo server, it determines the name of the LAN Zoo server by looking in the following locations in this order:

1. The Current User hive of the Windows Registry. Looks for the host name or IP address of your LAN Zoo server.
2. The Local Machine hive of the Windows Registry. Looks for the host name or IP address of your LAN Zoo server.
3. Queries your Domain Name System (DNS) server for the default LAN Zoo server name.

When searching in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, of the Windows Registry, for the host name or IP address of your LAN Zoo server, Rhino will look in this location:

Hive:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key:   Software\McNeel\Rhinoceros\6.0\License Manager
Name:  Server
Type:  REG_SZ
Value: <host name or IP address>

When searching in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, of the Windows Registry, for the host name or IP address of your LAN Zoo server, Rhino will look in this location: SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node

Hive:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key:   SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\McNeel\Rhinoceros\6.0\License Manager
Name:  Server
Type:  REG_SZ
Value: <host name or IP address>

Note: Both deploying Rhino using the Automated Installation method, and initially running Rhino with elevated privileges (i.e “Run as Administrator”) will result in the LAN Zoo server name being written to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive.

A license key file will be created in %programdata%. This will have the key details so Rhino can open. Example: 55500d41-3a41-4474-99b3-684032a4f4df.lic in the C:\ProgramData\McNeel\Rhinoceros\6.0\License Manager\Licenses.

Right click on the Rhino program icon and pick “Run as Admin.” Your registry entry for the LAN Zoo will be created in the Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\McNeel\Rhinoceros\6.0\License Manager

Open Rhino normally (unelevated) and the registry key is place in

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\McNeel\Rhinoceros\6.0\License Manager

Rhino looks in the following location for a path to LAN Zoo: `/Users/Shared/McNeel/Rhinoceros/8.0/License Manager/LicensesZooClient.settings`

Rhino will create this file with the proper contents when you license Rhino using LAN Zoo. Copy the file to the same folder on other computers to complete the deployment.

When searching in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, of the Windows Registry, for the host name or IP address of your LAN Zoo server, both 32-bit and 64-bit Rhino will look in this location:

Hive:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Key:   Software\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\License Manager
Name:  Server
Type:  REG_SZ
Value: <host name or IP address>

If you are using a 32-bit version of Windows, then when searching in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, of the Windows Registry, for the host name or IP address of your LAN Zoo server, Rhino 32-bit will look in this location:

Hive:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key:   Software\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\License Manager
Name:  Server
Type:  REG_SZ
Value: <host name or IP address>

If you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, then when searching in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, of the Windows Registry, for the host name or IP address of your LAN Zoo server, both 32-bit and 64-bit Rhino will look in this location:

Hive:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key:   SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\McNeel\Rhinoceros\5.0\License Manager
Name:  Server
Type:  REG_SZ
Value: <host name or IP address>

If Rhino fails to determines the name of the LAN Zoo server, by searching in the Windows Registry, then it will query your DNS server for the default Zoo server, which is the following host name:

__mcneel.__zoo5

For example, if your company's domain is mcneel.com, then you can add a DNS alias of __mcneel.__zoo5.mcneel.com which points to your LAN Zoo server.

• If a LAN Zoo server name is found in the Windows Registry, then Rhino will only try to access a license from this location. 
• If the name of the LAN Zoo, found in the registry, resolves to a DNS A record, and the system that resolved to this record is off, then Rhino will be unable to obtain a license.
• On the other hand, if the name of the LAN Zoo, found in the registry, resolves to a DNS CNAME record, then the DNS server will resolve to whatever location is hosting a running LAN Zoo service.This is standard DNS operation.
• If a LAN Zoo server name is not found in the Windows Registry, then Rhino will look for a license by trying to resolve the automatic server name of 

__mcneel.__zoo5

as documented above.

• An IT professional will be helpful when configuring your DNS server.