Product: Zoo
Summary: Discusses how to deploy Rhino for Mac configured to use the Zoo

We recently purchased a Rhino for Mac Education Lab License. What are some strategies to help deploy it configured to use a Zoo license server on several computers at our university?

We use Casper and other management systems to build packages and push applications out to client systems. This usually includes bundling the license configuration information with the distribution application.

Here is some helpful information.

1) When you run Rhino for Mac for the first time, it creates the following folders:

/Library/Application Support/McNeel/Rhinoceros/License Manager
/Library/Application Support/McNeel/Rhinoceros/License Manager/Licenses

Important: Each of these folders is chmod with +rwx so anyone can write information to it.

2) The Rhinoceros/License Manager/Licenses folder contains Rhino's license file, which for Rhino for Mac is named 781b000c-8d0b-4ed3-8ead-213bdb848f39.lic.

For standalone licenses, this file is encrypted, unreadable, and unique per system.

For network licenses, though, this file is clear text, readable, and can be moved between one system and another.

3) For systems that have a network license, you will also find a LicensesZooClient.settings file that in the Rhinoceros/License Manager folder. This file is also clear text, readable, and can be moved between one system and another. It contains the name of the Zoo server as entered into Rhino.

If your deployment system performs steps 1, 2, and 3, besides pushing the Rhino application bundle into each system's Applications folder, you should be able to deploy Rhino for Mac on all your systems.

How does Rhino for Mac find a Zoo server?