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:

/Users/Shared/McNeel/Rhinoceros/7.0/License Manager
/Users/Shared/McNeel/Rhinoceros/7.0/License Manager/Licenses

/Library/Application Support/McNeel/Rhinoceros/6.0/License Manager
/Library/Application Support/McNeel/Rhinoceros/6.0/License Manager/Licenses

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

2.) The License Manager/Licenses folder contains Rhino's license file:

NOTE: A common mistake is to confuse /Library (the global library) and /Users/[user_account]/Library (the user's library). Please make sure you are looking in the global library.

Also, Rhino 6 and Rhino 7 create the Zoo license files under License Manager in explicit 6 & 7 subfolder, while Rhino 5 creates its files in the root of License Manager and License subfolder. In other words, Rhino 5 does not create a 5 subfolder.

59ff75c9-9c71-4ef8-a290-6b590f3fc63a.lic

55500d41-3a41-4474-99b3-684032a4f4df.lic

781b000c-8d0b-4ed3-8ead-213bdb848f39.lic

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

For network, or Zoo, licenses, 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 an additional file:

LicensesZooClient.settings 

that is in the 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?