Setup QLS license server for Squish (On Premise Offline)

General¶

With Squish 9.2.0 support for a new license server developed in-house in the Qt company was added to Squish.

This guide is written for QLS version 3.6.3.

The On Premise Offline mode is similar to the existing Floating license server from Froglogic. This is not the default and needs to be requested during license acquisition or later from support as this requires a change in the license back end.

The license server hosts the licenses locally and does not require an internet connection. This setup should be used if you will be using Squish in a separated Network that will never connect to the Internet.

After this high level overview we will now explain the exact steps for the setup

Install the license server¶

Download the Qt License server from your Qt Account. Only the License Manager and Deputy License Managers can download the license server. If you do not have the correct permissions, please reach out to the License Manager in your company.
Go to "Software Quality > Qt License Server" in your Qt Account and download the Qt License Server on premise installer for your operating system.
Run the installer and follow the flow until the installation is finished. On Linux run the Installer in User space and not as root.

Configure the license server¶

To configure the license server go to the install location on your system, see the current defaults below:

Linux  : /opt/QtLicenseServer-*.*.*/LicenseManagementTools/QtLicenseServer/*.*.*/QtLicenseServer/Linux_*
Windows: C:\Program Files\QtLicenseServer-*.*.*\LicenseManagementTools\QtLicenseServer\*.*.*\QtLicenseServer\Windows10_x86_64

Depending on the system running the license server you need to look for different files:

Linux   : qt-license-server.service
Windows : qt-service.xml

Configure the QLS_PORT key to the port you want the QLS to respond to clients on. You will need to know this port for Squish setups later on, to tell Squish which port the QLS is responding on.

The SSL support in the license server can be configured via the QLS_ENABLE_SSL key. Set this to "no" if you do not have an SSL cert from your IT that could be used for the machine hosting the license server.

If the cert is obtained from a real CA authority then you only need to place the cert on the license server machine in the install location. If you have a self-signed certificate you will need to distribute it to all client machines.

The key QLS_OPERATION_MODE key needs to be set to the value offline.

Setup QLS service¶

Install the service¶

After you have configured the license server, we recommend to install the license server as a system service. For this to go the install directory of the license server and open a shell or terminal there.

On Linux you run the install.sh script with root permissions. On Windows you run the qt-service.exe in a terminal with elevated permissions with the command 'qt-service.exe install' (no quotes).

Starting the service¶

On Windows you need to launch the service yourself with this command

sc start qtlicserver

from a terminal with elevated permissions.

On Linux the install.sh script launches the service automatically, the status can be queries by using

systemctl status qt-license-server.service

Setup QLS On Premise Offline¶

Acquire a fingerprint Id from the machine that will be running the QLS, for this execute the qt-license-server as below.
qt-license-server generate-server-fingerprint
With the generated Id, go to your Qt Account and on the License page (Licenses > My Licenses > License Details), insert it in the activation field and perform the activation. Choose the port you used in the configuration file before.
Download the entitlements file and place it in the install directory of the license server.
(optional) If you have an existing offline license from a different product that should be served on the same server, you can merge the content. Refer the Qt documentation for the process here

Restart the service for the license server so that the license is picked up.

Windows : 
    qt-service.exe stop
    qt-service.exe start
Linux   :
    systemctl daemon-relaoad
    systemctl restart qt-license-server.service

Once you have done this, verify the registration with the status command :
qt-license-server status -u http://localhost:QLS_PORT

If everything was performed correctly you will see an output similar to the one below in your terminal

With this the setup is complete.

Verification of connection with client¶

A simple way to verify if you can connect to the QLS from another machine is to use curl

curl QLS_URL:QLS_PORT/api/v2/ping

Replace QLS_URL and QLS_PORT as appropriate for your setup.

If the command is correct you will get a Json response similar to the output below

{"message":"Pong","version":"3.6.3","SHA":"XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX","build_date":"2026-06-09"}

Usage of older Squish versions¶

Install Bridge Floating License Server¶

For Squish versions 9.1.0 and earlier you need to use a bridge floating-license server to connect to the QLS. This is an addition to the QLS Setup described above and can not be used alone.

Download the latest Squish Floating License Server version from the Qt Account portal under 'Downloads > Archived Versions'
Run the installer and finish the installation with default paths.
Use the configuration file you can get from here fls_bridge_license.cfg . The Port in this configuration can be changed as needed.

Place the license file in the respective folder for the Floating license server
Launch the FLS service or restart if it was running so that the correct license is picked up.

Install the qtlicd Service¶

Because the bridge will be running as a system service, you need to install the license daemon as a system service as well.

Download the Qt License Service installer from your Qt Account from the same location where you got the license server.
Run the installer and finish the installation. Ignore the url, this will be configured later.
With the installation completed find the Install Folder, see the defaults below.
```
Windows : C:\LicenseService-3.6.3
Linux   : $HOME/LicenseService-3.6.3
```

Install the service by running the command below.

Windows: qtlicd --install
Linux  : sudo ./installer.sh

Reboot your system, the service is launched on restart.
After the reboot go to the qtlicd install folder and run the command below
qtlicensetool.exe --accept-terms-and-conditions
In the qtlicd.ini set the server_addr value to the URL of your QLS (example http://localhost:QLS_PORT). See the locations below as to where to find the qtlicd.ini file
```
Windows: C:\Program Files\qtlicd
Linux  : /opt/qtlicd
```

With this the setup is complete

licenseserver