Using a License Server With License Files

The following gives an outline of the steps in installing a license server and using it to serve licenses from license files. For further information about each of these steps, read the relevant sections of this document.

Choose the machine(s) on which the license server(s) will be installed.

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Determine the number of licenses and machines on which FlexEnabled applications will be installed. See Selecting a License Server Machine for further information.

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Consider what method, if any, you want to use to ensure that, whenever possible, licenses are available to your end users. See Ensuring License Availability for further information.

Install the license server components.

The publisher will supply a copy of their vendor daemon and instructions for installing it. The publisher also provides the license server manager (lmadmin or lmgrd).

Obtain details of the license server machine(s) and send them to the publisher.

Normally publishers supply concurrent licenses that are locked to a specific license server. When licenses are held in license files, they are locked to the license server using an identity obtained from the machine. This identity is called a hostid and is platform-specific. There are several different hostids available for each platform. The publisher will provide instructions on what hostid they are using for your licenses and platforms. They may supply an application that you can run to obtain the hostid; this might be the FlexNet Publisher utility, lmhostid, or a different utility. If you are using lmadmin, it displays the standard hostids for the machine on which it is running in System Information.

Depending on the license model, the publisher may require other details of your license server, the machine on which it is running, and details of your network.

Install licenses on the license server.

The publisher may specify a particular location for the license files on the license server. When no specific location is required, see information in Locating Licenses for instructions.

Install the FlexEnabled application on end user machines.

The publisher will supply installation instructions for installing the FlexEnabled application.

Set up end user machines to access the license server.

There are several methods of configuring the end user machine to access a single license server or multiple license servers. These depend on the contents of the license files supplied by the publisher and your license server(s) configuration. See information in Locating Licenses for instructions.

Optionally, create an options file.

If you want to limit license usage, configure logging, or turn off the automatic reread of licenses, create an options file and install it in the same directory as the vendor daemon. See instructions in Managing the Options File.

Configure and start up the license server manager.

There is a fundamental difference between the configuration of lmadmin and lmgrd, so the processes required for each are separately outlined here:

lmadmin—The configuration settings are permanent and mainly set using the user interface. For details see the lmadmin Online help and Using lmadmin.

lmgrd—The configuration settings are set when lmgrd is started. They are not persistent. For details see License Server Manager “lmgrd”.

You can manage and monitor the operation of the license server using the license server manager. lmadmin provides direct management and monitoring of the license server through its user interface; lmgrd provides limited information as command-line output. Additional utilities are available for management and monitoring of the license server. For details, see Using License Administration Tools. For more comprehensive monitoring and reporting of license usage, use FlexNet Manager. FlexNet Manager is a Web-based administration and reporting tool for FlexNet licenses and license servers.