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FlexNet License Server Management

Installing, Configuring, And Administrating A FlexNet License Server
For Thermo Scientific Toolkit Applications

 

 

Table of content

          • 1. Overview
          • 2. Configure your Thermo Scientific Toolkit Client Applications to Use a FlexNet License Server
          • 3. Install a FlexNet License Server
            • 3.1 System Requirements
              • 3.1.1 Additional System Requirements for lmadmin
              • 3.1.2 Supported Browsers for lmadmin
            • 3.2 Download License Server Installer
            • 3.3 Install lmadmin as License Server Manager
            • 3.4 Setup FlexNet server for Thermo Scientific License
              • 3.4.1 Prerequisites
              • 3.4.2 Adding the asglmd Vendor Daemon to lmadmin
              • 3.4.3 Adding the mcslmd Vendor Daemon to lmadmin
          • 4. Administrating your Licenses
            • 4.1 Adding (New) Licenses
              • 4.1.1 Getting a License Certificate
              • 4.1.2 Importing a License Certificate on the License Server
            • 4.2 Administering the vendor Daemon
            • 4.3 Checking the Status of your Licenses
            • 4.4 Transferring your Licenses
            • 4.5 Upgrading your Licenses
              • 4.5.1 Updating your License Certificate
              • 4.5.2 Importing your updated License Certificate on the License Server
            • 4.6 Reactivating your Renewables Licenses
              • 4.6.1 Updating your License Certificate
              • 4.6.2 Importing your updated License Certificate on the License Server
        • 5. Additional License Control / Borrowing
          • 5.1 Nomad Licensing / Borrowing
          • 5.2 Additional License Controls
        • 6. Upgrading the FlexNet License Server
        • 7. Management of licenses for Open Inventor and ImageDev
        • 8. Troubleshooting

1. Overview

 

Thermo Scientific toolkit products ImageDev and Open Inventor (hereinafter referred to as “Thermo Scientific Toolkit”) use the FlexNet licensing tool for supporting floating licenses. This document contains some limited information that can be used as a quick server installation and configuration guide. Be warned that a complete Licence Administration Guide is provided with your server installation, and it is also available here.  In the scenario of this guide, you have purchased a specific number, N, of product licenses.
The FlexNet license server tracks the licenses being used and allows simultaneous use of up to N instances of the software.
The advantage of this approach is that, unlike node-locked licensing, the product is not locked to a specific computer, but can be run on any computer that can communicate with the license server.


Figure 1 – FlexNet license server architecture example

Warning: Installation and management of floating licenses is not a trivial undertaking. It can require configuration of firewalls, proxy server and anyway an in-depth knowledge of the network configuration at your site.
Ideally you will have access to a knowledgeable, resourceful, and experienced IT group to provide the necessary support.

2. Configure your Thermo Scientific Toolkit Client Applications to Use a FlexNet License Server

When configuring your Thermo Scientific Toolkit licensing mode, you must choose “License server” and specify the name of the server (here “my-lic-server1”). The name can be specified using the host name or the IP address.

Please refer to the Thermo Scientific License Manager Software documentation.

3. Install a FlexNet License Server

The first thing to do is decide on which computer you wish to run the FlexNet license server. This system should be “reachable” by mean of a network connection from any system that might want to request a license. It should also be highly reliable.
The server can be installed on a computer on which the Thermo Scientific Toolkit is installed, but it does not have to.
It is possible to do FlexNet licensing in a heterogeneous environment. That is, the server and the Thermo Scientific Toolkit can be running on different operating systems. For instance, the FlexNet server could be on a Linux box, with the users running the Thermo Scientific Toolkit on a Windows platform.
If your site already has a FlexNet license server running that is used for licensing other vendors’ products, this may affect where and how you decide to configure the Thermo Scientific Toolkit license server.
For more information, please refer to FlexNet Publisher – License Administration Guide  “Managing Licenses from Multiple Software Publishers“.

There are two versions of the license server manager:

  • lmadmin—The web-based license server manager (elsewhere in this guide we will use lmadmin or “FlexNet Publisher® web user interface” interchangeably).
  • lmgrd—The original license server manager with a command-line interface.

You can use lmgrd to manage your FlexNet license server but it uses older technology, and may become deprecated.
Here is the link to the FAQ section where you can find the documentation on “How to use lmgrd as an alternative of lmadmin“.

lmadmin provides improved methods of managing the license server and vendor daemons. This will be the only application documented in this starting guide.

For complete technical details, please refer to FlexNet Publisher – License Administration Guide , section “License Server Manager lmadmin“.

Warning: To install a FlexNet license server, administrator rights are required.

3.1 System Requirements

The supported platforms for installing a FlexNet license server and using the Thermo Scientific FlexNet tools for license administration are the following (see FlexNet Release notes section “System Requirements for lmadmin”) :

  • Microsoft Windows (64-bit) server tested platforms:
    • Windows  7 SP1 , Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019. It is a best practice to run license servers on a server-based OS.
    • Thermo Fisher tested on Windows 10 (64-bit)
  • Linux x86-64 ( 64-bit) server tested platforms:
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and 8
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 SP4, 12 SP4, 15 
    • Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, and 18.10
    • Thermo Fisher tested on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (64-bit)
  • Mac OS X (64-bit) server tested platforms:
    • Mac OS X 10.14 and 10.15.
    • Thermo Fisher tested on Mac OS X 10.15 (64-bit)

3.1.1 Additional System Requirements for lmadmin

To use lmadmin on Windows platforms, the relevant Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package must be installed. For the required minimum version, refer to the FlexNet Release notes, section “System Requirements for lmadmin”. You have an option to install this package during the lmadmin installer process.

The lmadmin installer requires that JRE or OpenJDK 1.6 or later (for OS X: JRE or OpenJDK 1.7 or later) and no higher version than JRE/OpenJDK 15  is installed. If the JRE/ OpenJDK is not already present on the machine, it must be installed separately, because it is not bundled with the lmadmin installer. Download links for the JRE can be found on java download page. Download links for OpenJDK versions can be found on OpenJDK download page.

Do not run the 32-bit lmadmin and the 64-bit lmadmin on the same system. If you are upgrading from the 32-bit lmadmin to the 64-bit version, you must stop and uninstall the 32-bit lmadmin first.

3.1.2 Supported Browsers for lmadmin

lmadmin is tested on the following Web browsers:

• Red Hat Linux—Mozilla Firefox 46.x, Google Chrome 61.x
• Windows—Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft Edge
• MacOS/OS X—Apple Safari 6.x and 11

3.2 Download License Server Installer

To use Thermo Scientific Toolkit, you must have installed version 11.16.6 or higher of the FlexNet tools on your system. You can download these tools via the following links.
If you have already installed a license server with a previous version of the FlexNet tools, please refer to section Upgrading the FlexNet license server of this document to upgrade your FlexNet license server.

Windows:

  • FlexNet tools 11.16.6.0 for Microsoft Windows 64-bit 

Linux:

  • FlexNet tools 11.16.6.0 for Linux 64-bit 

Mac OS X:

  • FlexNet tools 11.16.6.0 for Mac OS X 

3.3 Install lmadmin as License server manager

Warning: To install lmadmin, the administrator’s rights are required.

Note: Installing lmadmin will temporarily stop the current FlexNet Publisher service (if already started).

Installation on Windows

  1. Go to the directory where you have extracted the FlexNet server tools archive (refer to above section 3.2) and run lmadmin installer: flexnet-asglmd_mcslmd-server_11.16.6.0_windows-x64-msvc12u4/FlexNetLmadminInstaller/lmadmin-x64_n6-11_16_6_0.exe
  2. The default install directory is C:\Program Files\FlexNet Publisher 64-bit License Server Manager.  You can modify it but make sure to have rights to write in it.
  3. You can import settings from a previously installed server and vendor daemon and you can check your settings before proceeding with the installation
  4. You must check Install Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable Package and agree to its license terms and condition to proceed.
  5. If you already have it installed on your system, you may see an error message indicating that a newer version of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable has been detected on the machine. You can ignore this error message and continue to the next step.
  6. You can set the IP port number for lmadmin web interface and choose the port number for the license server as well as other settings of the “FlexNet Publisher® web user interface” (do not alter default values if you are not at ease with them,  and write them down before modifying them).
  7. Continue until the Service Configuration page, where you must check the box Run as a service. Perform all remaining steps with default values.
  8. Check that the server has started:
    1. Open Windows Task Manager and look for the service lmadmin64 in the Services tab. If the service is stopped, start it.
    2. Open http://localhost:8090/ in a web browser (if you used the default port number, otherwise the port number you’ve set must be used). The dashboard of the license server should be displayed.

Installation on Linux

Warning: To install lmadmin, you must run the following steps as a non-root user with root privileges (do not use root user).

  1. Open a Terminal window.
  2. Install lmadmin from directory FlexNetLmadminInstaller where you have extracted the FlexNet server tools archive:
    • Run the command:

                               sudo ./flexnet-asglmd_mcslmd-server_11.16.6.0_linux-x64-gcc48/FlexNetLmadminInstaller/lmadmin-x64_lsb-11_16_6_0.bin

    • If you get an error message about missing libraries, please refer to Additional System Requirements for lmadmin
  1. By default, the lmadmin install directory is: /opt/FNPLicenseServerManager
  2. Perform all steps with default values and finish.
  3. Launch the command: 

    sudo chown -R <YourUserName> /opt/FNPLicenseServerManager

  1. Add the current directory to your library path by entering the following command:
    • Linux bash:

                               export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/FNPLicenseServerManager/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

    • Linux csh: 

                               setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /opt/FNPLicenseServerManager/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

  1. Start the server with the command: 

           /opt/FNPLicenseServerManager/lmadmin

  1. Check that the server has started:
    • Open http://localhost:8090/ in a web browser to access its web user interface.
    • The process lmadmin should be displayed by the command: 

                               ps -fC lmadmin

Installation on Mac OS X

Warning: To install lmadmin, you must run the following steps as a user with administrator rights (do not use root user).

  1. Open a Terminal window.
  2. Install lmadmin, from directory FlexNetLmadminInstaller where you have extracted the FlexNet server tools archive: 

             ./flexnet-asglmd_mcslmd-server_11.16.6.0_osx-x64-clang60/FlexNetLmadminInstaller/FlexNet_Publisher_License_Server_11_16_6_0.app/Contents/MacOS/FlexNet_Publisher_License_Server_11_16_6_0

  1. Select /Applications/FNPLicenseServerManager as install directory.
  2. Perform all steps with default values and finish.
  3. Copy script service for lmadmin: 

             sudo cp ./flexnet-asglmd_mcslmd-server_11.16.6.0_osx-x64-clang60/FlexNetLmadminService/* /Library/StartupItems/

  1. The script LMadmin should be updated with the command: 

             sed -i -e “s;/Applications/FNPLicenseServerManager;<your install directory>;g” /Library/StartupItems/LMadmin

             sed -i -e “s;lmadminUser=\”lmadmin\”;lmadminUser=\”<your user>\”;g” /Library/StartupItems/LMadmin

  1. Check that the logs directory for FNPLicenseManager exists:
    • Run this command to display logs directory contents:

                               ls -l /Applications/FNPLicenseServerManager/logs

    • If  the logs directory doesn’t exist, create it:

                               mkdir /Applications/FNPLicenseServerManager/logs

  1. Start the server with the command: 

          /Library/StartupItems/LMadmin start

  1. Check that the server has started:
    • Open http://localhost:8090/  in a web browser to access its web user interface.
    • Open Activity Monitor and check that the process lmadmin is running.

Note: For more information on lmadmin, please refer to  FlexNet Publisher – License Administration Guide ,  section “lmadmin License Server Manager“.

3.4 Setup FlexNet server for Thermo Scientific License

3.4.1 Prerequisites

  1. Make sure you’ve run all the steps described above in this guide.
  2. Open a command prompt/terminal with administrator’s rights in the directory where you have extracted the FlexNet server tools archive and go to the FlexNetLicenseServerTools subdirectory. 
  3. Enter the following command in the console to install Thermo Scientific anchor services:

      For Windows:

           installanchorservice asglmd asglmd-applications

         Some antivirus may ask you the permission to execute the installanchorservice (see fig. 2). Check in the console that the installation of the vendor daemon has succeeded (see fig. 3).

Figure 2 – Allow execution of installanchorservice.exe

Figure 3 – check installation is successful

The relevant Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package must be installed. For the required minimum version, refer to the FlexNet Release notes, section “System Requirements for lmadmin”. You could have optionally installed this requirement during the lmadmin installer process, see chapter Install lmadmin as License server manager. Otherwise you can download and install these requirements here:

  • Windows 32-bit (click on Download then select vcredist_x86.exe )
  • Windows 64-bit (click on Download then select vcredist_x64.exe )

For Linux and Mac OS X:

  • In a terminal with administrator’s rights type the following command:

                         sh install_fnp.sh

  • Add the current directory to your library path by entering the following command where <PathToFlexNetLicenseServerToolsDirectory> must be replaced by the explicit path to the FlexNetLicenseServerTools directory:
    • Linux bash:

                                        export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=<PathToFlexNetLicenseServerToolsDirectory>:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

    • Linux csh:

                                        setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH <PathToFlexNetLicenseServerToolsDirectory>:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

    • Mac OS X bash: 

                                       export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=<PathToFlexNetLicenseServerToolsDirectory>:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH

    • Mac OS X csh: 

                                       setenv DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH <PathToFlexNetLicenseServerToolsDirectory>:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH

  • Please check that the folder /usr/local has write permission for activating, deactivating, and upgrading licenses.

3.4.2 Adding the asglmd Vendor Daemon to lmadmin

  1. Make sure that process (service) asglmd is not running. If necessary, please stop it. To check it:
    • For Windows:
      • Open the Windows Task Manager and look in the Details tab.
      • Stop asglmd. Right click on asglmd and stop it.
    • For Linux:
      • Open a Terminal, and run: 

                                                    ps -fC asglmd

      • If asglmd is displayed:  

                                                    pkill asglmd

    • For Mac OS X:
      • Open Activity Monitor
      • Stop asglmd process.
  1. Copy/paste the asglmd and asglmd_libFNP files from the downloaded package FlexNetLicenseServerTools directory to the lmadmin install directory. By default, the lmadmin install directory is:
    • C:\Program Files\FlexNet Publisher 64-bit License Server Manager on Windows.
    • /opt/FNPLicenseServerManager on Linux.
    • /Applications/FNPLicenseServerManager on Mac OS X.
  1. If you have just installed lmadmin, please check that the lmadmin service is running:
    • For Windows, open the Windows Task Manager and select the Services tab.
      • If lmadmin is not running, run lmadmin.exe (by default  C:\Program Files\FlexNet Publisher 64-bit License Server Manager)
    • For Linux open a Terminal, and run: 

                                                    ps -fC lmadmin

                                 If lmadmin is not running, start it using the command:

                                                    /opt/FNPLicenseServerManager/lmadmin

    • For Mac OS X, open Activity Monitor. If lmadmin is not running, open a terminal and start it using the command: 

                                  /Library/StartupItems/LMadmin start

                    If lmadmin cannot be run, please refer to section Install lmadmin as license server manager.

  1. Open  http://localhost:8090/systeminfo in a web browser.
    • If you have just installed lmadmin, you will be prompted to enter a name and a password: enter “admin” and “admin”.
    • Retrieve and copy the Ethernet Address. If Ethernet Address is not displayed, you can use the Volume Serial Number.

Figure 4 – lmadmin – Retrieve and copy the Ethernet Address

  1. Create a temporary text-only file (at any location in your file system) named license.dat containing:
      SERVER this_host <EthernetAddress>
      VENDOR asglmd
    For instance:
      SERVER this_host 012345678901
      VENDOR asglmd
  2. Open http://localhost:8090/vendor in a web browser, to set up your license server as follows:
    • Click on Import License.
    • Select your previously created license.dat file.
    • Check Overwrite License File on License Server.
    • Click on Import License.
  3. Check in http://localhost:8090/vendor that asglmd vendor daemon has been installed. The vendor daemon won’t start and will be in “Down” status until a valid license is activated for that vendor daemon.

Figure 5 – lmadmin Administration page shows installed vendor daemons

3.4.3 Adding the mcslmd Vendor Daemon to lmadmin

You can skip this section if your server must NOT provide licenses for Open Inventor.

  1. Make sure that process mcslmd is not running. To check it:
    • For Windows:
      • Open the Windows Task Manager and look in the Details tabs.
      • Stop mcslmd. Right click on mcslmd and stop it.
    • For Linux:
      • Open a Terminal, and run:  

                                                    ps -fC mcslmd

      • If mcslmd is displayed: 

                                                    pkill mcslmd

    • For Mac OS X:
      • Open Activity Monitor
      • Stop mcslmd process.
  1. Copy/paste the mcslmd and mcslmd_libFNP files from the downloaded package FlexNetLicenseServerTools directory to the lmadmin install directory. By default, the lmadmin install directory is:
    • C:\Program Files\FlexNet Publisher 64-bit License Server Manager on Windows.
    • /opt/FNPLicenseServerManager on Linux.
    • /Applications/FNPLicenseServerManager on Mac OS X.
  1. If you have just installed lmadmin, please check that the lmadmin service is running:
    • For Windows, open the Windows Task Manager and select the Services tab. If lmadmin is not running, run lmadmin.exe (by default  C:\Program Files\FlexNet Publisher 64-bit License Server Manager)
    • For Linux open a Terminal, and run:  

                                      ps -fC lmadmin

                            If lmadmin is not running, start it using the command: 

                                      /opt/FNPLicenseServerManager/lmadmin

    • For  Mac OS X, open Activity Monitor
    • If lmadmin is not running, open a terminal and start it using the command: 

                                      /Library/StartupItems/LMadmin start

    • If lmadmin cannot be run, please refer to section Install lmadmin as license server manager.
  1. Open  http://localhost:8090/systeminfo in a web browser.
    • If you have just installed lmadmin, you will be prompted to enter a name and a password: enter “admin” and “admin”.
    • Retrieve and copy the Ethernet Address. If Ethernet Address is not displayed, you can use the Volume Serial Number. See Figure 4 – lmadmin – Retrieve and copy the Ethernet Address
  1. Create a temporary text-only file (at any location) named license.dat containing:

                    SERVER this_host <EthernetAddress>
                    VENDOR mcslmd

              For instance:

                    SERVER this_host 012345678901
                    VENDOR mcslmd

  1. Open http://localhost:8090/vendor in a web browser, to set up your license server as follows:
    • Click on Import License.
    • Select your previously created license.dat file.
    • Check Overwrite License File on License Server.
    • Click on Import License.
  1. Check that mcslmd vendor has started:
    • Check the activation status of your licenses (if no license is active on your server the mcslmd daemon will exit immediately after starting):
      • Open a command prompt/terminal in the directory where you extracted the FlexNet server tools archive and go to the FlexNetLicenseServerTools subdirectory
      • Run ServerFNOODActivation -view
      • Check the output, making sure the Status of each license is Enabled, and the Trust Flags are Fully Trusted. If they are not, please contact our customer support group for assistance.
      • If no license is active, please activate your licenses following the instructions in section Activate Thermo Scientific Software Licenses
    • check on http://localhost:8090/vendor web page that mcslmd status is Up.
    • If mcslmd fails to start, please refer to FAQ – mcslmd Vendor Daemon Startup Troubleshooting Suggestions.

Congratulations! The server is now running and the Thermo Scientific vendor daemons are set up and ready for license installation.

4. Administrating your Licenses

Warning: To be able to perform the following steps, be sure to have downloaded the latest version of the FlexNet server tools (see section 3.2 Download license server installer).

4.1 Adding (New) Licenses

4.1.1 Getting a License Certificate

In order to get your license certificate you will need:

  • Your activation codes : you should have received them in your delivery email. An activation code is a long string delimited by a pair of — TLM CODE BEGIN — and — TLM CODE END — tags.
  • Your FlexNet license server Host ID:
    • open http://localhost:8090/systeminfo in a web browser on the server machine.
    • If you have just installed lmadmin, you will be prompted to enter a name and a password: enter “admin” and “admin”.
    • Retrieve and copy the Ethernet Address.
  • A machine connected to the Internet to access TLM portal:
  1. Open TLM portal Activate menu: https://tlm-portal.com/operations/activate
  2. Paste all the activation code(s) you have received, including the — TLM CODE BEGIN — and — TLM CODE END — tags, and click on Continue:
  3. Enter your server Host ID, select the licenses you want to activate and enter the number of token to activate for each license. The number of token must be less than or equal to the number of token you have purchased. Click on Activate.
  4. The result of the activation is displayed. Click on Download License File. A license certificate license.dat file is generated. Save it at any location on the  file system of the server machine.

4.1.2 Importing a License Certificate on the License Server

Open http://localhost:8090/vendor in a web browser on the server machine, to set up your license server as follows:

  1. Click on Import License.
  2. Check Overwrite License File on License Server.
  3. Browse to select the license.dat certificate file you’ve generated with TLM portal 
  4. Click on Import License.        
  5. Click on the asglmd line.
  6. Click on Start if the vendor daemon is Down, or on Reread License Files if the vendor daemon is already Up.

4.2 Administering the vendor daemon

  1. The installed vendor daemons can be administered by mean of the web application located at http://localhost:8090/vendor
  2. You can check the status of the vendor daemon to determine if it is running or it is stopped.

Figure 12- Enter “Administer” mode for a vendor daemon

  1. You can Start, Stop, or Reread license files by clicking on the Administer link see Figure 10- Enter “Administer” mode for a vendor daemon. Asglmd is the vendor daemon used by ImageDev.
  2. When in Administer page you can:
    • Start the daemon if it is not running

Figure 13 – Press “Start” button to run vendor daemon

  • Stop the daemon or Reread the license file if the daemon is already running

Figure 14 – Buttons to control a running vendor daemon

  1. To restart the daemon, you have to Stop it and then Start it.

4.3 Checking the Status of your Licenses

At any time, you can check the status of your licenses. To view all available licenses, open http://localhost:8090/dashboard in a web browser and select Concurrent.

Open Inventor relies on the legacy mcslmd vendor daemon, while ImageDev is based on the new asglmd vendor daemon.

If you have installed the old mcslmd vendor daemon along with the new asglmd one you must select which vendor daemon to use before being able to see the related active licenses. This can be done by pressing the “Select” button after having chosen the desired vendor daemon in the FlexNet Publisher® Dashboard, see following figures.

Figure 6 – FlexNet Publisher® Dashboard view for mcslmd vendor daemon (some Open Inventor or < 2020.3 Avizo, Amira or Pergeos licenses are installed)

Figure 7 – FlexNet Publisher® Dashboard view for asglmd vendor daemon (no ImageDev license is installed)

Note: If you encounter any issue with your configuration, please check that lmadmin and mcslmd/asglmd are allowed to communicate through the firewall.

4.4 Transferring your Licenses

Should you want to transfer some or all of your Thermo Scientific Toolkit licenses onto a different license server, please fill the license transfer request form.

Thermo Scientific Licensing will send you back an updated license file for your new license server. You can then install this license file on your server following the instructions of section Importing your updated License Certificate on the License Server.

4.5 Upgrading your Licenses

When a new version of a Thermo Scientific Toolkit application is released, you will need to upgrade the activated licenses on your FlexNet license server in order to allow client application users to run this new version.

Important: upgrades are only available for licenses in version 2021.1 or later. If you are upgrading from a version before 2021.1, first activate the license codes you have received by email when the version 2021.1 was released, then upgrade.

4.5.1 Updating your License Certificate

In order to update your license certificate you will need:

  • Your FlexNet license server Host ID and one of your licenses Order Line number. This information can be found in your server license file, and you can find the path to this file in the asglmd vendor daemon configuration:

    • Navigate to this path and open your license file.
    • Your license server Host ID is the string following the SERVER this_host keywords and your Order Line number is the string following the SN= keywords. If there are several licenses installed on your server, any Order Line number will do.
  • A machine connected to the Internet to access TLM portal:
    1. Open TLM portal Upgrade menu: https://tlm-portal.com/operations/upgrade.
    2. Enter your license server Host ID and one of your licenses Order Line Number. Click on Continue.
    3. Enter the version you want to upgrade to, select the licenses you want to upgrade and enter the number of token you want to upgrade for each license. The number of token to upgrade must be less or equal to the number of activated token. Click on Upgrade.
    4. The result of the upgrade is displayed. Click on Download License File to download your updated license file:

4.5.2 Importing your updated License Certificate on the License Server

Open http://localhost:8090/vendor in a web browser on the server machine, to set up your license server as follows:

  1. Click on Import License.
  2. Check Overwrite License File on License Server.
  3. Browse to select the license.dat certificate file you’ve received from the Licensing team or generated with TLM portal  
  4. Click on Import License.        
  5. Click on the asglmd line.
  6. Click on Start if the vendor daemon is Down, or on Reread License Files if the vendor daemon is already Up.

4.6 Reactivating your Renewable Licenses

Thermo Scientific Toolkit can be sold as yearly renewable subscriptions. In this case, delivered licenses are time-limited and will expire, usually after one year.
Upon license expiration, each client application will not be able to run anymore.
Assuming that the subscription has been renewed, you will need to reactivate these licenses to take the updated expiration date into account.

Important: the reactivation steps detailed below cannot be performed earlier than 14 days before your licenses expiration.

4.6.1 Updating your License Certificate

In order to update your license certificate you will need:

  • Your FlexNet license server Host ID and one of your licenses Order Line number. This information can be found in your server license file, and you can find the path to this file in the asglmd vendor daemon configuration:

    • Navigate to this path and open your license file.
    • Your license server Host ID is the string following the SERVER this_host keywords and your Order Line number is the string following the SN= keywords. If there are several licenses installed on your server, any Order Line number will do.
  • A machine connected to the Internet to access TLM portal:
    1. Open TLM portal Reactivate menu: https://tlm-portal.com/operations/reactivate.
    2. Enter your license server Host ID and one of your licenses Order Line Number. Click on Continue.
    3. Select the licenses you want to reactivate and enter the number of token you want to reactivate for each license. The number of token to reactivate must be less or equal to the number of activated token. Click on Reactivate.
    4. The result of the reactivation is displayed. Click on Download License File to download your updated license file:

4.6.2 Importing your updated License Certificate on the License Server

Open http://localhost:8090/vendor in a web browser on the server machine, to set up your license server as follows:

  1. Click on Import License.
  2. Check Overwrite License File on License Server.
  3. Browse to select the license.dat certificate file you’ve received from the Licensing team or generated with TLM portal  
  4. Click on Import License.        
  5. Click on the asglmd line.
  6. Click on Start if the vendor daemon is Down, or on Reread License Files if the vendor daemon is already Up.

5. Additional License Control / Borrowing

5.1 Nomad Licensing / Borrowing

To use our products on a system that is not always connected to the license server, you will need to borrow a license while you are connected to the server, then disconnect from the server. This kind of licensing is what we call nomad licensing. However, borrowing a license decreases the number of available licenses on the network.

Detailed instructions are given below. We will assume that standard FlexNet licensing, i.e., not borrowing, is already working correctly.

  1. On the client machine, in a command prompt/terminal, use the cd command to go to the directory where the FlexNet utilities are installed.
    By default, these utilities are found on the client machine in:
    <application_install_dir>/share/license/FLEXnet
  2. To initiate borrowing, execute the lmutil program on the client as follows:

  lmutil lmborrow asglmd* <enddate> <time>


where:
  <enddate> Enddate is the date the license is to be returned in dd-mmm-yyyy format.
  <time> Time is optional and is specified in 24-hour format (hh:mm) in the FlexEnabled application’s local time.
If time is unspecified, the checkout lasts until the end of the given end date.
For example:

             lmutil lmborrow asglmd* 16-jan-2007 13:00

  1. Start the product, then use all of the extensions that you want to borrow.
  2. Disconnect from the network.
  3. Exit the product and confirm that you can restart it and use all of the borrowed extensions.

To print information about borrowed features, issue the following command on the machine that borrowed the features:

             lmutil lmborrow -status

Note: For more information, please refer to FlexNet Publisher – License Administration Guide chapter 7 “License Models”, section “License Borrowing with BORROW“.

5.2 Additional License Controls

Additional controls on floating licenses can be specified in an options file.
This can be done, for instance, by creating an asglmd.opt* options file in the same directory as your license file (i.e., <lmadmin install directory>/licenses/asglmd*)

The most important operating parameters are:

  • Limit the number of tokens that can be borrowed:
    Example: The customer wants to reserve 60 tokens out of 100 total tokens. That leaves 40 tokens available to be borrowed.
    Add a     BORROW_LOWWATER line:
    BORROW_LOWWATER <Product Name> 60
  • Limit the number of days a token can be borrowed:
    Example: One week (7 days x 24 hours = 168 hours).
    Add a     MAX_BORROW_HOURS line:
    MAX_BORROW_HOURS <Product Name> 168
  • Specify who is allowed to borrow:
    • a user
      INCLUDE_BORROW <Product Name> USER Jim
    • a group of users
      INCLUDE_BORROW <Product Name> GROUP project_dev
    • a computer
      INCLUDE_BORROW <Product Name> HOST host_name
    • a group of computers
      INCLUDE_BORROW <Product Name> HOST_GROUP computer_group
  • Specify who is not allowed to borrow:
    • a user
      EXCLUDE_BORROW <Product Name> USER Jim
    • a group of users
      EXCLUDE_BORROW <Product Name> GROUP project_dev
    • a computer
      EXCLUDE_BORROW <Product Name> HOST host_name
    • a group of computers
      EXCLUDE_BORROW <Product Name> HOST_GROUP computer_group
  • Defining groups:
    • Group of users:
      GROUP project_dev Jim Mike Bob
    • Group of computers:
      HOST_GROUP computer_group host1 host2 host3
  • Reserving tokens:
    Tokens can be reserved for specific users groups or computers.
  • Reserve 10 tokens for a user:
    RESERVE 10 <Product Name> USER Jim
  • Reserve 10 tokens for a group of users:
    RESERVE 10 <Product Name> GROUP project_dev
  • Reserve 10 tokens for a computer:
    RESERVE 10 <Product Name> HOST host1
  • Reserve 10 tokens for a group of computers:
    RESERVE 10 <Product Name> HOST_GROUP computer_group
  • Setting access permissions:
    You can control who is allowed to use a product using the INCLUDE / EXCLUDE commands.
  • Who is allowed to use a product:
    INCLUDE <Product Name> USER Jim
    Can be used for     GROUP, HOST and HOST_GROUP as described above.
  • Who is not allowed to use a product:
    EXCLUDE <Product Name> USER Mike

To validate these new options, you must perform the following actions:

  1. Open http://localhost:8090/vendor in a web browser.
  2. Click on the asglmd* line.
  3. Click on Reread License Files.
  4. Restart the vendor daemon (see 4.3 Administering the vendor daemon)

Note: For more information, please refer to FlexNet Publisher – License Administration Guide chapter 13, section “Managing the Options File“.

6. Upgrading the FlexNet License Server

When a new version of the Thermo Scientific FlexNet tools is released, you will need to update your FlexNet license server.

Before upgrading, stop lmadmin service:

  • Open http://localhost:8090/systeminfo in a web browser.
  • In the Server Configuration tab, click on the Stop Server button.

Do not run the 32-bit lmadmin and the 64-bit lmadmin on the same system. If you are upgrading from the 32-bit lmadmin to the 64-bit version, you must stop and uninstall the 32-bit lmadmin first.

Follow the installation and configuration procedure described above in the above section Install lmadmin as License server manager , then run the “import licenses” steps described below:

    1. Open http://localhost:8090/systeminfo in a web browser.
    2. In the Vendor Daemon Configuration tab, click on the Import License button.
    3. Select the license.dat file created for the previous installation.
    4. Check Overwrite License File on License Server and click on Import License.
    5. If asglmd (or mcslmd for old license) fails to start, please refer to FAQ – mcslmd Vendor Daemon Startup Troubleshooting Suggestions.

7. Management of licenses for Open Inventor and ImageDev

ImageDev requires the installation of a new vendor daemon (asglmd). If you want to manage a single FlexNet server hosting licenses for ImageDev and Open Inventor, then you need to install both the old (mcslmd) and the new vendor daemon on the same server. You must have stopped the lmgrd license server manager and installed version 11.16.6 or higher of the FlexNet tools on your system to host both vendor daemons. You can update you license server to 11.6.6 following those instructions:

  • 3. Install a FlexNet License Server

Make sure you install both the vendor daemons:

  • 3.4.2 Adding the asglmd Vendor Daemon to lmadmin
  • 3.4.3 Adding the mcslmd Vendor Daemon to lmadmin

Import your Open Inventor license file from previous installation (usually stored in <server_install_dir>/passwordServer.dat) and the ImageDev license file generated on TLM portal on the updated server (see Importing a License Certificate on the License Server).

Of course, you also have the option to keep the old FlexNet server along with the a new installed one. In this case the two servers must be hosted by different physical servers.

8. Troubleshooting

If you encounter technical problems with the installation and management of your FlexNet licensing server, please refer to the associated FAQ section.

For additional information, please refer to the FlexNet documentation.
The FlexNet Publisher – License Administration Guide contains a troubleshooting appendix.
If you need assistance getting your FlexNet licenses installed and operational, please contact our customer support group.

General Documentation
FAQ
ImageViz To ImageDev Porting Guide
ImageDev License Manager
FlexNet License Server Management

Legal
EULA (PDF)
Terms And Conditions (PDF)

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