Autodesk published the codes for version 2011 - the FLEXlm FEATURE name as shown in FLEXlm logs and reports.
Link to Autodesk article
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?linkID=9240657&id=15224763&siteID=123112
Archive for the ‘OpenLM’ Category
2011: FLEXlm FLEXnet® feature codes for Autodesk products
Monday, September 6th, 2010ArcGIS 10 FLEXlm License Borrowing
Monday, August 30th, 2010The release of ESRI ArcGIS software version 10 also includes an upgrade of the FLEXlm license manager to release 11.6.1. This upgrade enables the support for the long awaited FLEXlm borrowing functionality that allows user to convert a floating (concurrent) license to a node locked license for a predefined period of time.
The borrowing functionality is both an opportunity and a threat to the efficiency of license usage. Users can now take their tools to the field, gather the required information and edit it on-site. By that they can highly improve their efficiency.
On the other hand users may borrow licenses to network workstations, borrow licenses for no reason and other action that can highly reduce the usage efficiency of licenses. The tools provided by OpenLM for ESRI ArcGIS accompanied by a reasonable policy set by the management can help you avoid the risks of the FLEXlm license borrowing functionality.
This article describes the required steps to enable borrowing and how to use the borrowing functionality.
Enabling Borrowing (Done by Administrator)
Borrow settings are configured on License Manager’s machine.
Start –> ArcGis –> License Manager –> License Server Administrator
Start –> ArcGis –> License Manager –> License Server Administrator
Allow Borrowing - Enable/Disable the functionality
Max Borrow Time - Set the minimum time possible. Very long borrowing periods can highly compromise the license usage efficiency.
Audit Log - The location of the log.
Your settings are stored in Registry a registry branch on your license server:
HKLM\Software\ESRI\ArcGIS License Manager 10.0
The following keys can be found:
BORROW_ENABLED
MAX_BORROW_TIME
When you click “Apply”, license is re-read (Equal to the lmutil lmreread command. The benefit of this command is that system administrators can make changes without stopping the FLEXlm service).
Using Borrowing (Done by the borrowing user)
At the workstation, borrowing action is done by using the “ArcGis Administrator” tool. The workstation has to be connected to the network while borrowing.
Start the ArcGIS Administrator by using:
Start –> ArcGIS –> ArcGis Administrator
Select the Borrow/Return tab.
The user needs to check the feature he wants to borrow
After borrow is confirmed, the borrowed feature will not be available to other users and the system will show the return date:
At the ESRI Audit.log (which location was defined at first step) you can find borrow details:
Using the lmutil lmstat command FLEXlm shows this output:
Users of Viewer: (Total of 1 license issued; Total of 1 license in use)
“Viewer” v10.0, vendor: ARCGIS
floating license
ACTIVATED LICENSE(S) olm-arcgis10 ACTIVATION (v10.0) (192.168.1.248/27000 102), start Thu 8/12 15:15
In OpenLM Version 1.6 active products TAB:
With ESRI ARCGIS vendor daemon FLEXlm does not show the borrowing user, it writes the word “Activated License(s)”. Other software products that use FLEXlm report the user that actually borrowed the Feature.
Releasing the license back to the license pool
Releasing the license is easy. Make sure the machine is connected to the network, open ArcGIS Administrator and release the license. The license can be released even before the the target date.
If the borrowed FEATURE is not returned to the license pool by the user the borrowing will expire automatically on the due date and will be available to all network users.
Summary
ArcGIS Desktop version 10 features the long awaited feature of license borrowing. This functionality allows users to borrow licenses to their workstation and by that to convert a floating license to a node-locked license for a limited period of time. This functionality allows users to take their ArcGIS Desktop software to the field (ArcInfo, ArcEditor, ArcView). OpenLM for ESRI ArcGIS fully supports the borrowing functionality.
What is FLEXlm?
Monday, August 30th, 2010FLEXlm software is a license management solution that allows software vendors to limit the number of software seats available to their users. FLEXlm supports different licensing polices such as Floating (or Concurrent) and Node-Locked licenses.
These type of software systems are also called DRM Solutions (Digital Rights Management). Other software with the same functionality are SafeNet HASP, SafeNet RMS and IBM LUM.
FLEXlm is used by many software vendors. For example: ESRI, Autodesk, Mathworks, PTC, Ansys and more.
FLEXlm was originally a joint development by GLOBEtrotter Software and Highland Software in 1988. GLOBEtrotter was then acquired by Macrovision in 2000. And on 2008 it was sold to Acresso Software. The company name was changed and it is now called Flexera FlexNet Publisher.
FLEXlm License Usage Billing - Its Implementation in OpenLM Version 1.5.5
Sunday, August 29th, 2010The implementation of the usage billing policy in many organizations has proved to be a very profitable step. This article discusses the concept of FLEXlm billing and the usage of OpenLM Software in order to implement such a policy.
Many organizations use software systems that are licensed by Floating (concurrent) licenses. This type of license facilitates the organization to install an unlimited number of seats of the software. The number of licenses used concurrently are limited to a predefined number (i.e. set during the purchase). Many of the software systems licensed this way, use Flexera FLEXnet Publisher (commonly known as FLEXlm software). This type of licensing method is commonly used by software vendors that produce high-end software systems.
In many cases, such projects are initiated as a part of a License Server Consolidation project. In order to explain the project, let us use an imaginary company “Green Energy Ltd.” from the USA that has 3 subsidiaries worldwide: UK, Australia, and Japan. Each subsidiary manages several license servers with different software systems. Let us assume the following software inventory:
| Software |
USA |
UK |
Australia |
Japan |
| ESRI ArcGIS |
55 | 34 | 46 | 21 |
| Autodesk Autocad |
56 | 26 | 15 | 21 |
| PTC |
24 | 24 | 12 | 31 |
| Solidworks |
35 | 11 | 36 | 41 |
The usage diagrams produced from OpenLM EasyAdmin show that utilization of some of the licenses is high, while other licenses are practically not in use, depending on the time and location.
This chart demonstrates usage of ESRI ArcGIS licenses in USA alone:
The first step the company took was to consolidate all the licenses so that a single license server will serve all users worldwide. This table shows the license availability worldwide after the consolidation:
| Software |
Total Licenses |
| ESRI ArcGIS |
156 |
| Autodesk Autocad |
118 |
| PTC |
91 |
| Solidworks |
123 |
After the consolidation, the company checked the usage level of their licenses and found that the utilization is more balanced. But, some software systems are heavily used while others have a very low usage rate.
Thus, the licenses were better utilized when the company adopting the following two steps:
- Utilizing the consolidated license server now allows users to use the same licenses over the 24-hour period.
- The creation of a bigger pool of licenses provides a higher license availability.
Based on the usage reports, the company decided to purchase more licenses for some of the software systems, while cutting down the maintenance fee for other licenses that are under utilized.
The managers of some of the subsidiaries have complained that they pay for licenses they don’t use; the reason for which is that the maintenance costs are evenly distributed between the subsidiaries. In order to solve the problem, the company decided to implement a billing policy based on the actual usage of licenses by each subsidiary. The “Groups and Projects” extension to OpenLM System provides this solution. The company has created a Group for each subsidiary using the OpenLM Users Management software.
In order to avoid the need to manually relate users to the Groups, the system manager decided to utilize OpenLM’s ability to synchronize Active Directory users and groups with OpenLM Server database. Since the organizational belonging of each user is based on the structure of the organizational tree in AD, the manager chose the OU’s option and set the system to constantly synchronize the information with AD. This way, each new user will automatically be related to the correct subsidiary. OpenLM automatically updates the user’s belonging to a subsidiary, according to any change in the position.
Thus, the information now looks the same both in AD and in OpenLM Users Management interface.
After a month, the team was able to produce a usage report according to the different groups, thus easily producing a fair billing report for each group.
The UK subsidiary has decided to further enhance the accuracy of their project’s pricing. By implementing a project usage policy, they have measured their license usage of each project. They have created all their projects using OpenLM Users Management application, and have assigned each user to one or more projects. Users that were assigned to only one project did not have to report the active project. Users that belonged to more than one project, report the active project using the capabilities of OpenLM Agent software.
The information collected this way allowed Green Energy UK to price their projects better, taking the cost of expensive software usage into account.
This example provided an insight to the basics of Floating License Billing that can be implemented by OpenLM system. We can see that the capabilities of OpenLM actually enabled the server consolidation project, and also provided all the information needed for billing.
The highlights of OpenLM functionalities demonstrated in this article are:
- OpenLM’s ability to monitor the usage level of the organizational resources.
- OpenLM’s ability to synchronize OpenLM information with Active Directory in order to avoid manual work and to ensure data accuracy.
- OpenLM’s ability to easily provide usage information for different groups of users.
- OpenLM’s ability to track the usage of licenses for specific projects.
Conclusion
OpenLM Software provides all the needed tools for the implementation of a usage billing system in organization using license managers like FLEXlm (FLEXnet). IT Managers are now able to easily implement a usage billing system that can lower operational cost while improving license availability and reducing administration costs.
We have to emphasize that this is not a real world example. In reality, there are many other problems that were not taken into consideration here, for example, network limitations and many other factors.
OpenLM Channel in YouTube
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010OpenLM channel will provide information on OpenLM Software, tips, instructions and more.
OpenLM: How to export license inventory?
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010After installing OpenLM Server add all your license servers using OpenLM Server configuration form, license tab.
Then, execute OpenLM EasyAdmin2->Licenses (Windows start->OpenLM->EasyAdmin2)
Use the export button to create a CSV file that contains the license list:
OpenLM version 1.5.5 requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP 1
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010The new version of OpenLM (for FLEXlm/FLEXnet monitoring) requires the installation of .NET Framework 3.5 SP 1.
Instruction on how to make sure that the correct release is installed can be found here.
Workstations tab in EasyAdmin2 (Version 1.5.5)
Sunday, January 17th, 2010OpenLM’s workstation tab was completely updated in version 1.5.5 of OpenLM. This short article explains the new functionality.
Four new columns are introduced in the workstations panel: “IP Address“, “User idle time“, “Online” and “Controlled” that replaces the “Managed” column in earlier versions. These columns are added to “Hostname” and “Agent version“. “Last Heart Bit” column has been removed.
A short description of each column:
Hostname shows the workstation’s name as reported by FLEXlm or other supported license manager.
IP Address is collected when the system is set to resolve stations names (This is an optional setting at OpenLM Configuration form->Advanced).
Last User is the name of the username that was last active on this workstation. This value is only available when OpenLM Agent is distributed to end users workstations.
Agent Version column shows the version of the OpenLM Agent installed on this workstation. This information is very useful when distributing or updating agents on users workstations.
The User Idle Time column displays the number of seconds passed since the user was active on the workstation. This column will only display information when an agent is installed on the end user workstation.
The Online column has two possible values, online (green) or offline (gray). A workstation will always be offline if an agent is not installed on it. When an agent is installed, the workstation will be online when at least one user is logged in. It takes about five minutes before OpenLM switches a workstation’s status from online to offline or vise verse.
The Controlled column is only relevant to supported systems, at this stage, OpenLM for ESRI ArcGIS. This column indicates if OpenLM Extension is properly installed on the ESRI Desktop ArcGIS software. When OpenLM Extension communicates successfully with OpenLM server through OpenLM Agent then the workstation is controlled.
The information provided by the updated workstation tab in EasyAdmin2 interface allows system administrators and managers to control license activity. For example:
- Recognize users that are idle and consume a floating license.
- Recognize unauthorized access to the floating licenses.
- Locate workstation that does not have OpenLM installed.
- Locate uncontrolled installations of ESRI ArcGIS Desktop software.
- Control the distribution of OpenLM Agent to end users workstations.
- Etc…
FLEXlm (FLEXnet) License borrowing and ArcGIS Desktop 9.4
Sunday, December 6th, 2009ESRI says that they might support FLEXlm license borrowing in version 9.4 of ESRI ArcGIS Desktop. This borrowing functionality is already supported by many software systems licensed by FLEXlm. For example Autodesk supports this functionality for years now. The ESRI user community is waiting for this functionality for long and we hope that it will be included with version 9.4 of ArcGIS.
The borrowing functionality allows users to borrow a license from the license server for a predefined period of time. During this period the license will only be available on a specific workstation. The FLEXlm license server will have less licenses to serve until the license is returned back to the FLEXlm license pool. Borrowing is actually converting a floating license to a node locked license for a specific period of time.
The main use for the FLEXlm borrowing functionality is to take a license out to the field. For example, the worker needs the ArcInfo license in the field in order to collect information and show it to the customer. The user can use the “FLEXlm lmborrow utility” application to borrow the concurrent license (floating) from the network to his laptop computer. By doing that the license is temporary converted from a concurrent license to a node locked license and the worker is able to use the license on the field. At the end of the borrowing period the license will not be available on the laptop computer, it will be available again as a concurrent license on the network. The user can also return the license to the server before the end of the borrowing system.
The FLEXlm license borrowing functionality is a very useful functionality that allows user the flexibility to use the FLEXlm licensed software on mobile devices that are not connected to the network. The problem with this technology is that in many cases it is misused by users and by that reduce the usage efficiency of the whole company. Some examples:
- A user borrows a FLEXlm license to his laptop computer but the actual usage during the borrowing period is minimal.
- A user borrows a license from the FLEXlm license server to his personal workstation and by that, a floating license is converted to a node locked license.
- A user borrows a license to a mobile device to a longer period then required. The user is now using two licenses, one for is network workstation and the other on the mobile device (The borrowed license).
The management of borrowed licenses can be done easily using OpenLM system functionality. The system displays borrowed licenses, borrowing date, return date and all other information needed in order to manage a FLEXlm server that allows license borrowing.
The system administrator can control license borrowing activity using the FLEXlm Option file. There are various options that allow the system administrator to limit the misuse of this functionality. The options are:
- Set aside a specified number of licenses that cannot be borrowed.
- Specify who can borrow licenses for a specific product.
- Specify who cannot borrow licenses for a specific product.
- Specify the maximum borrow period for a specific product.
OpenLM version 1.5.6 will allow system administrators to manage all these options and other FLEXlm Option file functionality using a convenient web based interface.
OpenLM for ESRI ArcGIS features a smart license release functionality that assures a very efficient usage of ESRI ArcGIS Desktop licenses. This functionality is also supported with FLEXlm servers that allow license borrowing. OpenLM for ESRI ArcGIS recognizes the reduction in the number of available license and provide the functionality for the updated number of licenses.
It is the responsibility of the system administrator to force a rational usage of the organization resources, in this case - the floating licenses. A misuse of this functionality can cause a bogus lack of licenses that can cause a purchase of unneeded licenses or a reduction of the company efficiency because of the lack of licenses. OpenLM 1.5.6 Option file edit interface allows the system administrator to easily enforce a policy that assures license availability for network users while allowing the flexibility of borrowing licenses to mobile devices when there is a need.
Please take into account that the ESRI ArcGIS version 9.4 was not released yet and the ESRI implementation of FLEXlm license borrowing may be slightly different from what we described here.
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
Two additional software systems supported by OpenLM:
Geomatic - Geomagic software enables engineers and designers to transform scan data from physical objects into highly accurate digital models.
Autodesk AliasStudio - Autodesk® Alias® Design software is for consumer product designers who control the entire design process—from ideation to the final surfaces that are passed to engineering.