Monthly Archives: March 2012

OpenLM Version 1.7 Screenshots

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EasyAdmin

The EasyAdmin user interface is accessible from any standard internet browser, e.g.:
Mozilla FireFox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera, Apple Safari & Google Chrome.

EasyAdmin Control Panel

The control panel allows users to get system status information in a single glance:

  • License server status.
  • OpenLM Broker status on each license server.
  • General statistics on license on daily and weekly license usage.
  • One-glance status of critical feature over multiple license servers.
  • Alerts system messages.

The control panel features a Windows-like interface that allows easy access and management of Windows on a standard browser interface.

OpenLM EasyAdmin – Licenses window

Start → Management → Licenses

The licenses window lists available licenses, and facilitates management of the organizational assets. A sophisticated sliding filter enables users to filter long lists easily.

OpenLM EasyAdmin supports advanced features like FLEXlm packages (As used by Autodesk that produce Autocad).
License Packages appear as boxed items.

Licenses with an upcoming expiration date are marked with a different color.

OpenLM EasyAdmin – License Servers window

Start → Management → License Servers

OpenLM version 1.7 supports Flexera FLEXlm/FLEXnet, IBM LUM, Sentinel SafeNet HASP, Sentinel SafeNet RMS, Reprise RLM, and DSLS license managers.

The license servers window gives an overview of the monitored license servers:

 

  • ‘LED’ indications show stable (green) or faulty (red) connection between the OpenLM Server and the license server (round) or OpenLM Broker component (rectangle).

  • Basic information regarding the current license usage and license borrowing status for each license manager

  • Start / Stop and Reread action buttons for each license manager.

 

OpenLM EasyAdmin – Active Products Window

Start → Management →  Active Products

The Active Products window lists all currently active sessions by user name, workstation, product & Feature name, start time, etc.

License managers may sometimes label licenses as occupied, when in fact they are idle and wasting expensive resources. The Active products window serves as an interface for authorized system managers to trace idle sessions, and retrieve licenses from any user when necessary.

For more information on Manual and Automatic idle license harvesting, please refer to these Application notes:

Application Note 1020: Manually Removing Licenses Using the EasyAdmin web application
Application Note 1005: Configuring OpenLM to close idle Licenses

OpenLM EasyAdmin Workstations window

Start → Users & Permissions →  Workstations

The Workstations window provides all the information a system administrator needs in order to manage workstations that are accessing licenses.
This information includes:

  • Hostname
  • IP Address
  • Last logged in user
  • Agent version (if applicable)
  • Online (Workstation is online or offline)
  • Idle time (User idle time)
  • Controlled (for supported systems)

OpenLM EasyAdmin – License Activity

Start → Reports → License Activity


The License Activity window is a very powerful tool that enables system administrators and managers to produce sophisticated reports, and track license activity of individual users. It lists all finished session according to User names, Groups name, Host name, IP, Project name, Feature name , usage time, etc.

OpenLM EasyAdmin – Released Licenses window

Start → Reports → Released Licenses

OpenLM is able to save and close idle sessions of certain applications we refer to as extension – supported applications (ESRI Desktop ArcGIS, Autodesk products and Matlab) The Released Licenses window reports all such license release (checked in) instances.

OpenLM EasyAdmin - Denials window

Start → Reports → Denials

OpenLM accumulates reports of license request denials.
It thus provides comprehensive exact information, which is required for establishing a correct license purchasing policy.

OpenLM EasyAdmin – License Usage

Start → Reports → License Usage

The license usage report is an account of peak feature usage per time resolution (minutes / hours / days / weeks). It allows system administrators to compare the actual license usage to the number of available licenses. A smart Filter enables users to build customized lists of licenses and get the accumulated usage on these licenses.

OpenLM EasyAdmin – Groups and Projects Usage

OpenLM enables organization to organize users according to groups and projects, and obtain the total usage time these groups very easily.
This could be done either manually, or by synchronizing the OpenLM database with the organization’s Active directory.
This functionality is often applied in order to implement a license usage charge-back billing policy.

Project Report

Start → Users & Permissions →  Projects Usage

Project reporting enables project-oriented companies to get license usage time according to the active project, as reported by the end user.

Group Report

Start → Users & Permissions →  Group Usage

Group reporting allows managers and system administrators to obtain license usage data according to groups.

 

General Statistics window

Start → Management → General Statistics

 

The general statistics screen gives usage information across the whole organization. This is a general parameter providing statistics over all license servers and licenses. It can only be used as a general measure of efficiency. Monitoring this value from day to day can help system administrators to recognize trends or problems.

Recent hour statistics:

  • The number of unique users of software licenses monitored by OpenLM over the previous (ended) hour.

  • The efficiency figure gives the total usage time in hours as a portion of the total potential work hours of software licenses that have been purchased by the organization.

Daily Statistics:

The daily statistics “Total Users” and “Efficiency” figures are an average of the hourly statistics within the current workday.

 

EasyAdmin Settings

Start → User Settings

The configured preferences in the “User settings” window effect the format of information as it is presented to the User.

Start → Administration

The configuration screens allow users to set their preferences.

Start → Administration → Working Hours

Working hours’ selection effects the statistical information which is calculated and presented to all system users.

 

Products / Packages window

Start → Administration → Products / Packages

The “Products/Packages” window enables users to define a meaningful product name to be displayed alongside a feature name.

It also facilitates the organization of licensed features in packages.

For more information on these capabilities, please refer to

Application Note 1022: Products and Packaged licenses in OpenLM

 

OpenLM Agent

The end user tool of OpenLM system improves license availability, empowers the user and provides advanced functionality.

OpenLM Agent functionality:

  1. Query  license manager status (and check who is using the license).
  2. Open documents that were closed by OpenLM (only supported for dedicated system like ESRI Desktop ArcGIS).
  3. Allows the user to set the active project (when projects are active).
  4. Gets the LM_PROJECT environment value and sends it to OpenLM Server.
  5. Provides license availability notifications.

OpenLM Agent is shown as an icon on the Windows system tray:

 The blue and white icon indicates connectivity to OpenLM Server.

 The grey icon indicates no connectivity to OpenLM Server.

 

OpenLM Agent - License Usage Information

The License Usage Information window is available to the end user.
The ability to query license availability from the end user workstation is a very important step towards improving license usability.
The license usage window displays the total number of used, borrowed, and available licenses.
Click on a row to get the complete list of active users who are currently drawing on that license.

 

OpenLM Agent – License usage information: “Who has my license ?”

This is what every FLEXlm user wants to know at any specific point in time. Now you can find that information quickly with a single click.

Whoever needs the use of that license at a particular time can now call the user who is occupying the license and request that it be released.

This feature on its own has proved to save a considerable amount of time for users and administrators, by facilitating faster access to licenses.

 

OpenLM Agent allows users to see who is currently running the floating license on their station, an important and useful feature for any system that incorporates floating licenses such as:

Autocad, Matlab, ESRI, AVEVA, Cadence, IntelliCAD, MathCAD, Pro-Engineer, Solidworks, and Synopsys.

It is also a powerful tool for systems with extensions, especially when there is a limited number of extensions to go around, and users tend to use them mostly for a short time span.

A click on the any of the users displays the users details as stored in OpenLM Users table.
These tables can be synchronized with an organization’s LDAP database: e.g.: Microsoft Active Directory.

OpenLM Agent – License available notification

When a user is denied a specific license, the OpenLM Server sends a notification to the user once the specific license becomes available again: 

OpenLM Agent – Project selection

OpenLM System also enables end users to choose the active projects:

OpenLM Agent Configuration Form

The OpenLM Agent Configuration form sets and tests the connection to an OpenLM server.
Note – this is the OpenLM server, NOT a license (e.g.: Flexera FLEXnet) server.

The Agent’s logging level may also be set here.
A “Silent Install” option is available for automatic distribution of the OpenLM Agent to all workstations in the network.

OpenLM Active Agent

The OpenLM Active agent boosts organizations’ license usage by actively retrieving idle licenses.
The Active Agent supports many different software products from various vendors, such as:

  • Autodesk software - Autocad, Revit, Electrical, Architecture, Mechanical, Map 3D, MEP, Navisworks etc.
  • ESRI -  ArcGIS  Desktop products: ArcView, ArcEditor, ArcInfo, Network Analyst, 3d Analyst, ArcGIS Data Interoperability, ArcGIS Data Reviewer, ArcGIS Spatial Analyst etc.
  • Matlab

The Extension provides additional functions, such as:

  1. Closing idle sessions when licenses are no longer in use.
  2. One-click reopening of closed projects.

When OpenLM saves and closes an idle session, it alerts the user with a notification message:

A single click on the bubble reopens the project exactly as it was before OpenLM closed it.
Also, right clicking the Active Agent icon, and selecting “Recently Closed Documents” displays all recently closed documents:

Click on one of the recently closed documents to reopen it.

OpenLM Server

The OpenLM Server is the hub component of the OpenLM Utilizer system.
It collects license usage information from various sources and stores it in a relational database.
The OpenLM Server is a Windows service that can manage and monitor multiple license servers, located in different time zones and running on different operating systems (UNIX, Linux, or Windows).

OpenLM Server Configuration Form – License Servers Tab

This tab enables system administrators to effectively configure and manage license servers via the OpenLM Server.

Version 1.7 supports the FLEXlm FLEXnet license manager and additional license servers like IBM LUM, Sentinel SafeNet HASP, Sentinel SafeNet RMS, Reprise RLM, and more.
The OpenLM server supports world-wide license server monitoring; It is important to specify the time zone of each server.
After introducing new license servers, it is recommended to click the “Check” button to verify that the OpenLM server is able to connect to the license server.

Free text display names are attached to each server for better identification.
Fail safe server (Triad configuration) may also be configured on this tab.

OpenLM Server Configuration Form – Advanced Tab

Advanced OpenLM Server settings include:

  • Option file management
  • Translate workstation names to IPs
  • Enable the OpenLM Role based permissions system
  • Logging level
  • miscellaneous.

OpenLM Server Configuration Form – Port settings Tab

The Openlm Server interfaces all other OpenLM peripheral modules via ports, which numbers are defined in this form.

 

OpenLM Server Configuration Form – Active Directory Tab

The OpenLM server can synchronize users and user groups with organizations’ LDAP Database (Microsoft Active Directory).
Group synchronization is complex; OpenLM provides multiple policies for such synchronizations.

OpenLM Server Configuration Form – Notifications Tab

The Notifications tab is extremely important!
These settings allow OpenLM to send error notifications, updates on new releases, and other important messages aimed at improving the license usage.

OpenLM Server Configuration Form – LM tools Tab

The LM tools tab holds the directories in which every license manager commands are located.

 

OpenLM Server Configuration Form – Projects Tab

The Projects tab configures miscellaneous properties OpenLM when working in projects; Logging project information, Minimal project usage time, etc.

 

OpenLM Server Configuration Form – Registration Tab

This tab serves to enter the OpenLM license key, for product registration.


FlexNet vulnerability: lmgrd Remote Code Execution

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Zero Day has reported that a security vulnerability has been discovered in FlexNet License Server Manager installations. This vulnerability enables attackers to execute arbitrary code on remote FlexNet License Server managers. Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability. The flaw was reported by Luigi Auriemma and Alexander Gavrun.

The specific flaw exists within lmgrd license server manager. lmgrd listens by default on TCP port 27000. A specially crafted packet sent to the server will cause a stack overflow allowing for remote code execution under the context of the server.

Flexera Software has issued an update to correct this vulnerability and also provided license administrators best practices for mitigating risk exposure.

More details can be found at:

http://www.flexerasoftware.com/pl/13057.htm

OpenLM Maintenance Release Version 1.7.2.5

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Version 1.7.2.5

Version 1.7.2.5 is a maintenance release to version 1.7. It contains some bug fixes to problems found in previous versions. We  recommend that users to whom these problems may be relevant to upgrade their system to this version.

Upgrading

In order to upgrade to version 1.7.2.5:

  1. Backup your DB file (Typically located in: C:\Program Files\OpenLM\OpenLM Server\db)
  2. Stop the OpenLM Server service
  3. Make sure ALL windows are closed; especially the services window.
  4. Install the new version on top of the existing one.

What’s new in version 1.7.2.5 ?

OpenLM Server:

  1. French version labels in EasyAdmin and OpenLM server corrected.
  2. Fix LM-X reading: Fix LMX multi-session reporting issue (Bug #415).
  3. Fix DSLS reading for SQLServer DB
  4. Add first name, last name to active products export (Bug #404)
  5. Correct OpenLM LightTPD path variable (Bug #396)

OpenLM Agent:

  1. Active Agent 1.7.1.1: Install extensions for every Autocad component on a workstation.
  2. Agent 1.7.1.2: Add updated French resources.

Automatically Release “Orphan” ArcGIS and Autodesk licenses

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Users of network licensed ESRI ArcGIS and Autodesk (AutoCAD) applications report cases in which licensed application were closed, but the licenses remained “hanging”, and were not returned to the license pool. Here is an example for such a condition.

This condition may be caused by broken communication between the FlexLM license server and the workstation on which the application is running, or any other “glitch” for that matter. The answer given by the vendors to this condition is that the system administrator should manually release the checked-out license via the license administrator tool or Flexera’s LMTOOLS UI.

But this is wrong.

This problem does not manifest in any apparent error message or visible notification, so this condition may persist indefinitely. Because of that:

  • There is no way for manually and routinely tracking down and fixing this condition. This condition is only captured when there is an obvious “leak” in the amount of available licenses.
  • On top of not being able to utilize the full extent of the acquired software licenses, this condition may also cause exaggerated billing for users.

An automatic solution for the identifying and fixing this condition is therefore required, and is supplied by OpenLM. On the OpenLM EasyAdmin web application, there is a check box which is configured to do just that. It configures the OpenLM system to track down ArcGIS and Autodesk applications’ licenses which are checked out but not used, and retrieve them.

This option is set active by default. The configuration check box is found as follows:

  • Click the OpenLM ‘Start’ button, and select ‘Administration’. The ‘Administration’ window opens.
  • Select the “Active Agent” icon. The “Active Agent” window opens.
  • Select the “Extension dedicated” tab, and check the “Solve license manager errors” box.

That’s it. You wouldn’t have to worry about hanging “Orphaned” licenses for ArcGIS and Autodesk applications any more.

Note:
Support of this feature in ArcGIS 10 is subject to the stated in this paper.

ESRI ArcGIS 10 Service Pack 4

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ESRI has announced the release of ArcGIS 10 Service Pack 4. The new service pack is now available for download from ESRI’s patches and Service Packs download site. Download and installation of the new service pack is straightforward, and the software update runs seamlessly.

As far as OpenLM is concerned, Service Pack 4 does not incorporate fixes to the ArcGIS License Manager. Hence, transition to the new Service Pack should be transparent to OpenLM as a monitoring tool of floating licenses.

Please note that previous Service packs have included fixes to the ArcGIS License Manager. Here is a full list of the issues that were addressed and solved in ArcGIS 10 Service Pack 4, as well as in previous Service Packs.

FAQ: Flexera lmgrd log file is very big

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The lmgrd log file collects all license check out / check in activity. This log would continue to increase in size and as long as the licensed service is running.

The log is cleared when the licensed service is restarted.
This can be done via Flexera’s LMTOOLS UI.

On The “Services/License File” tab choose the licensed service. e.g.: Autocad.

On the “Config Services” tab – you can view the log (e.g: Autocad.log) and its path.

On the “Start/Stop/Reread” tab, use the marked buttons. This would clear the service log file (Autocad.log) and restart logging.

One of the advantages of the OpenLM system is that the accumulation of large amounts of data in this log file is made redundant. The OpenLM Broker is a component in OpenLM’s system which reads the licensed log file, and reports its content to the OpenLM server. There this information is processed and exhibited in a clear and negotiable manner.

 

 

Trouble Shoot Form: Agent Item 001 (Failed to close application via the “Close Application” button)

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Title Failed to close application via the “Close Application” button on the “Active Products” window
Category Agent and extensions
Date Mar 01, 2012
Handled by Rachel
Relevant Links (link to mantis item, docs, customer correspondence etc.)
Applies to license managers FLEXlm, FLEXera FLEXnet, IBM LUM, HASP, RLM, Sentinel RMS
Applies to license model Floating licenses, Network licenses, Concurrent licenses
Symptoms AutoCAD application was not closed after clicking the “Close Application” button on the “Active Products” window
Observed during investigation In the OpenLM Server log file: the server reports it “Could not find license id for product <product name>”.
Trouble shoot process 1. Create a role.
2. Assign all the necessary resources, that will allow viewing details, to the new role.
3. Add users as members of this role.
Solution Found (Found/Pending/Known Issue).

 

 

Symptoms

AutoCAD application was not closed after clicking the “Close Application” button on the “Active Products” window.

Some Background…

  • When required to shut down an application, EasyAdmin web application sends the “CloseApplication” request over to the OpenLM server.


  • The OpenLM server writes this Closure request to a table in the OpenLM database, and should receive a ‘Success’ response.


  • The Active Agent requests a periodic update in the “CycleInfo message”. It is informed it should shut down the application.


  • The OpenLM server then searches the look-up table in the database for a match between the required feature (Product) and a process name.


  • The problem is that process names tend to change. This causes the Agent not to recognize the process name, and the application fails to shut down.


Observed during investigation

Currently – there is no method of identifying this problem, other than inspecting the OpenLM Server logs. Please set the OpenLM Server logging level to ‘ALL’ , compress the entire log directory and send it to support@openlm.com.

Solution :

The solution to this issue is to update the OpenLM database, and fix the Look-up table so that the product would point to a correct process name.
This update is done through an XML file, which OpenLM needs to generate. This file should be run in the following way:

1. Get the XML file from OpenLM. Save it to a temporary directory.
2. On the OpenLM server configuration tool, select the ‘Advanced’ tab, and click the “Update products feature table” button. The  ”Update products features” window opens.
3. Click the “Update from file” radio button, and type in the xml file with its full path.
4. Click the ‘Update’ button, ‘Apply’ and ‘restart server’.

See the following image for clarification.