FLEXlm Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Introduction to FLEXlm
Q1.1 What is FLEXlm?
Q1.2 What is a license file, daemon, lmgrd, etc?
Q1.3 How does FLEXlm work?
Q1.4 Where do I go to download the most current version?
Q2. Hostids
Q2.1 How do I get the system hostid?
Q2.2 On HP700 the hostid seems to be blank. Why?
Q2.3 At some HP sites lmhostid gives an ethernet hostid, and at others a uname -i hostid. Why?
Q2.4 On NT, I'm getting a 0 hostid (or FFFFFFFF)--how do I fix this?
Q2.5 What are special Hostids?
Q3. FLEXlm Versions
Q3.1 How do I tell what version I'm using?
Q3.2 I have products from several companies at various FLEXlm version levels. Do I have to worry about how these versions work together?
Q3.3 I've received a new copy of a product from a vendor, and it uses a new version of FLEXlm. Is my old license file still valid?
Q3.4 I've received a new license file, and the format is different from the old one I had from the same vendor? Why? Are they compatible?
Q3.5 Does FLEXlm handle dates in the year 2000 and beyond?
Q3.6 What are the different lmgrx.dll versions?
Q3.7 How do versions of FLEXlm differ?
Q4. License File Locations
Q4.1 My application can't seem to find the license file. What do I do?
Q4.2 lmstat doesn't report all the features in my license file. Why?
Q4.3 I've received FLEXlm license files from 2 different companies. Do I have to combine them?
Q4.4 I want to combine license files. How do I do it?
Q4.5 When is it recommended to combine license files?
Q4.6 How do I set the location of the license file with an Environment Variable?
Q5. License File Contents
Q5.1 What are the components of a license file?
Q5.2 What does a demo license look like?
Q5.3 Is there any way to steal licenses by duplicating lines, etc.?
Q6. Using FLEXlm
Q6.1 How do I install a FLEXlm license file?
Q6.2 How do I start the FLEXlm license server?
Q6.3 I'm having trouble starting the license server in the Unix system bootup files. How can I get this to work?
Q6.4 My server refuses to start. I get the message `No licenses to serve'.
Q6.5 Does FLEXlm work across the internet?
Q6.6 Does FLEXlm work with Internet firewalls?
Q6.7 If my client dies, does the server free the license?
Q6.8 What happens when the license server dies?
Q6.9 I'm getting the error 'encryption code in license file is inconsistent' or 'invalid license key'. What does this mean?
Q6.10 How do you tell if a port is already in use?
Q6.11 On Solaris 2.4, why does it take 4 minutes to restart lmgrd?
Q6.12 Does FLEXlm require root permissions?
Q6.13 Is it ok to run
lmgrd
as `root' (Unix only)?
Q7. How FLEXlm Works.
Q7.1 What prevents me from changing a license file?
Q7.2 How hard is it to guess a license-key?
Q7.3 So, does that mean that FLEXlm is unbreakable.
Q7.4 How fast does a checkout occur?
Q7.5 Does FLEXlm licensing impose a heavy load on the network.
Q7.6 Does FLEXlm work with NFS?
Q7.7 Does FLEXlm work with ATM, ISDN, Token-Ring, etc.
Q7.8 Does FLEXlm work with subnets, fully-qualified names, multiple domains, etc.?
Q7.9 Does FLEXlm work with NIS and DNS?
Q7.10 Is the FLEXlm `display' the same as an X-Display?
Q7.11 We're using FLEXlm over a wide-area network. What can we do to improve performance?
Q8. Redundant Servers
Q8.1 What are FLEXlm redundant servers?
Q8.2 How do I start up redundant servers? Is there a time-limit for starting all the servers?
Q8.3 Why is a quorum of 2 servers required?
Q8.4 When are redundant servers recommended?
Q8.5 What hosts should be used for 3-server redundant servers?
Q8.6 When are redundant servers discouraged?
Q8.7 Is it OK to NFS-mount license files when using redundant servers?
Q8.8 How can the colon-separated list in $LM_LICENSE_FILE be used for redundancy?
Q8.9 Are there any drawbacks to using the colon-separated list for redundancy?
Q8.10 When is it recommended to use colon-separated list for redundancy rather than true redundant servers?
Q9. Common Debug Log errors
Q9.1 Retrying socket bind
Q9.2 License manager: can't initialize: Cannot find license file
Q9.3 Invalid license key (inconsistent encryption code for `f1')
Q9.4 MULTIPLE `vendor-daemon-name' servers running.
Q9.5 Vendor daemon can't talk to lmgrd
Q9.6 Vendor daemon died with status n...Since this is an unknown status, lmgrd will attempt to re-start the vendor daemon.
Q10. Common Application Startup Problems
Q10.1 Cannot find license file
Q10.2 No such feature exists
Q10.3 Cannot connect to license server
Q10.4 License server does not support this feature
Q10.5 What is WINSOCKX.DLL?
Q11. FLEXlm utilities (lmutil - lmstat, etc.)
Q11.1 How do I tell who's currently using a feature?
Q11.2 How do I see historical usage of a feature?
Q11.3 lmstat sometimes skips features, why?
Q11.4 How do I tell if I've typed in the license file correctly?
Q11.5 I'm getting `Cannot Connect' errors. How do I determine what's wrong?
Q11.6 lmremove doesn't seem to work: after freeing a license, it becomes checked out shortly after. Why?
Q11.7 How do I prevent users at my site from being able to use lmdown?
Q11.8 If I can't use lmdown, how do I shutdown the servers?
Q11.9 When I run lmdown on redundant servers, it doesn't seem to work. Why?
Q12. End-User Options File
Q12.1 How do I enable the Options file?
Q12.2 Why doesn't TIMEOUT work?
Q12.3 Is the Options GROUP the same as a Unix group (/etc/groups)?
Q12.4 I need to have more users in a GROUP - how can I get around the 240 character limitation?
Q12.5 I need a GROUP of hosts, not users.
Q12.6 What is REPORTLOG for?
Index
Copyright 1994-1998 Globetrotter Software, Inc.
September 24, 1998