What happens when the server dies is then up to the application.
What happens when the license server dies?įLEXlm applications send periodic heartbeats to the server to discover if it has died.
If the whole system crashes, then the license is not freed, and you should use 'lmremove' to free the license. UDP communications is normally only set by the end-user, so TCP should be assumed. If communications are UDP, then the license is freed after the UDP timeout, which is set by each vendor, but defaults to 45 minutes. Assuming communications is TCP, the license is automatically freed immediately. Yes, unless the client's whole system crashes.
If my client dies, does the server free the license? See Also: Section 2.2, 'License File Format', on page 10. However, your old applications (pre-FLEXlm v3.0) will not be able to use the new license file. FLEXlm products always understand older versions therefore, the pre-v3.0 files are understood by every FLEXlm version. 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?Īs of v3.0, FLEXlm has an optional new format for license files. Older FLEXlm license files are always valid with newer versions of FLEXlm. I've received a new copy of a product from a vendor, and it uses a new version of FLEXlm. In particular, some elements of FLEXlm didn't require certain patches, so a 2.4 lmgrd will work successfully with a 2.4b vendor daemon. The appended letter indicates a patch, and does NOT indicate any compatibility differences. Please ignore letters appended to FLEXlm versions, i.e., v2.4d. An older vendor daemon with a newer client will cause communication errors. If you've received 2 versions of a product from the same vendor, you must use the latest vendor daemon they sent you. If you've combined license files from 2 vendors, you must use the latest version of lmgrd. Lmgrd will always correctly support older versions of vendor daemons and applications, so it's always safe to use the latest version of lmgrd and the lmutil utilities. If you're not combining license files from different vendors, the simplest thing to do is make sure you use the tools (especially lmgrd) that are shipped by each vendor. Do I have to worry about how these versions work together? I have products from several companies at various FLEXlm version levels.
The date 1-jan-00 in a license key indicates that it is a "non-expiring" license, so it will continue working in the year 2100 and beyond. Will it continue working in the year 2100? Dates in the year 2000 and beyond must specify all 4 year digits. Dates in the 20th century (19xx) can be abbreviated to the last 2 digits of the year (xx), and use of this feature is quite widespread. The FLEXlm date format uses a 4-digit year. It's purely a matter of preference.ĭoes FLEXlm handle dates in the year 2000 and beyond? Many system administrators, especially for larger sites, prefer to combine license files to ease administration of FLEXlm licenses. When is it recommended to combine license files? Also, if the application is v6+, using 'dir/*.lic' for license file management behaves like combining licenses without physically combining them. This makes combining licenses more attractive than previously. With v6+ lmgrd/lmdown/lmreread, you can stop/reread/restart a single vendor daemon (of any FLEXlm version). Moreover, since lmgrd is a lightweight process, for sites without system administrators, this is often the simplest (and therefore recommended) way to proceed. It's perfectly OK to have any number of separate license files, with different lmgrd server processes supporting each file.
Each license file that has any 'counted' lines (the 'number of licenses' field is >0) requires a server. I've received FLEXlm license files from 2 different companies.
This page contains answers to common questions concerning FLEXlm handled by our customer support staff, along with some tips and tricks that we have found useful and presented here as questions.