Altair EEvision™

FlexNet™ Installation Guide

These Installation Notes provide information about installing a FlexNet license key for the Nlview® Widget Family and other Altair Engineering tools on all supported platforms. Altair Engineering software tools may include FlexNet Publisher code to protect licenses. If so, they need access to a “license.dat” file, or need a pointer to a FlexNet license server, which is normally obtained from the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE or DCONCEPT_LICENSE_FILE.
Some basic knowledge about Flexera Software's FlexNet Publisher is needed to understand the details.

Index

License types: floating vs. node-locked

There are two types of licenses available:

floating license
limited number of users, but machine independent.
This type of license is typically used in situations where the Nlview based software is going to be run on multiple machines. The number of concurrently checked-out licenses is limited. In addition to configure the clients, this setup requires the installation of a FlexNet License Server running on a machine connected through your local network. This document however, only describes the setup of the local client machine, as described in Installing FlexNet floating license.
node-locked license
unlimited number of users, but limited to a single machine.
This type of license is very easy to set up and is preferred in case the Nlview based software is going to be run on a single machine (the same machine the license is issued for). This setup boils down to simply copy the license.dat and to setting an environment variable, as described in Installing FlexNet node-locked license.

Obtaining a license key

FlexNet license keys are available through a local software distributor or directly from Altair Engineering (mailto:info@concept.de).

To request a network floating license
you must provide the FlexNet host ID (and optionally the host name) of the license server.
To request a node-locked license
you must provide the FlexNet host ID and host name of the machine, that will be running Nlview based software.

The FlexNet host ID is determined by the lmutil program provided with the FlexNet utility package. This is a separate package which is not part of the Nlview releases. After downloading and extracting this extra package (e.g., flexnet-11.16.tgz) you can find the lmutil program located in the platform specific subdirectory.
Example:

On UNIX:
user@host:~> cd /path/to/flexnet-11.16/linux64
user@host:/path/to/flexnet-11.16/linux64> lmutil lmhostid
lmutil – Copyright (c) 1989–2019 Flexera. All Rights Reserved.
The FlexNet host ID of this machine is "80877739"
On Windows:
Open a command prompt window (e.g., using Windows+R key and type "cmd"): 
C:\> cd C:\path\to\flexnet-11.16\win64
C:\path\to\flexnet-11.16\win64> lmutil.exe lmhostid
lmutil – Copyright (c) 1989–2019 Flexera. All Rights Reserved.
The FlexNet host ID of this machine is "005056b368a5"

Alternatively on Windows the lmtools.exe GUI program can be used to obtain the FlexNet host ID (requires Windows 7 or later). To do so, start flexnet-11.16\win64\lmtools.exe, select System Settings and press the Save HOSTID Info to a File button (this saves the information you see in this dialog into a text file).

Once you have provided your FlexNet host ID (and hostname) you will receive the license file (usually called license.dat).

Installing FlexNet node-locked license

If you have received a node-locked license, then you can start using the Nlview-based software without installing a FlexNet License Server.

Simply copy the license.dat file to a suitable location on your local machine (the machine, you have earlier obtained the FlexNet host ID from) and set the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE or DCONCEPT_LICENSE_FILE (with higher priority) to point to this license.dat.

Alternatively, copy the license.dat file to a default location on your local machine. The default locations are:

On UNIX:
exedir/license.dat:​exedir/../license.dat:​/usr/local/flexlm/license.dat
On Windows:
exedir/license.dat;​exedir/../license.dat;​C:/flexlm/license.dat
In the table above, the exedir stands for the directory of the executable, which is the directory, where the software's main executable is stored. This means, in addition to LM_LICENSE_FILE (and DCONCEPT_LICENSE_FILE), the Nlview-based software will (with lowest priority) also check for license.dat in those locations in a first-match manner. If it cannot internally compute the exedir on UNIX, then the current directory "." will be used as a replacement for exedir.

Installing FlexNet floating license

If you have received a floating license, then you need a FlexNet License Server running on a machine reachable via your existing TCP/IP-based network).

Forward the license.dat to your FlexNet License Server as described in the document Installing a FlexNet License Server.

On your local machine (where you are going to run the Nlview-based software on), you must set the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE or DCONCEPT_LICENSE_FILE (with higher priority) to (a) point to the License Server, or (b) point to a local copy of your license.dat file that itself points to your License Server machine.

For (a), set the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE to something like 1700@licserver (assuming licserver is the name of your FlexNet License Server running lmgrd listening on port 1700).

For (b), follow the same rules as for Installing FlexNet node-locked license (on the left side), to set the LM_LICENSE_FILE variable or to rely on the default locations for license.dat.

Setting the LM_LICENSE_FILE or DCONCEPT_LICENSE_FILE environment variable

The environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE (as well as the environment variable DCONCEPT_LICENSE_FILE) can be set to define the location of the license.dat file or to define a pointer to the License Server, whereas variable DCONCEPT_LICENSE_FILE is considered first (highest priority). This information is read by the local client machine, to check for a node-locked or floating license key.

On UNIX:
csh If you are running C-shell (csh), add a line like this to your ~/.login file: 
setenv LM_LICENSE_FILE 1700@licserver
or 
setenv LM_LICENSE_FILE /path/to/license.dat
sh
bash		 If you are running Bourne-Shell (sh) or compatible, add lines like these to your ~/.profile file: 
export LM_LICENSE_FILE
LM_LICENSE_FILE=1700@licserver
or 
LM_LICENSE_FILE=/path/to/license.dat
On Windows:
use the (advanced) "System Properties" dialog window to set the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE:
on XP/Vista: Windows+Pause ⇒ Advanced ⇒ Environment Variables
or: Windows+R ⇒ type: control sysdm.cpl and press enter ⇒ Advanced ⇒ Environment Variables
or: Start ⇒ Settings ⇒ Control Panel ⇒ System ⇒ Advanced ⇒ Environment Variables
on 7/8/10/11: Windows+R ⇒ type: SystemPropertiesAdvanced and press enter ⇒ Environment Variables

You can specify multiple FlexNet License Servers and/or license.dat files in a single LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable by separating them with ":" on UNIX and ";" on Windows. For example:

on UNIX: 
1700@licserver:/path/to/license.dat
on Windows: 
1700@licserver;C:\path\to\license.dat

Testing the FlexNet installation

After setting the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE or DCONCEPT_LICENSE_FILE you are ready to test the FlexNet installation.

The feature name for the Nlview Widget Family is nlview (the second word in the FEATURE line in the license.dat file you have received).
You can use the lmdiag option of the lmutil program to verify your FlexNet installation:

On UNIX:
user@host:~> cd /path/to/flexnet-11.16/linux64
user@host:/path/to/flexnet-11.16/linux64> lmutil lmdiag nlview
On Windows:
Open a command prompt window (e.g. using Windows+R key and type "cmd"): 
C:\> cd C:\path\to\flexnet-11.16\win64
C:\path\to\flexnet-11.16\win64> lmutil.exe lmdiag nlview
Alternatively, you can start the GUI program lmtools.exe. It is an easy-to-use testing tool for Windows: Open Server Diags tab, enter the feature name (e.g. nlview) and press button "Perform Diagnostics".

If the FlexNet server is correctly installed you should see an output similar to the following: 

lmutil – Copyright (c) 1989–2019 Flexera. All Rights Reserved.
FlexNet diagnostics on Thu 3/12/2020 13:11

-----------------------------------------------------
License file: 1700@licserver
-----------------------------------------------------
"nlview" v9.9, vendor: dconcept, expiry: 06-jan-2021
  vendor_string: 0,10e4ed01c8e,1bff
  License server: licserver
  floating license  expires: 06-jan-2021

This license can be checked out
-----------------------------------------------------

Troubleshooting FlexNet

FlexNet is a registered trademark of Flexera Software.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.