Installation Guide

Introduction

This guide provides instructions for installing and operating the Altair StarVision PRO product on supported platforms. Refer to the Altair Units Licensing Guide for procedures on connecting to the Altair Units licensing system. Altair StarVision PRO 2025 uses InstallAnywhere installers as its installation tool. InstallAnywhere provides the consistent look and feel of an installation wizard across all platforms for the Altair StarVision PRO product. To run the Altair StarVision PRO 2025 application, you need to connect the applications to the Altair License Management System 15.5.1 (or higher, using the latest version is recommended). Details of the installation and how to start the Altair License Manager can be found in the Altair License Management System 15.5.1 Installation and Administration Guide. The license packages are available on Altair One Marketplace.

Prepare to Install Altair StarVision PRO

Before starting installation, make sure you have everything you need.

Altair StarVision PRO image packages and Altair License Manager software, downloaded from Altair One Marketplace.

Tip	Altair recommends that you create an Altair One account and use it as your primary portal to access product downloads, documentation, a Knowledge Base, and customer support.

Access to an activated and running Altair License Manager 15.5.1 license server or a node locked license.
A compatible machine that contains the minimum hardware/software requirements to run Altair StarVision PRO.

The checksum for the Altair Silicon Debug Tools installer on Altair One Marketplace is in SHA-256 format. If the installers were downloaded or copied across the network, it is recommended that you verify the checksums of the installer. The SHA-256 checksum for the installer is posted on Altair One, so that you can compare the value. General steps for installing Altair StarVision PRO are:

Install and activate an Altair License Manager (the latest version) if one does not already exist. Alternatively, use a node locked license.
Install Altair StarVision PRO on the designated machine(s).
Set an environment variable that points the Altair StarVision PRO application to an activated and running Altair license server. Alternatively, set the environment variable to point to a node locked license.
The software to install the Altair License Manager is a separate package. Download the Altair license package from the Altair website and follow the Altair License Management System 15.5.1 Installation and Operating Guide to install and start the Altair License Manager properly.

Download from Altair One Marketplace

Instructions on how to download Altair products from Altair One Marketplace. Before you begin, go to the Altair One Marketplace site in a web browser and log in.

Type the name of the product in the search box and press Enter.
In the right pane on the screen, click the Download tab.
From the Suite Version drop-down menu, select a suite version.
From the Operating System drop-down menu, select a platform.
Click Download to the right of each software package you would like to download. The Altair Silicon Debug Tools Installer are listed under Related Downloads.

Install Altair StarVision PRO

Instructions for installing Altair StarVision PRO. Two procedures are necessary to enable Altair StarVision PRO. First, using the installation configuration you selected in Prepare to Install Altair StarVision PRO Product as a guide, install the Altair StarVision PRO software on your machine(s). Secondly, you must be able to point to an activated license server that allows the Altair StarVision PRO application to draw license units.

Install Altair StarVision PRO: Local Installation

Installation Files

The Windows installers have added the Altair Engineering, Inc. digital signatures for enhanced security.

Note	Make sure that the downloaded files have "read + execute" permissions before continuing with an installation. Use Windows Explorer file properties to change the permissions.

Windows (Local) Installation

Complete the following steps to extract and install the software.

Log in to the machine on which the software is to be installed, then place the downloaded files in a temporary directory.
Double-click the Altair StarVision PRO Product Installer executable file to start the installer.
The Altair StarVision PRO product is in English.
In the License Agreement panel, review the agreement, select the I accept the terms of the License Agreement check box, and click Next to proceed.
In the Introduction panel, click Next to continue.
In the Choose Install Folder panel, choose the Altair StarVision PRO install directory and click Next.
In the Change Shortcut Folder (Local) panel, choose a Start Menu name for the Altair StarVision PRO install and select whether desktop shortcuts are created. Click Next to continue.
In the Choose Install Set panel, select the products to install. Click Next to continue.
In the Pre-Installation Summary panel, review the Product Features list, Install Folder and disk space requirements. Click Install to continue.
Once the installation completes, click Done to exit the installer.

Linux Installation

Complete the following steps to extract and install the software. Altair StarVision PRO install directories with spaces are not supported on Linux.

Run the shell command sh with the installer binary as an argument.
The Altair StarVision PRO product is in English.
In the License Agreement panel, review the agreement, select the I accept the terms of the License Agreement check box, and click Next to proceed.
In the Introduction panel, click Next to continue.
In the Choose Install Folder panel, choose the Altair StarVision PRO install directory and click Next.
In the Choose Install Set panel, select the products to install. Click Next to continue.
In the Pre-Installation Summary panel, review the Product Features list, Install Folder and disk space requirements. Click Install to continue.
Once the installation completes, click Done to exit the installer.

Connect to the Altair License Management System 15.5.1

The Altair License Management System 15.5.1 (ALMS) provides a common units-based licensing model for all Altair software related to CAE, on-demand computing, and business intelligence.

The Altair License Management System 15.5.1 is based on X-Formation’s LM-X License Management System Version 5.

Requirements

In order for applications to use the ALMS, the environment variable, ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH, must point to the appropriate location. Multiple license paths are allowed and should be separated by a semicolon (;) on Windows and a colon (:) on Linux. The proper format for a network license location is port@hostname. If you are using a local license file, simply set the value to the full pathname of the file. A few examples of license paths:

On Windows:

ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH=6200@server.foo.bar.com
ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH=6200@srv1;6200@srv2;6200@srv3
ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH=c:\Program Files\Altair\Licenses\altair_lic.dat

On Linux:

ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH=6200@server.foo.bar.com
ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH=6200@srv1:6200@srv2:6200@srv3
ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH=/usr/local/altair/licenses/altair_lic.dat

For High Availability License (HAL) System and/or multiple servers setups, list the three servers in the order: primary; secondary; tertiary.

Examples of license paths:

BASH shell (.profile, .bashrc):

export ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH=6200@server.name.com

C shell (.tchsrc, .cshrc):

setenv ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH 6200@server.name.com

Node Locked Licenses

For node-locked license (a license that is locked to a local machine), set the environment variable, ALTAIR_LICENSE_PATH, to point to the appropriate location where the license file resides. The preferred method is to save your license to a location separate from Altair StarVision PRO installations and set the environment variable to point at this license.

Uninstall

This chapter covers the following:

Uninstall: Windows
Uninstall: Linux

Uninstall: Windows

The Altair StarVision PRO Product Uninstaller will remove all files from the install.

Note	Any modified files or added files, like the altair_lic.dat file, will also be removed from within that particular install location.

Backup any and all files you wish to save prior to running the uninstaller.

Choose one of the following methods:
- From the uninstalls folder of the StarVision PRO installation directory run the Uninstall executable.
- From the Control Panel, click Add/Remove or Uninstall a Program and double-click Altair StarVision PRO.
Follow the prompts to proceed with uninstallation.

Uninstall: Linux

Run the command rm -Rf install_directory to uninstall the product, where install_directory is where the Altair StarVision PRO installation you would like to remove resides.

Installation Notes (Legacy Version)

Introduction

In this Installation Notes Guide you will find download and setup instructions for the StarVision PRO software.
These notes also describe how you can setup the different license key mechanisms based on the FlexNet technology.

Overview

Installing the Altair Engineering, Inc. Software is very simple. Follow these steps to download, unpack and setup StarVision PRO.

Download the software
Unpack and Install the Software
Node-Locked vs. Floating Licenses
Get the Hostid
Install Licensing Software for a Floating License
Setting up the User Environment

Download the Software

Instructions on how to download Altair products from Altair One Marketplace. Before you begin, go to the Altair One Marketplace site in a web browser and log in.

Type the name of the product in the search box and press Enter.
In the right pane on the screen, click the Download tab.
From the Suite Version drop-down menu, select a suite version (make sure to select the legacy suite).
From the Operating System drop-down menu, select a platform.
Click Download to the right of each software package you would like to download. The Altair Silicon Debug Tools Installer are listed under Related Downloads.

Unpack and Install StarVision PRO

After downloading the package starvision-2025-PLATFORM for your platform, just unpack it in an empty directory of your choice, e.g. in /usr/local/altair:

mkdir /usr/local/altair
cd /usr/local/altair
gunzip -c starvision-2025-PLATFORM.tgz | tar xf -

This creates the directory starvision-2025. It contains the Altair Engineering, Inc. StarVision PRO software.

For the Windows platform a zip package and a setup.exe is provided.

No further installation is required except setting up the environment for all users.

Node-Locked vs. Floating Licenses

Node-Locked License

A 'node-locked license' is intended for a single user and is tied to one machine or dongle. The advantage is that you do not need to run a license server.

An example of a node-locked license file is given below:

FEATURE <FEATURE_NAME> dconcept 99.9 31-dec-2026 uncounted \
       VENDOR_STRING=0,uRVPSI HOSTID=12345678 NOTICE="Altair \
       Engineering" START=01-Jan-2023 TS_OK SIGN=043831664CDC

Floating License

A 'floating license' is intended to be shared in a network environment and allows an user to use a license from any machine that can access the license server. The license server and vendor daemon must be running on the machine whose hostname and Hostid are specified in the license key.

An example of a floating license file is given below:

SERVER <HOSTNAME> <HOSTID> 1700
VENDOR dconcept <install_dir>/PLATFORM/dconcept
USE_SERVER
FEATURE <FEATURE_NAME> dconcept 99.9 31-dec-2026 1 \
       VENDOR_STRING=0,FSYBVI NOTICE="Altair Engineering" \
       START=01-Jan-2023 SIGN=7BB1C0C4AA3A

Get the Hostid

We use Flexera's FlexNet software for license protection. To provide you with a license file, we need the "hostid" information of either your computer (node-locked license) or of your license server (floating license).

Using FlexNet

To get the FlexNet hostid, you must run the FlexNet tool lmutil with the argument lmhostid inside a terminal window (xterm on UNIX or "Command Prompt" on Windows). E.g.:

$ lmutil lmhostid
lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2013 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The FlexNet host ID of this machine is "0018f322ceb6"

In this example the hostid is 0018f322ceb6.

You can either use the lmutil tool that is part of the flexnet package you get on the StarVision PRO download site or you can download lmutil directly from the Flexera download page (registration is requested).

Note

On Windows you can use lmtools.exe, a graphical frontend for the licensing tools, as an alternative to lmutil.

This tool is also part of the flexnet package you get on the StarVision PRO download site or it can also be found at the Flexera download page.

If you prefer lmtools.exe, here is some help:

Start lmtools.exe and press the "hostid" button. The 2nd last line is a single hex number - that’s the hostid. However, if that field is 0 or ffffffffffff, or if you are unsure, please copy & paste all the output into the field "General comments" above. The best way to do copy & paste probably is: Use the "Save Text" button to save the output into a file and then use a text editor (e.g. Notepad) to open that file and then use the text editor’s copy & paste.

Alternative Method

You can start the StarVision PRO main binary (starvisionpro), if you do not have a license file installed, then an error window pops up and you can find the "hostid" for your machine at the end of the error text.

Please find below alternative methods to obtain the hostid for your system without running any third party software.

On Linux and Windows the MAC address ("Physical Address") of the network adapter is used as the hostid.

Solaris also provides an alternative method to get the hostid.

Linux

Start a terminal and type in the following to extract this information without running the lmutil binary:

/sbin/ifconfig -a | grep 'Hwaddr\|ether'
eth0 ... HWaddr 00:12:34:56:78:9A

Remove the colons (':') to get the hostid. In this example, the hostid is 00123456789A (the result is always 12 characters).

Note	The Linux `hostid` command reports a 6- or 8-character result that is not a valid hostid for the FlexNet license software.

Windows

The MAC address ("Physical Address") of the network adapter is used as the hostid.

Start a command prompt (Click Start › Run and type cmd) and type the following:

C:\> ipconfig -all
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
   ...
   Physical Address. . . . . . . : 00-50-56-B3-68-A5

Remove the hyphens ('-') to get the hostid. In this example, the hostid is 005056B368A5 (the result is always 12 characters).

Solaris

On Solaris, the hostid is similar to the hostname. To determine the hostid of a Solaris machine, the sysdef utility can be used to get this information.

Start a terminal and type in the following:

$ sysdef -h
*
* Hostid
*
  84c3c53a

The hostid utility is a shortcut command to quickly get the hostid.

Start a terminal and type in the following:

$ /usr/bin/hostid
84c3c53a

The result is the hostid and is always eight characters.

Install Licensing Software for a Floating License

The license server is usually managed by your system or license administrator. These Installation Notes provide some information about setting up a FlexNet floating license server for the Altair Engineering, Inc. tools.

These notes only cover UNIX platforms, however you can also setup a FlexNet floating license server running as a service on a Windows machine using the graphical frontend lmtools.exe.

License Server on UNIX

Download the FlexNet software package from the same location as the StarVision PRO software and unpack it on your license server machine.

If your license server machine already has the FlexNet server software (lmgrd and other FlexNet tools) installed and running, then you only need to add the "Altair Engineering, Inc." vendor daemon (dconcept). Go to the directory where you store FlexNet vendor daemons and add dconcept.

The following command extracts only the vendor daemon:

gunzip -c flexnet-11.16.3.tgz | \
     tar xf - "flexnet-11.16.3/*/dconcept"

If your license server machine does not have any FlexNet software installed, then you need to install the FlexNet software and the "Altair Engineering, Inc." vendor daemon. The following command extracts that software:

gunzip -c flexnet-11.16.3.tgz | \
    tar xf - flexnet-11.16.3

Store your license file license.dat on your license server machine, or merge its contents into your existing license.dat. Modify the VENDOR line for dconcept and enter the correct path to the Altair Engineering, Inc. vendor daemon executable (called dconcept).

Note	The vendor daemon TCP/IP port number, if not specified, is chosen by the operating system at run-time. On windows this procedure can result in a longer startup time for the application. So we recommend to specify a TCP/IP port number for `dconcept`, e.g. `port=1701`.

If lmgrd is already running, then you only need to read the license file again:

lmreread -c license.dat

If lmgrd is not running, then you should start it by:

lmgrd -c license.dat > lmgrd.log &

In both cases please check the log file lmgrd.log and verify that the license works:

lmdiag -c license.dat <FEATURE>

Replace <FEATURE> with e.g. starvision2pro.

Note	Check the IP port number in the `SERVER` line and make sure that all users need to specify that number in the `LM_LICENSE_FILE` environment variable.

Usually, you may want lmgrd to automatically start at boot time. For this, you must add a start script (or just the one line above) into the boot rc script of you system. Different UNIX systems are doing that differently - please ask your system administrator.

Setting up the User Environment

To start the StarVision PRO GUI and batch tools you need to set or extend the PATH variable and point to the platform dependent directory in the installation path.

export PATH
PATH=/usr/local/altair/starvision-2025/linux64:$PATH

The StarVision PRO software needs to checkout a license at startup time. You can either copy the license.dat file to the installation directory as /usr/local/altair/starvision-2025/license.dat or set/extend the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable and point to the license file:

export LM_LICENSE_FILE
LM_LICENSE_FILE=/path/to/license.dat

Note	Alternatively you can use the vendor daemon specific variable `DCONCEPT_LICENSE_FILE` to avoid conflicts with any other software also using `LM_LICENSE_FILE`.

You may want to setup the environment permanently. If you run the Bourne Shell (sh), bash, ksh, zsh or compatible, then the commands above are used to setup the environment to your $HOME/.profile or $HOME/.login file. Please refer to your operating system’s documentation for detailed instructions on how to permanently set environment variables.

On Windows you can set these environment variables either for the system or for the current user in the "System Properties" dialog accessible from the Control Panel (System › Advanced › Environment Variables). :leveloffset: -1