What causes a license to stay open?

[Anonymous]

We have AutoCAD Architectural Desktop 2004 running on a network. We have
the FLEXLM License manager to manage our licenses. We have a 4 user license
sometimes a particular user will have control of 2 licenses. When you go to that
users machine they only have one instance of AutoCAD Arch. open. What causes a
license to stay open and how can I get rid of that open license with out
affecting other users?

Thanks,
George

[Anonymous]

George - information from our Licensing team:

There are a couple of things to mention.

Only one license will be consumed from the server when the request is coming
from the same client User and Host. In other words, the same user on the
same host can launch multiple sessions of ADT and will only consume one
license from the server. But if User 1 on Host A launches ADT and then User
2 logs onto Host A and launches ADT then two licenses will be used from the
server. So in the user scenario you've described, it is not clear how a
single session of ADT on a single machine with a single user logged on could
consume two licenses. Check to see if there are other usernames logged on
to that machine also running ADT.

As far as what causes a license to stay open, that depends on whether you
are using the new License Timeout feature or not. If not, a license will
remain checked out from the server so long as the session is open, whether
it is in being used or not. To account for the case of a session left open
on a workstation while not in use, the License Timeout feature was
introduced in 2004. With License Timeout, the system admin and define a
Timeout period in the Flexlm Options File on the license server. The
Timeout period they define is the amount of time a license can remain
checked out from the server while the app session is idle, or not in use.

If you find that open sessions of ADT are sitting on user workstations that
are not in use and are taking up licenses from their server, you should
create an Options File and set a License Timeout period. If a session
remains open and idle for a period of time greater than the Timeout period
defined in the Options File, the license will be reclaimed by the server.
When the user comes back to their workstation and tries to use ADT, the
License Manager will try to checkout another license for them. If one is
available, the product will run as though uninterrupted. If no license is
available, the user will get the standard shutdown / license not available
behavior.

Hope this helps,

Bill Glennie
Autodesk Building Solutions Division