2011 license - would a single server setup look at port 27000 ?

[sielim]

Our license file is supposed to cover both 2009 & 2011 products.

We requested a redundant license file but we could not get it working and decided it was not worth the trouble.  So I sent the old one back to them, asking for just a single server license.

Now, I believe the license server has a problem - because a single license server setup would not be looking at port 27000 - it should just look at 2080.  So - can anyone confirm if my suspision about the ports is correct or incorrect?  And is there any modification I could make to the license file to fix this?  I sent authcodes@autcad these status results and told them I thought there was a problem - and they didn't really address the issue - just told me to contact my reseller for support.  

Thanks in advance! 

Additional info: Server is Windows 2008, Client is Windows 7 64 bit.  We can't obtain a license from the client... ok - but when I check "Server Status" from the license server - it appears to have a problem....  i have changed our machine name to "servername" - otherwise, this is exactly what it says.

--------
Status
--------
Flexible License Manager status on Wed 7/28/2010 14:34

[Detecting lmgrd processes...]
License server status: 27000@servername
    License file(s) on servername: C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager\License\licensefile.lic:

servername: license server UP (MASTER) v11.7
    server: License server machine is down or not responding.
 See the system adminstrator about starting the license server system, or
 make sure you're referring to the right host (see LM_LICENSE_FILE).
Hostname:      server
License path:  27000@servername;
FLEXnet Licensing error:-96,7.  System Error: 11004 "WinSock: Valid name, but no record (NO_ADDRESS)"
For further information, refer to the FLEXnet Licensing documentation,
available at "www.acresso.com".

Vendor daemon status (on servername):

  adskflex: License server machine is down or not responding.
 See the system adminstrator about starting the license server system, or
 make sure you're referring to the right host (see LM_LICENSE_FILE).
Hostname:      server
License path:  27000@servername;
FLEXnet Licensing error:-96,7.  System Error: 11004 "WinSock: Valid name, but no record (NO_ADDRESS)"
For further information, refer to the FLEXnet Licensing documentation,
available at "www.acresso.com".
    sgiawd: No socket connection to license server manager.
License path:  27000@servername;
FLEXnet Licensing error:-7,96.  System Error: 11004 ""
For further information, refer to the FLEXnet Licensing documentation,
available at "www.acresso.com".

[TravisNave]

The existence of both the -96 and -7 errors tells me that there is likely a connectivity issue due to a local firewall or even a minor IPv6 compatibility issue. 

The adskflex vendor does indeed connect on 2080 so you will need to make sure that the port is open.  The clients also connect on ports 27000 thru 27009.  My recommendation is to open those ports as well as create application exceptions for all four NLM files (lmgrd, lmutil, lmtools, and adskflex.)  Generally speaking, I recommend not using the Windows Firewall on your server, but that is up to your own policy. 

Furthermore, you might want to doublecheck that your license file matches the hostname and the ethernet MAC address listed in the System Settings tab of LMTOOLS.  If there is a typo, this is not going to work and you will have to get a license from Autodesk again.  Make sure that both checkboxes are checked on Config Services and save the service.  Stop and restart the service from the Start/Stop/Reread tab.  Check the server status after that.

Post your results. 

[sielim]

Thanks for the response - but that was not the problem.  I added all the ports and all 4 programs to the firewall exception list.  The only difference between the mac address  in the license file vs. the mac address in the mac address in the 'system settings' tab of LMTOOLS is that the 'system settings' tab lists 2 mac addresses - ( as one for our private network ) - but the mac address in our license file IS the right MAC address for the ip adddress/network card we're using.

But could it really be a firewall issue?  This is for a single license server - and this is where I'm running the lmutils from - so.. is it basiclly saying this license server can't see itself?  That's why I think it's confused... 1st it says it's "UP" - then it appears to be looking for itself again ( ? )

[TravisNave]

Well, I've seen that happen on Windows 7 and 2008 machines before.  Here's what you might try:

In LMTOOLS check the box to ignore the system variables on the first tab.  Then edit your HOSTS file under C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc so that your IPv4 address on your registered MAC points to your server hostname.  You might also need to remove the :1 localhost and make it the 127.0.0.1 instead.   Then ping the server itself by hostname and ensure that it responds with that IPv4 address and not an IPv6 or :1 loopback address.  At that point, restart your NLM service and check the status again. 

[sielim]

Thanks - but we're still not quite there.  But the error message changed when I made the following changes...

I noticed a couple lines near the end of our file were...
( where "server" was actually the word "server", not our server name )
 SERVER server OURMACADDRESS 7111
 VENDOR sgiawd
So I changed "server" to our real server name...
 SERVER our_server_name OURMACADDRESS 7111
 VENDOR sgiawd
So I also opened up port 7111 and restarted - the status was different-containing our ip address...

As far a pinging: when I ping our machine by host name...
 ping our_server_name;
returns...
 pinging our_server_name.our.domain [ip.address.here] with 32 bytes of data
 reply from ip.address.here
our hosts file already does have:
127.0.0.1  localhost

in the status below, XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is the server's correct ip address..

--------
Status
--------
Flexible License Manager status on Thu 7/29/2010 11:20

[Detecting lmgrd processes...]
License server status: 27000@our_server_name
    License file(s) on our_server_name: C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager\License\our_file.lic:

our_server_name: license server UP (MASTER) v11.7
our_server_name: Cannot connect to license server system.
 The license server manager (lmgrd) has not been started yet,
 the wrong port@host or license file is being used, or the
 port or hostname in the license file has been changed.
Server name:   XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
License path:  27000@our_server_name;
FLEXnet Licensing error:-15,10.  System Error: 10061 "WinSock: Connection refused"
For further information, refer to the FLEXnet Licensing documentation,
available at "www.acresso.com".

Vendor daemon status (on our_server_name):

  adskflex: Cannot connect to license server system.
 The license server manager (lmgrd) has not been started yet,
 the wrong port@host or license file is being used, or the
 port or hostname in the license file has been changed.
Server name:   XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
License path:  27000@our_server_name;
FLEXnet Licensing error:-15,10.  System Error: 10061 "WinSock: Connection refused"
For further information, refer to the FLEXnet Licensing documentation,
available at "www.acresso.com".
    sgiawd: No socket connection to license server manager.
License path:  27000@our_server_name;
FLEXnet Licensing error:-7,96.  System Error: 10061 ""
For further information, refer to the FLEXnet Licensing documentation,
available at "www.acresso.com".

[TravisNave]

You cannot make modifications to the license file and have them work.  It will invalidate the file, especially if changing the hostname.  You can try one trick and that is to change the name of the server in the file to THIS_HOST and resave it.  Otherwise you will absolutely need a new license file from Autodesk. 

[sielim]

Just to clarify - I was under the impression you could change the server/machine name in the license file - you just can not change the MAC address.  Is that correct?  I did not change any MAC address information - only the server/machine name.

[TravisNave]

Technically you cannot change any text in the license file. However, there are instances where you can change just the hostname portion to a variable name THIS_HOST, but that is the only modification that will not break the NLM.  It is also an unsupported modification, however it may work for you in this situation... especially if your original file did not actually match your hostname.  Changing it to anything else or changing any other portion will invalidate the file and you will be required to request a new one from Autodesk. 

[Victor.Rossi]

Resetting the autocad license server every year is always an adventure, so here are some notes that will hopefully help someone else out there.  Regarding the FlexLM model, the internet still has some archaic information and certain parts are unintuitive. 

examples

     lmtools configs using services but references a license file.

     the lmgrd and license entries in the registry point to a directory, but apparently it is ignored

     some vendors supply lmutils.exe, lmgrd.exe and lmtools.exe with alterations, some don't

Sept-2010 AutoCAD License Server Troubleshooting

actual breakthrough solution was found by elevated command session and manually trying to run lmgrd.exe
to run it in a command window, one must use lmgrd -z
this indicated that the flexnet systems was trying to use a file called license.dat under c:\flexlm\
neither the file or directory existed
creating c:\flexlm\ directory && copying/renaming the autocad license file to license.dat solved all problems
****
During my increasing journey of desperation, i tried the following which were not undone, but i suspect they are unneccessary

-Check that the FlexLM Service 1 is working under services & is set to automatic [winflagkey+R, type services.msc]
-upgraded the lmutils, lmgrd and lmtools executables under c:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager
-added this directory to the system path
-added firewall exceptions & finally turned it off entirely
-checked that the lmgrd and license entries in the registry point to the above directory [apparently ignored by lmgrd]

  registry entry is HKLM\Software\FlexLM License Manager\
-opened the license file [always save it and open a copy] & changed filename to ipaddress
-tested bothe the original license and copy with www.licenseparser.com
-searched in vain for a 2010 version of adskflex.exe both on acad media disk, on the internet & at autodesk.com
-after verifying the license file, the flexlm licensing model apparently causes the FlexLMsoftware to call the vendor daemon dskflex.exe], which apparently does not need updating to the current year.  in past years, my notes indicate that adskflex is not needed, but the command line feedback clearly shows it being started.