I currently maintain the CAD systems for several offices and as of this post, each office has its own standalone license server with its own licence file. A typical license file in any office might be used to host licenses for more than one Autodesk product (Civil 3D, IDSP, BDSP, Revit, etc). Each of these standalone license servers are scattered across several cities, but connectd via MPLS (WAN).
With it being "intern season", some offices are now meeting their limits on concurrent licenses while others are still seeing light use. At times, I have edited single user's licpath.lic files to pull a license fron a less congested server and this technique works effectively. The WAN is definitely quick enough to handle this minimal traffic. The only problem is that it can sometimes be like chasing a moving target and I don't like the idea of editing one licpath.lic file at a time.
Ideally, I'd like to simulate the distributed license server model by making use of the ADSKFLEX_LICENCE_FILE system variable and setting an order of precedence. Naturally, the local license server would be first in the list, followed by license server that I know have spare licenses. For example, in Dallas, server order might be @Dallas-Server;@Austin-Server;@Houston-Server and so on.
I've tried this out and it does seem to work. However, in many cases, an end user's Autodesk product will pull a license from a server that is second or third in the list even though the first server is local and has licenses to spare. Does anyone know why this might be happening? I've seen it happen with IDSP and its subproducts as well as BDSP and its subproducts.
I suppose that I could go to a true distributed license system and assign chunks of the same serial number to each office, but I'm not sure whether or not that would actually help. Logically, the technique that I'm testing now should work properly. I just can't figure out why the first server in the list is ignored more often than not.
Edit: All license servers are running FlexLM 11.11.0.0
That's a good question. I wonder if it has something to do with cascade? I think instead of cascading to other suites, it will first check for another server maybe?
DarrenP, you wanna weigh in on any thoughts?
does the log show any denied accesss to users?
DarrenP
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No, the log doesn't show any denied access.
Interestingly, in my small test, it appears to work fine in one direction but not the other.
On Dallas workstations, my list is like this: @Dallas-Server;@Austin-Server;@Houston-Server
As expected, licenses of BDSP are pulled from Dallas-Server first.
On Austin workstations, my list is like this: @Austin-Server;@Dallas-Server;@Houston-Server
These workstations tend to pull from @Dallas-Server first, regardless of whether it's placed first, second, or third in the list. When I drop Dallas from the list, Austin workstations pull from Austin-Server as expected.
The license files on each server are for the same generation of product (BDSP 2014).
DarrenP
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I actually haven't made it that far yet. Workstations in Houston are still using licpath.lic files.
It may also be worth noting that while the license files are for BDSP 2014, the desktop applications are all 2012 (AutoCAD MEP 2012, and Revit MEP 2012).
We mostly skipped 2013 in production and will be moving to 2014 in production soon. I just don't have deployments ready yet to test whether the adskdlex_license_file system variable works any better with 2014 desktop applications. It will be at least a few weeks until I'm ready to test that.
Working off of the previous poster's hypothesis, do you happen to know how cascading is observed using distributed servers?
I have this same sort of issue. Interestingly, I have defined a single server in the ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE and it still grabs a license from one of the remote license servers.
Has anyone found a solution?
I run autocad, revit and navis from 2011-2014.
You might check to see if you have a LICPATH.LIC file in the root of your Autodesk application folder. Might also check the registry.
All of the LICPATH.LIC files point to my local license server and there doesn't appear to be any license settings in the INI files.
My only thought is that it is in the registry somewhere. See this KB article, if you haven't already:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=14374530&linkID=9240617