FlexLM vs FlexNet

[dlowe]

Hi all, I have a question. I am currently serving about 50 AutoCAD/Civil3D licenses with a FlexLM 10.8 installation that has been stable for some time on a Windows 2003 server that is used solely for license servers (it also runs AutoTURN's license server and a few others).

This same FlexLM installation also supportstwo other products (MathCAD and RiverTools). In the past I've had trouble trouble with upgrades to FlexLM or setting up new license files or services to work, and I'm reluctant to mess with it because the whole company is down if I screw up 🙂

We've recently upgraded a single-user version of ArcGIS to a single-use concurrent license, which requires FLEXnet 11.4.

ESRI tech support told me that I could install their FLEXnet license server on the same machine as the existing FlexLM installation and they could live peacefully side-by-side, but I have my doubts.

Does anyone have experience running FlexLM 10.8 and FLEXnet 11.4 side-by-side?

Thanks!

[TravisNave]

First, FlexNet and FlexLM are the same thing. Secondly, you should only be running one instance of the service. This is especially true if are running different versions. The last thing you want is two lmgrd.exe services running that are different versions. You'll run into a nice collection of issues spanning all of your products. Fun.
LMTOOLS can be configured to run multiple products and services. This can be done in a couple of different ways.
1. Combining license files, if compatible -or-
2. Configuring separate services from the Config Services tab
You will always want to run the latest version of the FlexLM for the newest product that you are running. FlexLM is backwards compatible. The latest version at the time of this email is 11.7.
So in summary, no, do not run a side-by-side of the NLM. Run the newest version and configure it appropriately.
If you need further assistance, please let me know.
Good luck!

[dlowe]

Thanks for the quick reply! Yeah I knew they were the same thing just changed the name. ESRI tech support assurred me they can run side-by-side but you have confirmed my suspicions about that,

I am currently running the 10.8 version with three services configured, for AutoCAD, MathCAD, and River Tools so maybe I just need to upgrade to 11.7 and then configure four services. As far as you know the license files should be compatabile, so I don't need to get new license files from AutoDesk? If that's the case I can do the upgrade after hours to minimize the possible impact.

Thanks again,

--Doug

[TravisNave]

Exactly. The update to 11.7 shouldn't affect your Autodesk software at all. Just add a 4th configuration. Since you've already done it three times before, this should be no big deal.
You can get the latest NLM here:
http://www.globes.com/support/fnp_utilities_download.htm
Keep in mind that this is only the 3 NLM files, but will not include any of the vendor daemon's that you might need for your products (i.e. adskflex.exe, etc.)
Good luck!

[dlowe]

Thanks!

Although setting up the fourth service isn't a big deal, I'm nervous every time I touch LMTOOLS because of the potential impact. Though I have set up the services I haven't done an upgrade of the actual FlexLM. But it looks like the "upgrade" just a matter of copying the new versions of lmtools.exe, lmutils.exe, and lmgrd.exe, then restarting the services. There's no Setup program or registry keys to mess with, right?

Also, is it safe to continue with the existing versions of the vendor daemons I have in place (eg adskflex.exe, etc)? My understanding is that they should be compatible.

Thanks again...

[TravisNave]

I don't blame you for being nervous. But you are correct. Stop all the services, replace the files, then restart all the services. As for your vendor daemons, the latest adskflex.exe is 11.5 but it is only necessary if you are running the Autodesk 2010 product line. So, there is no need to update it if it is not necessary. The NLM will be backwards compatible with your existing daemon versions. In fact, adskflex 10.8 ran up thru FlexLM 11.4.1 before it was updated to the 11.5 version on this release. You should be good to go on all of this.

[dlowe]

I'm still confused. I went to the web page http://www.globes.com/support/fnp_utilities_download.htm to download the files and found four downloads -- lmgrd, lmtools, and lmutils as separate small downloads, plus lmadmin.exe at 27MB. Is the lmadmin.exe file required?

[TravisNave]

No. The lmadmin.exe is a web-based NLM of FlexNet. It's completely separate from the other files. It is nice though, I run it in parallel to my LMTOOLS for testing.

[dlowe]

Oh cool, so is it like a web-based alternative to lmtools? I got sick of how hard the Server Status function of lmtools is to read, and I get a lot of requests from users such as "how is using Raster?" since we have a limited number of licenses. So I wrote an asp.net app that dumps the server status to a text file then formats it nicely for the web page so anyone can quickly see who is using what program. It's also integrated with our company in/out board so we can tell if someone is tying up a license even though they're out of the office.

[TravisNave]

Clever! I like that. In that case, give the lmadmin.exe a test and see if you like it. If not, you don't have to use it. If so, use it. But like any other NLM of the series, only run one of them -- not both. 😃