The instructions below are for Internet-connected license servers.   If your server cannot connect to the Internet or to FlexSim's main license server, try our offline/Manual XML license activation instructions.   Getting ready   If you're configuring a new license server, please stop now and follow the complete license server installation instructions.   This shorter guide just focuses on one piece of the installation instructions: license activation. We've broken the activation step out into this standalone article for convenience in subsequent licensing procedures, like upgrading your license server.   These instructions assume that:   you followed the steps outlined in our license server installation instructions including download of all required files and installation of the FlexNet Licensing Service; FlexSim's license server files were extracted to the location C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS.   Online vs XML/offline licensing   Online activation is faster and easier, so if your license server connects to the Internet, follow the instructions below to activate your seats to your server. If your server is not connected to the Internet, or communication with FlexSim's servers is blocked, you can try the offline/XML activation method.   Endpoints, protocols, firewalls   When your license server activates a license over the the Internet the FlexSim server activation utility communicates with one or more of the following FlexSim servers via HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443):   www.flexsim.com sw.flexsim.com sw1.flexsim.com license.flexsim.com   Your license server should be able to communicate across the Internet with these addresses in order to successfully activate your licenses online.   Activate your license   On your license server, run the flexsimserveractutil.exe program (C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS\flexsimserveractutil\flexsimserveractutil.exe) by right-clicking and selecting Run as Administrator.     In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, go to Connect > Activate.     Enter the Activation ID and Count (seat quantity) for your license.   NOTE: If you have a 20-seat license but want to host 12 seats on this server and 8 seats somewhere else, you can do so. Simply enter 12 for the Count value.   Press Activate.   After a few seconds, and several status messages, you should receive an indication of success.     Repeat the steps above to activate any other license codes you are hosting on this license server.   Reread license files   If this license activation follows a license return, either as part of upgrading the license on your license server or some other procedure, don't forget to reread license files.   If you have any questions or problems, please search our Answers Community for possible solutions. There is a good chance someone else has already asked your question. Still not finding what you're looking for? Submit a new question and we'll check it out. If you're including any confidential information, such as license codes, be sure to mark your question as private! You can also contact your local FlexSim distributor for live phone, web, or email help.

Preparation   You may want to brush up on how a license version is related to a product version.   When you understand what version of FlexSim will work with your license, download and install an appropriate software version for your license.     Find your licenses   From your FlexSim Account, click the Licenses link in the top menu. In the submenu, choose List. Expand the various product and version folders to find the Activation ID you wish to activate. An Activation ID looks similar to this example: yourcompany.com01-ABCDE-FGHIJ-KLMNO-FSENT21.2 Highlight and copy the Activation ID you will activate.   License your software   Open FlexSim Software. Click Help in the main menu. Choose License Activation. Paste your Activation ID into the field. Click the Activate button. Wait for an indication of success. Repeat for any other Activation ID you wish to activate to this computer.   Your license activates via the Internet, so make sure your computer is connected!   If your computer is offline or has trouble connecting to FlexSim's license server, try the Standalone - Activation - XML / Offline instructions.     If you have any questions or problems, please search our Answers Community for possible solutions. There is a good chance someone else has already asked your question.   Still not finding what you're looking for? Submit a new question and we'll check it out. Please do not include any confidential information, such as license codes, since anything posted on the forum is public! You can also contact your local FlexSim distributor for live phone, web, or email help.

Not sure about the differences between network and standalone licenses? No worries! Read on for an in-depth explanation of each license model: Standalone Licensing (Client-Activatable) Network Licensing (Server-Concurrent) You can also download our printable reference, which includes some example scenarios: Standalone vs Network Licensing.pdf. Standalone Licensing (Client-Activatable) Once a standalone license is activated to a PC it remains there permanently until it is returned. The PC could be rebooted, taken offline, or even have FlexSim uninstalled - the license remains on the PC. The steps to activate and return a license are user-accessible from within FlexSim software. Once FlexSim is installed, there are no special PC permissions required to activate or return licenses. See our licensing procedures article for instructions for managing your standalone licenses (activate, return, repair, upgrade). User-managed license movement The ability for the user to activate and return their license at will is a big advantage. It allows teams the freedom to share a license, while still giving individuals the freedom to take a license off-site or off-Internet. As long as a team sharing a license communicates effectively, the license can be passed around to whoever needs it at the moment, by returning the license from one PC and activating to another. History Log FlexSim's main license server logs a license's activation/return history, including who last activated (in case you need to contact someone about returning it!). The license history log can be viewed by any FlexSim account that can view the license. This includes the license owner and any account the owner has shared with. Your activation IDs (the license codes copied into FlexSim to activate your license) can be shared and visible - including the activation history - with every member of your group. See the Sharing tab on your FlexSim account's Licenses page. Trusted Storage Your standalone FlexSim licenses are activated to a special holding area on your computer called Trusted Storage, which exists outside and independently of FlexSim software. FlexSim's activation process will authenticate your computer with our main license server and store your license credentials in Trusted Storage, completely outside of any FlexSim installation. You could uninstall FlexSim, but your license will still reside in your computer's Trusted Storage. You would need to reinstall FlexSim in order to access the return functionality to move your license off of your computer. So, you can go ahead and use ANY version of FlexSim to activate ANY version of your license so that it will be stored in your computer's Trusted Storage. Whether the activated license will enable features in your version of the software is a separate question - and as a quick reminder, FlexSim's licenses are backward-compatible, meaning that if you have a 21.2 license, you can use that with any version of the software up to version 21.2.x, including all older versions back to 5.0. The crux is, your standalone license can be accessed by any version of FlexSim installed on your computer, regardless of what version was used when activating the license, because all versions just put your license into Trusted Storage, and all versions check license rights by reading out of Trusted Storage. Standalone pros User-level control of the license gives flexibility in who has the license at any given moment. FlexSim maintains the license server, so you don't have to (avoids complexity of installing, configuring, maintaining, and upgrading your own separate license server). Online tools to see the license history and who currently has the license (via your FlexSim Account). In-software auto-upgrades makes upgrading your license easy. Standalone cons People sharing the license need to coordinate who will use it when and remember to return the license when unused. Lost, stolen, or broken licenses require interaction with your local FlexSim rep to fix. Network Licensing (Server-Concurrent) Let's begin with an overview of the setup (simplified from our license server installation instructions😞 Provision a computer/VM to act as the license server. It should remain powered on and attached to the network at all times. Activate your FlexSim licenses to your local license server. Install and configure the license manager software. Configure firewalls and permissions on the server and/or network to allow communication with FlexSim client PCs. Next, the client PCs: Install FlexSim on the client PC. Configure licensing settings in the client software to point to the license server. Configure firewalls and permissions on the client PC and/or network to allow communication with the license server. The network connection between client and server must be maintained throughout use of FlexSim software. If the network connection breaks, FlexSim software reverts to the feature-limited Express mode. This sort of setup is great for computer labs at universities, for instance, where there are many client PCs, and license server hardware or virtual machine is easy to obtain or already exists. Also, where the client PCs are stationary and always on the network, and where network topology makes it easy for the clients to stay connected to the server. Opening FlexSim software requests a seat from the organization's license server. Closing the software returns the seat. Network pros Allows for management of many licenses (seats) from a single location. Some server settings are customizable (Options files can be quite powerful - see chapter 13). Licenses can never become lost or stranded on client PCs. If a client PC loses its connection to the server, the server will reclaim the seat after a timeout period (default timeout is 15 minutes). Network cons Complexity of installing, configuring, maintaining, and upgrading a separate license server. Client PCs must maintain a constant connection to the server. No online record of activations/returns (but you can examine your own raw server logs).

Failed to connect to the license server Have you ever encountered this error? ERROR: flxActAppActivationSend - (50041, 41143, 34) "Failed to connect to the license server or Operations server. Recover: check connection and that server is operational." This error indicates that your computer is not able to communicate with FlexSim's license server. If your computer is purposely air-gapped, please use the Manual XML licensing methods listed at the bottom of this article. Protocols, ports, and addresses A license activation or return will attempt to make HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) connections, currently with the following servers: license.flexsim.com www.flexsim.com sw.flexsim.com sw1.flexsim.com Make sure these communications are allowed on your network. To make sure you maintain compatibility with any possible future changes to our server configurations, consider configuring your network to allow communication with any *.flexsim.com subdomain. Troubleshooting Any of the following could prevent your FlexSim software from communicating with FlexSim's license servers: Your computer is air-gapped or otherwise blocked from communicating over the Internet. The FlexSim software is not allowed to communicate over the Internet. FlexSim's above-listed addresses are blocked on your network or computer. Your network communicates through a proxy service but you haven't configured the proxy server settings inside FlexSim. FlexSim's license server may be down due to some outage or maintenance. Let's look at solutions for each possibility: 1. No communication / connection issues If your computer is disconnected from the Internet, you will need to connect in order to activate or return a license online. If this is not possible, please use the Manual XML licensing methods listed at the bottom of this article. You may also see this error if you're on a flaky wi-fi connection, or a slow network connection. The communication must be solid enough that it does not time-out, where the client software is able to receive a response in a timely manner. If you are connected to the Internet but on a slow or unreliable connection, you can fall back to the Manual XML licensing methods, or you can retry the online activation multiple times - it may eventually complete successfully after several attempts. 2. FlexSim's communications are blocked If your computer is connected and you can visit other sites, but FlexSim's licensing actions are still blocked, it could be due to an anti-virus solution or other security measure preventing FlexSim's communications. Work with your IT team to disable such measures and test if FlexSim is allowed to communicate. If so, configure your security measures to allow FlexSim to communicate for licensing purposes, or if that is not possible, use the Manual XML licensing methods listed at the bottom of this article. 3. FlexSim's license server is blocked Perhaps one or more of FlexSim's license server addresses (listed above) is blocked on your network. This could be a deliberate blocking of a specific address, or more likely a general block of a wider range of sites or IP addresses. Work with your IT team to determine if this is the case and if the block can be removed. If that is not possible, use the Manual XML licensing methods listed at the bottom of this article. 4. Proxy is not configured If your network settings require that FlexSim communicates through a proxy server, you'll need to configure the software to do so. For FlexSim version 23.0 and higher you'll do this directly in the software. From FlexSim's main menu, navigate to Help > License Activation > Advanced > Proxy Details. Fill in your proxy server information and click the Apply button. If you're using an older version of FlexSim, you can download this attached model. This is an older model file compatible with FlexSim version 5.0 and up. It has a Model Control GUI that is an extension to the License Activation window that includes this extra tab where you can put proxy details. proxy-details-v5.fsm 5. License is already activated but fulfillment is broken The license you're trying to activate may already be activated on your computer, but in a broken or unusable state. Follow the instructions for your license hosting situation to remove the broken fulfillments: Standalone - Delete fulfillment License Server - Delete fulfillment 6. License server offline There are circumstances when FlexSim's main license server can go offline. Most commonly this is due to regular updates or patches being applied. In this case the server will return to normal operation shortly. Please be patient and try again in a few minutes. In cases where longer maintenance is planned you will find a notification at the top of this community indicating the purpose, date/time, and expected duration of such maintenance. This notification will be given as early as possible to help you plan around such downtime. In rare circumstances an outage could be caused by a failure in one or more of the license server's databases, operating system, server hardware, networking, or data center. When such an outage occurs, we will post a notice at the top of this community and work to restore service as quickly as possible. Help! I need support! If none of the above suggestions work for you, please start a new question and include as many details as possible about what you've already tried and what you see happening. Please be aware that if FlexSim's license server is online and other clients are able to activate and return their licenses successfully, that the issue is within your organization's network or on your computer. The proper place to turn to for support will be to your own internal IT teams. The above information, including the protocols, ports, and addresses and the different troubleshooting suggestions should be enough information to solve the issue. Manual XML licensing If you are not able to allow FlexSim to communicate over the Internet, please use our manual XML activation/return methods for offline systems: Standalone - Activation - XML / Offline Standalone - Return - XML / Offline License Server - Activation - XML / Offline License Server - Return - XML / Offline