These instructions are to be performed on a license server hosting FlexSim licenses. You will need the license server files. If you do not already have a copy of those linked files on your license server, download them to your license server then extract the entire archive to a convenient location. Run flexsimserveractutil.exe as an adminstrator by right-clicking the .exe and selecting Run as Administrator. Go to the main menu, Tools > View License Rights. Scroll through the displayed license information. Find any activated licenses that indicate they are broken. Find each broken license's Fulfillment ID (starts with FID_). Copy the Fulfillment ID to the clipboard (highlight including the FID_ prefix, through to the end of the line. Ctrl-C to copy). Go to the main menu. Select Tools > Manual Activation > Generate Request. Select the Repair option. Paste the Fulfillment ID into the field (Ctrl-V). Delete any spaces that may have been included before or after the pasted Fulfillment ID. Browse to a location where you will save the XML repair request. Choose a file name for the saved file. Press the Generate button. Repeat steps 4-10 for any broken licenses. Transfer the XML repair request files to an Internet connected computer. The files are plain text XML and can be manually examined in any text editor if necessary for security purposes. Be sure not to modify the files, including line endings. If the file is modified in any way, the various hashes in the file will register the change and the request will fail. Log in to your FlexSim Account. Click the Licenses link in the top navigation menu, then choose Manual XML in the Licenses submenu. Upload your XML files by dragging them onto the drop zone. Your uploaded XML requests will be processed. Upon completion, you will be prompted to download each XML response. Transfer the XML response files back to your license server. In flexsimserveractutil.exe (your instance opened above in step 1 using Run as administrator), from the main menu, choose Tools > Manual Activation > Process Response. Process each response by browsing to an XML response, then pressing the Process button. The license should be successfully repaired. After repair it should be usable and returnable. 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.

These instructions are to be performed on a license server hosting FlexSim licenses. You will need the license server files. If you do not already have a copy of those linked files on your license server, download them to your license server then extract the entire archive to a convenient location.   Run flexsimserveractutil.exe as an adminstrator by right-clicking the .exe and selecting Run as Administrator. Go to the main menu, Tools > View License Rights. Scroll through the displayed license information. Find any activated licenses that indicate they are broken. Find each broken license's Fulfillment ID (starts with FID_). Copy the Fulfillment ID to the clipboard (highlight including the FID_ prefix, through to the end of the line. Ctrl-C to copy). Go to the main menu. Select Connect > Repair. Paste the Fulfillment ID into the field (Ctrl-V). Delete any spaces that may have been included before or after the pasted Fulfillment ID. Press the Repair button. The utility will attempt to contact FlexSim's license server in order to repair the license.   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.

Introduction Several times per year we release a new feature-version of FlexSim Simulation Software. In order for client PCs to be able to run a licensed version of the upgraded software, you'll need to upgrade the activated license(s) on your license server. Licenses with a current maintenance subscription are eligible to be upgraded to the new version. If you don't understand how licensing works for different FlexSim versions, please review our Answers article FlexSim Version Numbering. Overview There are 5 main steps to upgrading the licenses hosted on your lmadmin or lmtools license server: Return the licenses you intend to upgrade Upgrade your licenses Activate the upgraded license Reread the license Upgrade client PCs Several of these steps have their own fully documented procedures. We'll link you to those resources below. 1. Return the licenses you intend to upgrade The steps to return a license-server-based license are fully documented. Choose the link below that best matches your needs, depending on whether your license server can connect to the Internet: License Server - Return - Online License Server - Return - XML / Offline Be sure to return ALL licenses you wish to upgrade. 2. Upgrade your licenses NOTE: Licenses with expired maintenance will not upgrade. Timed licenses do not upgrade. Only permanent (not timed) licenses under current maintenance can be upgraded. Log in to your FlexSim Account. If you were already logged in to your FlexSim Account, in the top navigation menu hover over your initials icon and choose Reload Account. Now in the top navigation menu, choose Licenses > List. Check that the available seat count is equal to the total. All of a license’s seats should be returned for it to upgrade. Click on the Upgrade Licenses button. If you have several licenses to upgrade and all are owned by or shared with your FlexSim Account, they will all be upgraded at once. Please be patient while the upgrade process works in the background. When the page refreshes, eligible licenses will have a new activation ID for the latest version of the software. Your license code indicates its version at the end of the code to help you know what versions your license will properly activate. Review license code format. 3. Activate the upgraded licenses The steps to activate a license-server-based license are fully documented. Choose the link below that best matches your needs, depending on whether your license server can connect to the Internet: License Server - Activation - Online License Server - Activation - XML / Offline 4. Reread the license Your license server needs to start serving up your newly activated licenses. You can either restart your license manager service, or use your license manager's option to reread your licenses. The steps to reread your licenses differ depending on which license manager you are using to host your licenses. Use these links to jump to instructions for the license manager you're using: lmadmin lmtools+lmgrd 5. Upgrade client PCs Finally, upgrade your PC with a version of FlexSim appropriate for your new license (learn how licenses work across versions). After installing a new version of FlexSim, you will need to configure it to get a license from your license server. There are two ways a client PC can be configured. Choose the method below that most closely matches the main use case for your client PC: Single-user client PCs - this method configures settings that are saved on a per-user basis. Multi-user client PCs - usually appropriate for a university computer lab or other shared-PC situation, where the configuration should be computer-based. Having trouble licensing your client PC? Verify client PC licensing to find out how to tell if your client PC is successfully getting a license from your new license server. 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.

The instructions below are for offline/Manual XML licensing. If your server successfully connects to the Internet and to FlexSim's main license server, you can try our simpler online license return instructions. Assumed configurations All steps below assume that you followed the installation instructions as described in our license server installation instructions, and that all FlexSim's license server files were extracted to the location C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS. Throughout these instructions we will reference files inside that folder. Find your fulfillment ID 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 Tools > View License Rights. Copy the Fulfillment ID for the Activation ID you are returning/upgrading by highlighting the Fulfillment ID and pressing Ctrl+C. Generate return request If your license server cannot connect to the Internet, you need to return manually. In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, select Tools > Manual Activation > Generate Request. Choose the Return option. Paste the Fulfillment ID into the field using Ctrl+V. Browse to select a location and file name for your XML return request. Press the Generate button. Repeat for all licenses you wish to upgrade. This creates a return request XML file for each license you are upgrading. Copy the XML return request files to a location with Internet access. Log in to your FlexSim Account. Use the top page navigation to select your Licenses page, then choose Manual XML in the Licenses submenu: Drag your XML requests onto the dropzone (alternatively you can click the dropzone and browse to a file to upload). Your XML request will be uploaded and processed. If there are any errors, you will get more information about the problem which you can use in contacting your local FlexSim representative for help. If the XML request is successfully processed, you will be prompted to download the response XML file. Download your XML responses and transfer them back to your license server. Process each response XML file by opening flexsimserveractutil.exe and going to Tools > Manual Activation > Process Response. Browse to each response XML file and Process. Your licenses should be successfully returned. 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.

Interacting with your licenses isn't something you do every day, but it doesn't need to be intimidating. We've documented all the main procedures you'll use to manage your FlexSim licenses like a pro.   When you purchased your FlexSim licenses you chose one of two methods for licensing your software. Click below to jump to the licensing procedures for your style of licenses:   Network Licensing Standalone Licensing Need a refresher on the differences between network and standalone licensing? Our Standalone vs Network Licensing.pdf is a basic intro or check out our in-depth article on License Models. Network Licensing With an in-house license server you don't activate your licenses directly in the software (as in standalone licensing). Instead, your FlexSim software is configured to obtain a seat from a license server in your organization's network. Your organization will need to provision, install, and maintain a license server.   Here are instructions for all the primary server licensing tasks.   Install, Configure, Activate Here are our instructions for installing, configuring, and licensing your server, and for configuring FlexSim to get a seat from your license server. This document covers both online and secure/offline scenarios.   PDF installation guide Online Answers articles index We have some shorter guides focused specifically on just the license activation step. If you already have an installed and configured license server, these guides are provided as a convenience for use in subsequent licensing procedures, like upgrading your licenses.   License Server - Activation - Online License Server - Activation - XML / Offline   Return You may occasionally need to migrate your licenses to a new license server or return your license as part of a license version upgrade.   License Server - Return - Online License Server - Return - XML / Offline   Repair In rare circumstances your activated license can become "broken". This means that even though the license is still activated on your server it is no longer able to serve seats to client PCs. This can happen if your server hardware or operating system changes significantly.   License Server - Repair - Online License Server - Repair - XML / Offline   Upgrade FlexSim releases new feature-versions several times per year. If the licenses activated on your license server are lower than the version of FlexSim software you're trying to run, FlexSim software won't be able to be licensed by your license server. You can learn more about how licensing works for a given version number in our Answers article FlexSim Version Numbering.   In this case you'll need to upgrade the activated licenses on your license server. If your maintenance is current, follow the procedure linked below to upgrade your license server for use with the latest versions of FlexSim. If your maintenance is expired contact your local FlexSim distributor to renew.   This article covers both online and secure/offline scenarios.   License Server - Upgrading your hosted licenses   Miscellaneous These items don't pertain to any particular licensing procedure but may be useful in some situations.   License Server - View licenses License Server - Delete fulfillment License Server - Troubleshooting tips License Server - Client/Server connectivity   Standalone Licensing With standalone licensing you'll activate a license code (also called an Activation ID) directly in FlexSim.   Below are detailed instructions for all the primary licensing tasks used in managing your standalone licenses:   Activation To apply a license to your computer, follow the linked instructions depending on whether your computer or network allows FlexSim to communicate online.   Standalone - Activation - Online Standalone - Activation - XML / Offline   Return Returning your license removes it from your computer and makes your seat available for a new activation. This is useful if you need to free up a seat for a colleague or move your license to a different computer. You may also return your license as part of the upgrade process for a new version of FlexSim - returning the old version so that you can activate an upgraded Activation ID.   Standalone - Return - Online Standalone - Return - XML / Offline   Repair In rare circumstances, your activated license can become "broken". This means that even though the license is still activated on your computer it no longer enables additional features allowed by your license type. This can happen if your computer hardware or operating system changes significantly.   There is no online method available. Please use the XML / Offline method. Standalone - Repair - XML / Offline   Upgrade FlexSim releases several new feature-versions per year. An upgraded version of the software requires an updated license key to enable its licensed features. Licenses with a current maintenance subscription are eligible to be upgraded to the new version. You can learn more about how licensing works for a given version number in our Answers article FlexSim Version Numbering.   If your maintenance is current, follow the procedure linked below to upgrade your license for use with the latest versions of FlexSim. If your maintenance is expired contact your local FlexSim distributor to renew.   This article covers both online and secure/offline scenarios:   Standalone - Upgrading your license   Miscellaneous These items don't pertain to any particular licensing procedure but may be useful in some situations.   Standalone - View licenses Standalone - Delete fulfillment

FlexSim licenses can either be standalone or network-based. Each license model has its pros and cons. Learn more about these two different license models. You're here because you've chosen network licensing and you're ready to get started. A license manager by any other name FlexSim is licensed using technology from Revenera's FlexNet. FlexNet is one of the top software licensing technologies and is used by many large software companies, including several others in the engineering software space. FlexNet offers two different license managers: lmtools and lmadmin. You decide which platform will work best for your organization's needs. (Spoiler alert: we like lmtools best). lmtools Hosting your FlexSim licenses with lmtools lmtools is a simple utility for creating and managing the licensing service that will serve your FlexSim licenses to your organization's client PCs. This basic utility isn't installed - it is a simple executable. It has no 3rd party dependencies. For maximum security, compatibility, and simplicity, FlexSim recommends using lmtools. Many organizations that add FlexSim to their toolkit already use lmtools for managing their license hosting services for other software, so using lmtools to manage your FlexSim licenses just makes sense. Even if your FlexSim purchase marks the first time your org has set up a license manager, lmtools is a great way to go, and is our recommended license manager. Visit Hosting your FlexSim licenses with lmtools for a complete reference on configuring your license server using lmtools. lmadmin Hosting your FlexSim licenses with lmadmin lmadmin is FlexNet's newer, shinier license manager. It includes a web-based front end, so all the administration is done from your web browser. It is more complex than lmtools, serving both the licensing service and a management front end, and lmadmin relies on Java, which you will need keep up to date with patches and security updates. FlexSim usually does not recommend lmadmin, mainly because of the more complex configuration needed to host and manage the web front end (including additional firewall considerations, an extra username and password, etc.), its reliance on Java, and the fact that many FlexSim users already host other software licenses using lmtools. Visit Hosting your FlexSim licenses with lmadmin for a complete reference on configuring your license server using lmadmin.

This article is used to aggregate all other licensing articles under one heading. You can use the navigation panel in Answers' right column to navigate between the various licensing articles in this tree. Sharing your licenses License Models Licensing Procedures Licensing Errors FlexSim Feature Limitations by License Type License server - feature pools - only checkout features for license type FlexSim Version Numbering, including how licensing works for a given version number In addition, the following links contain some general licensing tips. These will likely be added to a future article. A few of the items are outdated, but in general the advice is still good. General licensing tips (Mar 9, 2018) License Q&A (Jul 17, 2017)

The following articles describe various error messages and numbers you may see as you work with your FlexSim licenses, along with possible solutions and workarounds.   flxActCommonHandleOpen (50003, 71000, 10103) flxActAppReturnSend (50018, 41145, 32) Manual activation error (50019, 41200, 19) Manual XML licensing error (50019, 42107, 10246) Licensing activation error (50041, 41143, 34)   Operations error: 7032 Invalid fulfillment ID Operations error: 7109 Invalid activation ID Operations error: 7131 Server activation is not allowed Operations error: 7174 Only deployed entitlement line item can be fulfilled Operations error: 7189 Client activation is not allowed Operations error: 7284 Cannot perform support actions on inactive fulfillment record Operations error: 7288 fulfill count exceeded the available seat count Operations error: 7466 The return of the fulfillment is denied Operations error: 7581 Online return/repair request is not originated from the original client machine   Trusted storage binding change detected

Have you received this licensing error? Operations error: 7131 Server activation is not allowed to activate entitlement line item: Make sure the license model is a server license model. You may encounter this error if you attempt to activate a standalone license using flexsimserveractutil.exe on a license server. A standalone license is intended to be activated directly within FlexSim Simulation Software installed on a client PC. Please see our instructions for standalone licensing for the procedures to use with your standalone FlexSim licenses.

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 return instructions.   Assumed configurations   All steps below assume that you followed the installation instructions as described in our license server installation instructions, and that all FlexSim's license server files were extracted to the location C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS. Throughout these instructions we will reference files inside that folder.   Find your fulfillment ID   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 Tools > View License Rights.     Copy the Fulfillment ID for the Activation ID you are upgrading by highlighting the Fulfillment ID and pressing Ctrl+C.     Attempt online return   When your license server returns a license over the the Internet, flexsimserveractutil.exe will communicate with the following FlexSim servers via HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443):   www.flexsim.com sw.flexsim.com sw1.flexsim.com license.flexsim.com   In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, select Connect > Return.     Paste the Fulfillment ID into the field using Ctrl+V, and press the Return button.     After a few seconds and several status messages, you should receive an indication of success.     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.

Have you received this licensing error? Operations error: 7466 The return of the fulfillment is denied by the return policy because max return exceeded. This error indicates that returns are disabled for your license. Your license is configured for one-time activation onto a computer. If you believe your license should be able to transfer from one computer to another, please contact your local distributor to discuss the situation.

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

When you try to activate offline, the following error might appear in the console: ERROR: flxActSvrActivationRespProcess - (50019, 42107, 10246) "Failure to process response for an unspecified reason. This error may be returned when a valid failure response is received, for example when the activation server denies a request. Recovery: check parameters used for the request." License Server Manual XML Activation error example: Standalone Manual XML Activation error example: If you encounter this error, check the response.xml file you are attempting to process. If it includes the text SERVER_CONFIG or CLIENT_CONFIG, but your Trusted Storage is already configured, you may receive this error. With Trusted Storage already successfully configured, you must generate a brand new activation request. Upload the new request to your FlexSim Account for processing. If the license is available you will be able to download the XML response. This response should process and successfully activate your license. Full instructions for performing manual XML licensing for license servers can be found in our license server installation instructions document. ===== Here are some other items to keep in mind with manual XML licensing on your license server: Download the response XML files and transfer them to their license server without modification. Modifying the XML files in any way will "break" them. This includes line endings and other white space. The files include checksums and if the files change they will not work. The destination license server needs to be the same system where the request was generated. The FlexNet Licensing Service 64 needs to be installed, be a high enough version, and be running properly as a Windows service. Checking these items is covered in our license server installation instructions starting on page 6 with 3. FlexNet Licensing Service. flexsimserveractutil.exe may need admin privileges to write to the proper places on the system. Be sure to right-click the application and choose Run as Administrator.

Have you received this licensing error?   An error occurred in the activation request Operations error: 7109 Invalid activation ID:     This error can occur when you are attempting to activate a standalone license online using the Activate tab.   You may encounter this error if you have incorrectly typed your activation ID, left the field blank, or if the system otherwise does not recognize the license code you have entered as a valid activation ID.   Some older versions of FlexSim also were not able to remove spaces or other whitespace from the beginning or end of the activation ID field, so be sure that any spaces or other extraneous characters are removed from both the beginning and ending of the license code text.

Have you received this licensing error? An error occurred in the activation request Operations error: 7189 Client activation is not allowed to activate: Check the license model to make sure a client can activate. You may encounter this error if you attempt to activate a network license directly within FlexSim software. A network license is intended to be installed on a license server using a FlexNet license manager - either lmtools or lmadmin. Please see our instructions for installing a license server, which also include directions for connecting your client software to the license server to obtain a license.

Download the files Download FlexSim’s latest lmtools-related files here: https://flexs.im/lmtools-download You can browse archived versions of both lmtools and lmadmin here: https://flexs.im/licenseserver-archive Extract the download Once the download is complete, right-click the .zip archive and choose to Extract All… Save to a folder directly on your root drive. Your lmtools download folder Your extracted folder should end up looking something like this: In later instruction steps, any time we refer to the downloaded files, these are the files we're talking about. Note on location Technically you could save your download files in any folder, but we recommend right at the root drive level for convenience. If you choose to save your download folder in an alternate location, please make sure that the directory path doesn't include any folder named "FlexSim". Since Windows files are not case sensitive, this prohibition also applies to variations like "Flexsim" or "flexsim". We have seen instances where some versions of FlexNet licensing encounter errors when the name of the vendor daemon ("flexsim" in our case) is the same as a folder in the path. A folder that includes "FlexSim" as part of a larger name is fine. For example "FlexSim_Licensing" is a fine folder name. Examples of good paths: C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS C:\licensing\vendors\FlexSim_LMTOOLS\ C:\Program Data\FlexSim_License\ Examples of bad paths (incompatible folder names bolded): C:\flexsim\ C:\licensing\vendors\Flexsim\ C:\Program Data\licensing\FlexSim\files\

tl;dr must be stable and persistent, always able to maintain a constant connection with the client software don't use a user's personal computer as a license server use a currently supported Microsoft OS bare-metal hardware, virtual hardware, cloud hosted - all are fine if the hardware meets the OS specifications, it meets the license server specifications configure your network and firewalls to allow the client-server communication Use an always-on, accessible server (not a user's PC) Your license server should be on a stable, persistent system that is always on and always accessible via a stable IP address or fully qualified domain name. A user’s personal system is not a good license server, unless they are only serving licenses to themselves, in which case please consider contacting your local FlexSim distributor to exchange for a standalone license. Operating System Hosting FlexSim licenses requires a currently supported version of Windows (desktop or server versions are supported). FlexSim and FlexNet do not support Windows operating systems that have reached their end-of-life. See Microsoft guidance on product lifecycle. You should perform all Microsoft Updates so that your operating system is fully patched prior to installing the license server software. In the future we hope to allow FlexSim licenses to be hosted on Linux or Mac license servers, in addition to Windows. Work toward multiplatform is ongoing. We do not currently have an estimated timeline. Server Hardware If your license server hardware meets the specifications required for the chosen Microsoft OS, it will be adequate to run the license server software. Hosting licenses is generally NOT a demanding workload. Please do not confuse these minimal license server hardware requirements with the different and more demanding system requirements for running FlexSim Simulation Software. Cloud Hosting Your license server could be hosted by a cloud provider or on premises, on a virtual machine, or a bare-metal OS. Keep in mind that your license server should be a stable, persistent server that client PCs can remain connected to. If your server setup works by creating and destroying new instances of a virtual machine each time you reboot, it is NOT suitable for use as a license server. You will lose your Trusted-Storage-based FlexSim licenses when the virtual machine is terminated. Networking, firewalls, connectivity For the client software to remain licensed, it must maintain a constant network connection to your license server. The exact details of such a configuration are up to you. If you want to limit client-server connections to the local network, allow access to the license server worldwide over a VPN, or make your licenses available over the public Internet, these are all decisions you must make and configure your network and firewalls accordingly such that your FlexSim client PCs can maintain a constant connection to the license server. Further networking guidance, including information regarding firewalls and port numbers, is found in the individual instructions for lmtools or lmadmin.

Why would I delete a fulfillment? You may need to manually delete a fulfillment from your PC if: Your license is broken. Sometimes you can fix this problem yourself by attempting a repair. However, you may get a message that the repair failed. "Repair: failure. Online return/repair request for the activation ID is not originated from the original client machine." In this case contact your local FlexSim distributor to explain the situation and let them take a look. Reference this post. If they determine it is best to delete the broken fulfillment, follow the instructions below to do so. Your distributor will then force-return the broken license so that it will be available for a new activation. You mistakenly requested a force-return of a license. If you later find the fulfillment that you thought was lost, that fulfillment is no longer able to be returned normally (because it was already force-returned). In these cases, and in a few other rare circumstances, you may find it necessary to manually remove a fulfillment from your computer. This process occurs exclusively on your computer without any communication with FlexSim's main license server. Delete your fulfillment FlexSim 23.0 or greater For FlexSim version 23.0.1 or greater, you can delete fulfillments using the License Activation window. From FlexSim's main menu, choose Help > License Activation. Under the Advanced tab, find the Delete sub-tab. Choose the fulfillment you'd like to remove from your computer and click Delete. Confirm your choice to remove the fulfillment from your computer. Currently licenses that are *BROKEN* do not show up in this list (how do licenses become broken?), so if this applies to your situation you will need to use the Older versions method below. Older versions Older FlexSim versions do not have a graphical interface for removing fulfillments, but you can still do so using a FlexScript command. Find the fulfillment ID The first step is to find the fulfillment ID of the license you want to return. This is an identifier unique to the activation you're removing. View your licenses to find the fulfillment ID you wish to remove from your PC. Prepare your delete command Once you know your broken fulfillment ID, you're ready to build the command that will remove it from your computer. licenseactivation(LA_DELETE_FULFILLMENT_RECORD, "paste entire 'FID_...' fulfillmentID here"); Be sure to paste the complete fulfillment ID into the 2nd parameter. Depending on your software's licensed state, you may be able to run this command directly in a script window. If not, we'll work around that limitation by using an object's reset trigger. Execute the delete command There are two ways to manually delete your fulfillment: Run the command in a script window Use a 3D object's reset trigger Run in a Script window If your FlexSim installation is still licensed, you can open a Script window to run FlexScript commands: Run the command console. You will be prompted to confirm that you truly want to remove the fulfillment: Choose Yes to remove the fulfillment. Use a 3D object's reset trigger If your FlexSim software is not licensed the Script command console is not available. Instead, do the following: Create a new model. Drag any object into the 3D view. Create a reset trigger on that object. Enter the FlexScript command into the reset trigger. Press OK to save the script. Reset the model. Choose Yes to confirm that you truly want to remove the fulfillment. 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.

Have you received this licensing error? Operations error: 7032 Invalid fulfillment ID: FID_ ... (entire fulfillment ID listed) You may encounter this error during an attempted license return. This error means that the license server has no record of your license activation, and therefore is not able to recognize the return action from your unknown activation. This error should only be encountered under a few rare circumstances: 1. Rollback on FlexSim's main license server FlexSim's main license server could be rolled back to an earlier time due to a necessary database restoration in order to mitigate database corruption or other unforeseen issues or circumstances. License actions, such as license activations or returns, that occurred after the last viable backup was saved, but before its restoration, will be lost. The solution for any license affected will consist of one or both of the following: If an activation occurred during the lost time period you would need to manually remove any un-returnable fulfillments. Standalone - Delete fulfillment License Server - Delete fulfillment If a license return occurred during the time period, you should contact your local FlexSim distributor to request a force-return. Explain the error and this situation. 2. Change to FlexSim's licensing infrastructure Your FlexSim product has reached End-of-Life and the license server under which your license was originally activated has been retired. This situation is outlined in FlexSim's End User License Agreement > Software End-of-life. As of this writing, FlexSim has never retired any of our FlexNet licensing infrastructure and we currently have no plans to do so. This item is included here for completeness' sake and in the event that such future licensing changes occur. If you are using software past its End-of-Life date and you think this problem may be affecting you, please contact your local FlexSim distributor.

It may be necessary in rare circumstances to manually delete a fulfillment from your license server. You may need to do this if you mistakenly requested a force-return of your license, if FlexSim's main license server was rolled back to an earlier point in time, or some other rare circumstance.   This manual process occurs exclusively on your license server without any communication with FlexSim's main license server. This procedure applies to both online and offline/secure/air-gapped license servers.   Assumed configurations   All steps below assume that you followed the installation instructions as described in our license server installation instructions, and that all FlexSim's license server files were extracted to the location C:\FlexSim_LMTOOLS. Throughout these instructions we will reference files inside that folder.   Find your fulfillment ID   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 Tools > View License Rights.     Copy the Fulfillment ID for the Activation ID you intend to manually delete by highlighting the Fulfillment ID and pressing Ctrl+C.     Delete the fulfillment   In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, go to Connect > Delete.     Paste your fulfillment ID into the field. Press the Delete button.     You should receive an indication of success.     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.