You should have already completed all preceding steps found in the article Hosting your FlexSim licenses with lmtools, including all those under the headings "Preparation and Prerequisites" and "Activate licenses to your license server". Your license server will communicate with client PCs using two executables, the lmgrd.exe licensing service and the flexsim.exe vendor daemon.   This article shows how to add exceptions for these applications through Windows Firewall. If you have additional firewalls or network appliances that need to be configured, please check the section Port Considerations at the end of this article.   Allow an app through Windows Firewall Port Considerations   Allow an app through Windows Firewall   Windows Firewall allows you to specify certain applications that will be allowed through different network types. If you're not sure about firewalls and networking, be sure to contact someone in your organization that administers these things.   You will need administrator privileges on your license server to add firewall exceptions.   Open the Allowed apps interface   Click the Start button or press the Windows key, then type Firewall into the search box. Choose the option to Allow an app through Windows Firewall.     If you don't see that option, you can choose the option Windows Defender Firewall at the top of the search results. This will open the Windows Defender Firewall topic the Control Panel. There you can choose Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall in the side panel:     Add a firewall exception for lmgrd.exe   In the Allowed apps window, click the Change Settings button, then the Allow another app… button.     In the Add an app window that opens, click the Browse… button. Navigate to extracted license server downloads. Double click lmgrd.exe to choose the file.     Click the Network types… button.   Check the boxes for the various network types that the firewall should allow. We recommend allowing your FlexNet licensing to communicate across all network types, but contact your server or network administrators if you're not sure.     Click Okay to close the Choose Network Types window.   Back on the Add an app window, click the Add button.   Add a firewall exception for flexsim.exe   Repeat the steps above for flexsim.exe:   Click the Allow another app… button. Browse… to your extracted license server downloads. Select flexsim.exe. Click Network types… and choose the appropriate networks to allow access to lmgrd.exe. These should be set to the same settings chosen for lmgrd.exe, and you can usually allow all network types - domain, private, and public. Click the Add button. Click OK to close the Control Panel window.   Port considerations   You may need to allow communication through other firewalls or network appliances, depending on your network topology and specific licensing plans for how and from where client PCs will connect to the license server. Usually for such firewalls or devices you will configure inbound and outbound port exceptions to allow your license server communications to pass through.   A FlexSim license server has its ports defined in a flexsim.lic license file, specified when you configured your FlexSim_Licensing service.   Our default ports are as follows:   lmgrd.exe - licensing service - port 26914 - TCP flexsim.exe - vendor daemon - port 56914 - TCP   There is a chance you specified custom your port numbers. If you're not sure you can check your flexsim.lic license file. Read more about FlexSim's license file and default vs custom port numbers in our article FlexSim's license file.

Introduction to lmtools   This article is a sort of table of contents to the various articles that will take you from start to finish in installing, licensing, configuring, and running your FlexSim license server using the lmtools license manager.   background info   Server-based vs Standalone licensing - Learn the differences between these two license models, and when you might choose one over the other. License managers - lmadmin vs lmtools - FlexSim supports these two FlexNet license managers. Learn the differences, and why FlexSim recommends lmtools.   Let's get started   When installing a new license server, start here at the top and work your way down the list of articles linked below. By the end you should be in good shape to properly host and serve your FlexSim licenses.   Each link should open in its own browser tab, so once you complete a sub-task just close that tab. Then back here in this main tab click the link to the next step.   The list of links below might seem intimidating, but conceptually it's just 4 main things we're about to work through:   Preparation and Prerequisites Activate licenses to your license server Configure the licensing service Configure client PCs   If you run into any problems, you can also find additional helpful resources linked at the end of this article:   Troubleshooting Related links     1) Preparation and Prerequisites   System Requirements - almost any Windows computer could act as your license server. Click inside for the details. Download files - download the required lmtools files and extract them to an appropriate folder on your license server. FlexNet Licensing Service 64 - FlexSim is licensed using Revenera's industry-standard FlexNet licensing platform. This article prepares your license server with the background service necessary for hosting your FlexSim licenses.   2) Activate licenses to your license server   Choose the right steps below to license your server, depending on whether or not your license server can communicate over the internet directly with FlexSim's main license server.   • Online, Internet-enabled systems   License Server - Activation - Online - Activate your FlexSim licenses to your license server directly over the Internet. Should be easy-peasy. • Secure / Offline / Air-gapped systems   If your license server will not connect to the Internet (or if for any reason it cannot communicate with FlexSim's license servers) there are a few extra steps to get up and running. You've got this!   Configure Trusted Storage - Your new license server has a secure storage area for holding license info, but first it must authenticate with FlexSim's main license server. License Server - Activation - XML / Offline - the manual steps to activate your FlexSim licenses onto your license server.   3) Configure the licensing service   Configure your license service - use FlexNet's lmtools license manager to create and configure the service that will serve up your FlexSim seats. Add Windows Firewall exceptions - your licensing service needs to communicate with other PCs on the network. This will get you started.   4) Configure client PCs   With your license server installed and configured, it's finally time for your license server to fulfill its destiny and serve licenses to your client PCs.   Make sure you know the IP address or fully qualified domain name for your license server, as well as the license service port number (see #1 under Check the service status). You'll use your server's address/name and service port when configuring the client PCs.   FlexSim Version Numbering - your FlexSim license is for a particular version of FlexSim. If your software maintenance is not current, you may need to use an older version of the software. In this article you'll learn how licensing works for a given version number and where to download an appropriate version of FlexSim that will work with your license. With an appropriate version of FlexSim installed on the client PCs, you're ready to configure them to communicate with 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. Verify client PC licensing - Not sure if your client PC is getting licensed properly? Dive in to find out how to tell your client PC is successfully getting a license from your new license server   Troubleshooting   Isn't there a law in the universe that if something can go wrong, it will? If you're stuck in a licensing black hole, these tips might be just the thing to help you get moving.   Client/server connectivity - if the client PC and the license server can't communicate, the client PC won't be able to get a license. Troubleshooting tips - when you're pretty certain that connectivity isn't an issue, but your client PC still isn't getting a license, check here for some ideas.   Related Links   FlexSim's license file - your new licensing service uses a license file to specify port numbers. Get more background on license files and ports here.  

You should have already completed all preceding steps found in the article Hosting your FlexSim licenses with lmtools, including all those under the headings "Preparation and Prerequisites" and "Activate licenses to your license server". At this point you're ready to install, configure, and start the service that will serve your FlexSim licenses.   Create the service Configure service permissions Start the service Check the service status Troubleshooting problems with the service   Create the service   We'll use lmtools to create your new licensing service.   On your license server, in your extracted download folder of FlexSim license server materials, right-click lmtools.exe and choose Run as administrator. Go to the Config Services tab. Create a new licensing service by typing FlexSim_License into the Service Name input field. The Service Name field looks like a dropdown selector, but you can click in it to type a new name. Use the 3 Browse buttons to specify the paths to files (lmgrd.exe, flexsim.lic, log.log) that are also included with the FlexSim license server materials. Check the boxes for Use Services and Start Server at Power Up. Press the Save Service button in the upper right. Confirm the save by choosing Yes. You may receive an error message regarding "Windows preferred path". This is normal and this message can be safely ignored.   Configure service permissions   Your new FlexSim_License service needs permissions set to function properly.   Click the Windows Start button or press the Windows key, then type “Services” into the search box in the Start menu, and press Enter. Windows will search for and open Windows Services Manager. Find FlexSim_License in the list of services. If it is missing from the list, see the section Troubleshooting the licensing service below. Open the FlexSim_License service’s Properties window by double-clicking its name. Go to the Log On tab. Choose the option to Log on as: Local System account. Press OK to close the FlexSim_License Properties window.   Start the service   While still in Windows Services Manager, use the Start link to start your new FlexSim_License service.     You should see a status bar showing the startup progress. The service usually starts in under a minute.   If there are any errors or other problems with starting the service, skip to the section Troubleshooting problems with the service.   Check the service status   After the service is started, head back to lmtools to check the log. You can view the service log from the Config Services tab, press the View Log... button, located toward the lower right of the Config Services panel.   You should find the following information in your log file:     lmgrd.exe is listening on port 26914. This is the port the licensing service will use when listening for client PC communication. The bootstrap license file flexsim.lic was found and loaded. (This is not a license file specific to you and does not contain your license info. FlexSim licenses use Trusted Storage and licenses are activated to your license server using flexsimserveractutil.exe). The flexsim.opt Options file was found and loaded. A list of product features activated in your server's Trusted Storage. Your feature set may differ somewhat from this example, depending on your license and product, but you should see several of the features above. 900 seconds is the minimum timeout allowed by FlexNet, and we configure our installation to use this minimum value using the options file. The flexsim.exe vendor daemon is using port 56914.   To close the log, press the Close Log button, toward the lower right of the Config Services panel in lmtools.   Troubleshooting problems with the service   Did everything work? If not, perhaps you have one of these issues:   The FlexSim_License service is not listed as an installed service in Windows’ services. The FlexSim_License service does not start manually. The FlexSim_License service does not start up automatically when the computer restarts.   If any of these apply to you, please check the following:   You ran lmtools as a user with admin rights, and right clicked the program to choose Run as Administrator. On the Config Services tab, you checked the boxes Use Services and Start Server at Power Up. There isn’t already a process running or service installed named FlexSim_License. lmgrd.exe, flexsim.exe, and all other files downloaded together with them are in the same folder, and in a file path that does not contain any folder named “FlexSim” (case insensitive). The FlexSim_License service must run as an account with proper permissions. It’s possible that the Local System Account setting specified in Configure service permissions above does not have adequate permissions, and you will need to specify the service to run under a different account. Work with your server administrator or IT department to determine an account with the proper permissions to run your license service. You could have a port conflict, where one or both of the ports specified in your flexsim.lic license file are in use by another service on your license server. Check the section Resolving port conflicts. Some anti-virus solutions prevent unrecognized services from running or accessing necessary functionality. If your license service won't start, try temporarily disabling any anti-virus solution installed on your license server. If this fixes the issue, work with your IT administrator to modify your anti-virus settings. Remember to reactivate your anti-virus software after this experiment.  

A license file? What's that? License not included Default port numbers Custom port numbers Automatic port numbers Resolving port conflicts A license file? What's that?   When you set up a license server to host your FlexSim licenses, you'll configure settings for a FlexNet licensing service (lmtools, lmadmin). Some settings are specified in a plain text file ending in the .lic file extension.   You'll find FlexSim's license file, flexsim.lic, alongside the other downloaded license server materials (lmtools, lmadmin). The license file is just plain text. You can open it and examine its contents using your favorite text editor (Notepad, Notepad++, VSCode, etc.).   If you've used FlexNet licensing before, you know that often a .lic license file contains license codes and hashes that authenticate a product license on a computer system. However, this isn't the case for FlexSim.   License not included   FlexSim's license file doesn't contain any license information. Instead FlexSim licenses are held in FlexNet's Trusted Storage. That's why every customer downloads an identical license file alongside all our other license server materials.   FlexSim's flexsim.lic license file is a bootstrapper that tells FlexNet's licensing service to find FlexSim's license information in Trusted Storage, and to specify port numbers that will be used for serving the licenses.   Here are the complete contents of FlexSim's default flexsim.lic license file:   SERVER this_host ANY 26914 VENDOR flexsim port=56914 USE_SERVER FEATURE serverfeature flexsim 1.000 permanent uncounted HOSTID=ANY \ SIGN="05CB 6F61 116D 06E3 A08D CAFB FC5C BEF3 DF53 BDC6 AF68 \ 060C 27B8 9968 CB94 0515 2BE7 E30C 2FAF C0D6 1D77 CCEB 878E \ 2D67 1434 0E3F 6BA5 1FDA BD35 F98D"   Default port numbers   You can see on lines 1 and 2 above where we've defined FlexSim's default license server port numbers:   26914 (lmgrd.exe - the licensing service. Client PCs specify this port on the license server.) 56914 (flexsim.exe - the vendor daemon)   Custom port numbers   While we recommend using FlexSim's default port numbers, you can edit your flexsim.lic file to specify your own custom port numbers. Simply replace the default port numbers in your plain text license file with any valid, available port numbers you wish to use.   Automatic port numbers   Also not recommended - you can also remove the port numbers (and the “port=”) from the flexsim.lic file to allow the FlexNet Licensing Service to auto-assign port numbers, like this:   SERVER this_host ANY VENDOR flexsim USE_SERVER FEATURE serverfeature flexsim 1.000 permanent uncounted HOSTID=ANY \ SIGN="05CB 6F61 116D 06E3 A08D CAFB FC5C BEF3 DF53 BDC6 AF68 \ 060C 27B8 9968 CB94 0515 2BE7 E30C 2FAF C0D6 1D77 CCEB 878E \ 2D67 1434 0E3F 6BA5 1FDA BD35 F98D"   We don't recommend auto-assigned port numbers since the FlexNet Licensing Service could auto-assign new, different port numbers any time the licensing service is restarted (such as when your server restarts to install Windows updates, etc.).   Port numbers that change regularly can make it more difficult to maintain the firewall exceptions or other network settings needed for your license server to communicate properly with client PCs.   Resolving port conflicts   If your licensing service has trouble starting or properly hosting licenses, or if other licensing services fail after starting your FlexSim licensing service, you could have a port conflict.   You could try specifying your own custom ports as described above. This is a good solution if you know what port numbers are in use with existing services and can choose unused port numbers. After changing the port numbers defined in your flexsim.lic license file, restart your FlexSim_Licensing service.   If you’re not sure what port numbers to try, you could allow FlexNet to auto-assign port numbers itself – it tries to find and use free ports, though it isn’t foolproof. After modifying your flexsim.lic license file to allow automatically chosen port numbers, restart your FlexSim_License service. Then check the log file (lmtools, lmadmin) to see what ports were auto assigned.   If everything works, we suggest that you take the port numbers automatically assigned by FlexNet and hardcode them into your license file. This way you can maintain static exceptions more easily in your firewall. Be sure to configure your client PCs to use the new license service port number.  

A license server hosting FlexNet enabled products like FlexSim relies on a service called FlexNet Licensing Service 64. As of FlexSim version 25.2, FlexSim requires FlexNet Licensing Service 64 version 11.19.8.0 or higher.   Is FlexNet Licensing Service 64 already installed?   There is a chance that you already have a version of FlexNet Licensing Service 64 installed. Let’s check: Click the Start button or press the Windows key, then type “Services” into the search box in the Start menu, and press Enter. Windows will search for and open Windows Services Manager. If the list of services is not already sorted by name, click the Name column heading. Scroll down to services beginning with F. Do you see a FlexNet Licensing Service 64?   If you find that FlexNet Licensing Service 64 is not installed, or if you only have the 32-bit version (missing the ‘64’ in the service name), skip below to the heading Install the FlexNet Licensing Service.   Check the installed version of FlexNet Licensing Service 64   If FlexNet Licensing Service 64 is already installed, we should make sure it is version 11.19.8.0 or higher. If your FlexNet Licensing Service 64 has a lower version number, you will need to remove the older service and upgrade. We’ll get to those steps soon, but first, let’s check what version is installed:   In Windows Services Manager, scroll down to the entry for FlexNet Licensing Service 64. Double click the service name to open its Properties window. In the middle of the General tab, find the Path to executable. Copy the path location from just after the opening double quote (“) until the final backslash (\) before the filename. This is the path. It is probably something like C:\Program Files\Common Files\Macrovision Shared\FlexNet Publisher\. With the path now copied to your clipboard, note the name of the .exe. It is probably FNPLicensingService64.exe. Open a file explorer (Windows Key + E) and paste the path into the Address bar. Hit Enter to navigate to the path. Right click the .exe file that the service's Properties indicated is the service executable. Select Properties to view the .exe file’s properties. Navigate to the Properties window’s Details tab. The Product version should be version 11.19.8.0 or greater. Make sure that the Product name indicates 64-bit.   If you found that you don’t have FlexNet Licensing Service 64 installed, skip below to the heading Install the FlexNet Licensing Service.   If you found that your version number of FlexNet Licensing Service 64 is lower than 11.19.8.0, you will need to upgrade the service.   Upgrade FlexNet Licensing Service 64   To upgrade your FlexNet Licensing Service 64 to version 11.19.8.0, first complete the following: In Windows Services Manager, right click FlexNet Licensing Service 64 and choose Stop. Navigate to the Path to executable shown in the service’s properties. Rename the service’s .exe file by putting an underscore (_) in front of the .exe’s name. Continue with the instructions below under the heading Install FlexNet Licensing Service 64.   Install FlexNet Licensing Service 64   In your extracted download folder of FlexSim license server materials, navigate into the folder flexsimserveractutil. Right-click flexsimserveractutil.exe and select Run as administrator. Select the menu option Tools > Licensing Service > Install anchor service.   You should receive a confirmation that FlexNet Licensing Service 64 is now installed.     For further information on compatibility of various Flexnet licensing components, see Version Compatibility Between Components.  

Background   The method for licensing a single-user client PC saves client PC license settings to the Windows profile data of the signed in user, so license settings are saved on a per-user basis.   In cases where the exact number or identity of PC users is not predetermined, such as in a university computer lab, it is impractical to license users individually in this manner. Another use-case for this method is when FlexSim Software is automatically pushed or deployed to client PCs. Having the licensing as part of the deployment is useful.   For this mult-user method we'll use a license file on the client PC to license FlexSim software generally for any user of the PC.   Use a license file   Create a plaintext license file   On the client PC create a plaintext license file named flexsim.lic with the following 2 lines (exclude any line numbers):   SERVER 127.0.0.1 ANY 26914 USE_SERVER   If your Windows settings do not show file extensions, it is possible that your flexsim.lic license file is actually named flexsim.lic.txt, which will not work. Be sure to show file extensions and make sure your license file ends with the .lic file extension. The actual name of the file is not important (it could be helloWorld.lic, for instance), but it needs to end in .lic.   Modify   On the client PC, modify your new license file with the following changes:   On line 1 change "127.0.0.1" to the IP address or fully qualified domain name of your license server. If you modified your license server with custom port numbers, on line 1 replace the default port 26914 with your custom port number.   Install   With FlexSim software installed on a client PC, your new license file should be copied into FlexSim’s installation directory in the following location:   C:\Program Files\FlexSim <version>\program\   Your exact folder path could differ based on custom installation locations or FlexSim version, but it should be placed into FlexSim’s program\ folder.   Multiple license servers?   If your FlexSim licenses/seats are spread across multiple license servers, you can configure your client software to try to pull a license from any of your multiple license servers. Simply create a new license file for each possible license server and save each to the same program\ folder. In this scenario, in your program\ folder you would have multiple license files listed, like this:   flexsim1.lic flexsim2.lic flexsim3.lic etc. Each license file should reference a different license server and its port number.   Next   Check out the next article to learn how to verify that your client PC is licensed, and what to do if it isn't: License Server - Verify client PC licensing.  

Sometimes things don't work out the way you thought they would. Usually, at least with license servers, it just means that you missed a step, or there is some issue that wasn't considered. Below we'll outline some things you should check:   Server configuration   - Check the service   Is the FlexSim_License service you created using LMTOOLS up and running? When you created and configured your licensing service, did you check the log file? Look for any errors or issues in the log. Troubleshoot the service if necessary.   - Local test   You can rule out configuration issues by installing FlexSim locally on your license server. Configure the local FlexSim installation using the port you specified (default is 26914) and the local IP address 127.0.0.1, to point your local FlexSim installation to the local license server to see if your license server can license itself.   - Connectivity problems   If your local test works, then your client PC licensing issues may actually stem from connectivity problems. In that case, check out our article Client/Server connectivity.   - Check, check again   Double check that your server is configured properly. When viewing your license service’s log file, you should see indications of ports in use, features being served, etc. (lmtools, lmadmin). If no features are listed, or port numbers are different than what was expected, please revisit the configuration guide (lmtools, lmadmin). Carefully read and execute each step of the instructions to make sure that you have properly configured your license server.   Overzealous anti-virus   Some anti-virus solutions prevent unrecognized services from running or accessing necessary functionality. If a local test (above) works, you may only need to test disabling anti-virus solutions on the client PC. Or if you're trying to get the license service to run on the server, you may need to test there also. Remember to reactivate your anti-virus software after this experiment.   Version or product mismatch   Your actual license, activated to your server using flexsimserveractutil.exe (online, manual), must be for a FlexSim version the same or greater than the software’s version number.   Your license is also for a specific product (FlexSim vs FlexSim Healthcare vs FlexTerm, etc.).   See the article FlexSim Version Numbering, for more information regarding FlexSim versioning and how it relates to licensing.   Seats all in use   If your FlexSim client software is not obtaining a license from the server, it’s possible that all seats are already in use on other client PCs. Check the log files (lmtools, lmadmin) to determine where your seats are currently in use.

Background   Often a client PC is used by a single user who should have access to change license settings.   This method saves licensing settings to the user’s Windows profile. In this manner licensing is saved on a per-user basis and should be completed in advance for each FlexSim user on this client PC.   In some situations it is better to license the PC once for any user who might log in. This can be the case for a university computer lab, for instance. If your situation would be better served by licensing the software one time for all users of the PC, please check out our guide to license a mult-user client PC.   Configure Licensing   To license an individual Windows user, do the following while logged into Windows as that user:   Open FlexSim software on the client PC by right clicking the program icon and choosing Run as Administrator. You won't normally need to start FlexSim under elevated privileges, but sometimes licensing the PC for the first time requires it. Go to the software’s main menu and select Help > License Activation. Navigate to the License Server tab. Check Use concurrent licensing. Enter the License Server Address using the form port@host, where host is an IP address or fully qualified domain name (FQDN). For example, if your license server is reachable via the FQDN licenseserver.mycompany.com: If you used FlexSim’s default license service port number, enter 26914@licenseserver.mycompany.com. If you specified a custom port, use that number instead. For example, if you entered 27500 as your custom port number, you should enter 27500@licenseserver.mycompany.com. Click Apply Configuration.   Multiple license servers?   If your FlexSim licenses/seats are spread across multiple license servers, you can configure your client software to try to pull a license from any of your multiple license servers. Simply enter all available license server options, separated using a semi-colon, like this:   26914@lic.server.one;27001@lic.server.two;27009@lic.server.three   Here is an example image:   The software will attempt to contact each license server in turn until it obtains a seat or has attempted all license servers and failed.   In the example above, lic.server.one and lic.server.two are fully qualified domain names to properly configured license servers, with lmgrd serving on ports 26914 and 27001 respectively. You could also use an IP address instead of a FQDN.   Next   Check out the next article to learn how to verify that your client PC is licensed, and what to do if it isn't: License Server - Verify client PC licensing.

You've installed, configured, and started your license server. FlexSim is installed and your client PCs are set to get a license from your license server. How can you tell if they're communicating and licensing properly? You can check both the client PC and the license server to make sure that licensing is happening: Client PC Within FlexSim software on the client PC, go to the main menu, Help > About FlexSim. The popup should indicate the activated license type. Test licensed features to see if they work. Check the article FlexSim Feature Limitations by License Type to see what features should be available given your license type (Enterprise, Educational, Student, Runtime). For instance, the Experimenter feature should be available to each of those license types. License Server In lmtools logs (Config Services > View Log…), you should see that a seat is in use. (See How do I read/analyze my vendor daemon logs? What do the various lines mean?). In lmadmin logs you should see that a seat is in use. If your client PC is not getting licensed and/or your license server logs don't indicate communication with a client PC, check the license server troubleshooting steps.

Trusted Storage FlexSim is licensed using FlexNet's Trusted Storage. Trusted Storage is a secure storage area FlexNet creates on your license server where it keeps encrypted and hashed license information for licensing FlexSim. Before you can activate a FlexSim license to your license server, its Trusted Storage must be configured. This is done by your license server authenticating with FlexSim's main license server. Below we'll cover configuring Trusted Storage on your license server. If you're here looking for instructions for standalone licensing, check out the article Standalone - Configure Trusted Storage. I haven't configured Trusted Storage before - why now? When your license server communicates over the Internet with FlexSim, this initial Trusted Storage configuration happens automatically and invisibly during the course of the license server's first license activation. The first time you activate a FlexSim license to your license server, your license server and FlexSim's main license server authenticate with each other, configuring your local Trusted Storage, and then immediately activating the requested license. In other words: Internet-connected activation = automatic and transparent Trusted Storage configuration. But you're here because your license server can't communicate over the Internet with FlexSim's main license server. Consequently, your Trusted Storage configuration must be completed manually before activating any license. Create a Trusted Storage config request On your license server, in your extracted download folder of FlexSim license server materials, navigate into the folder flexsimserveractutil. Right-click flexsimserveractutil.exe and select Run as administrator. In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, go to Tools > Manual Activation > Generate Request. Enter a valid Activation ID. You can use our special activation ID configure-ts, but any valid activation ID can work. Enter 1 for the Count (seat quantity). Click Browse to select an Output File. Choose a filename for the saved request. We used configure-ts.xml. Press Save. Press Generate. You've just saved a new XML activation request in the location you selected. You can confirm this is a Trusted Storage config request by viewing the saved XML file in a text editor like Notepad. A configuration request will lack the TrustedHostInformation tag. If your configure.xml file contains that tag, that means your Trusted Storage is already configured. In that case, you can move on to the offline license activation steps for your license server. Otherwise, continue configuring your Trusted Storage below. Submit your Trusted Storage configuration request Transfer your Trusted Storage config request XML file from your chosen save location to a computer with Internet access. From your Internet-connected computer, open a web browser and login to any FlexSim Account - even a new guest account will work. Click the Licenses link in the header, then choose Manual XML in the Licenses submenu. Upload your XML request file by dragging it onto the drop zone. Your uploaded XML request will be processed. Upon completion, you will be prompted to download the XML response. Did you get a red error message instead of a green success indicator? A message "Fulfill count exceeded the available seat count" means that Trusted Storage is already configured on your license server. In that case, move on to the offline license activation steps for your license server. Otherwise, continue below to finish configuring your Trusted Storage. Process your manual activation responses Transfer your downloaded XML activation response to your offline license server. In the FlexSim ServerActUtil program, go to Tools > Manual Activation > Process Response. Browse to an XML activation response file. Press Process. FlexSim should give you an indication of successful processing of your config request. At this point your Trusted Storage should be fully configured. You are ready to activate your licenses. 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.

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.

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.