Inventor retains Vault Pro license after user logs out of Vault

[bcalvert]

We recently upgraded to Vault Professional 2017. We have 8 licenses and more users. We asked our users to share licenses by using an Open/Close mode when accessing AVP 2017. While tedious, this method would work except for the fact that Inventor retains a vault license even after the user has logged out of the vault within an Inventor session. It appears to take up to 60 minutes for Inventor to release the license file. Only by closing Inventor can the user be assured the license is released. Accessing the vault from within an Inventor session is the most intuitive way to operate; why doesn't the software release license when user logs out?

[rcraig]

There are two reasons that spring to mind why this occurs:  (1) The license release protocols weren't fully vetted, thus Autodesk isn't aware of the problem.  (2)  Autodesk is aware of the problem but ignores it as it is a useful prod to sell more Vault Pro licenses to users duped into investing in Vault Pro.

[mrneibling]

Seems like this should be an easy fix. 

[ihayesjr]

Unfortunately, due to the changing license technology, it is not possible for the add-in to release the license upon logout.  If the licensing technology changes in the future, we will look at this again.

[mrneibling]

Can you further explain your comment? What is "changing license technology" and "add-in"?

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[ihayesjr]

The license code (technology) has been changed for all products at Autodesk beginning with the 2017 releases. The code changed affected the way Vault consumes licenses, including the add-ins.

[mrneibling]

Vault Pro being the Add-In? Are you still using the FlexNet products or does Autodesk have their own now?

[ihayesjr]

Yes, FlexNet is still the backend.

[bcalvert]

So Inventor is an "add-in" ? Or Vault Professional is an "add-in" ? I thought Inventor and Vault Professional were designed to work together?

[ihayesjr]

Vault Professional installs a Vault add-in into Inventor. They are designed to work together, however each requires their own license.

[mrneibling]

So somehow the interaction between Inventor and the vault pro add-in keeps the vault add-in "log out" button from working? What's the point of the button then?

[ihayesjr]

The Logout button does log you off the Vault Server, it just will not release the license until you close Inventor.

[bcalvert]

And that is exactly our complaint.

[ihayesjr]

Yes, I understand what you are asking. Thanks for posting the idea request.

[GeorgK]

I do not like this license behavior. Autodesk should change it. The license should only be used if the user is logged in.

[hallgrimurmar]

Also on this subject.  If the Job Processor is running then that takes a licence even if it is only running Idle.  That means that I have to exit the job processor and manually turn it on daily to run it.

[dan.faux]

This is not a Vault 2017 behaviour as far as we have observed. It only seems to have begun with Hotfix 2017.0.2. Prior to that, we did exactly what bcalvert did and it worked great. We have many seats of Inventor Pro and LT but fewer Vault Pro seats. This is because our machinists manufacture from drawings in LT so they just need a vault licence to get the latest drawing, then they stay out. Until this hotfix, I harped on our guys to stay out of the vault unless you were getting files and it worked great. Now, the only way I can get the licences released is to log into LMTOOLS and restart the licence server. Every time we run out of licences I do this and always I get 3 or more licences back that weren't actually in use. I'm actually looking into how to use lmutil.exe and a windows script to do this regularly. It's a workaround for something that Autodesk should own up to.

LMTOOLS has been on v11.13.1.2 since 2015. It is obviously not their change that has invoked this. Sounds to me like it's Autodesk trying to force users to purchase more licences. Just like the subscription licencing model, it is only pushing us further away from Autodesk. If they would fix their problems we might stick around. Otherwise, I know a few other packages out there that actually listen to their customer's concerns.

[dan.faux]

Until Autodesk addresses this issue, we have found a workaround that seems to work flawlessly (anyone familiar with Autodesk products should be familiar with workarounds).

Create a batch file with the following code:

cd "C:\Autodesk\Network License Manager\"

lmutil lmdown -q -c \VAULT2017-PC.LIC

lmgrd -c "C:\autodesk\Network License Manager\VAULT2017-PC.LIC"

exit /b

If your licence manager isn't located in the indicated directory, update the file directory structure.

Schedule this batch file to run every 15 minutes. This does not shut down the Vault server every 15 min, but instead shuts down the licence server and restarts it. All licences are returned until a user actually does something that needs a licence, in which case the licence server issues a new licence.

It is transparent to the user. They have no idea their licences are being returned every 15 min and only re-issued if they actually are using one. We have gone from running out of licences more than 10 times a day to never using up more than half of our licences at any one time. It's quite surprising how little people actually use the vault (ie actually communicate with the server) rather than simply being logged in using a licence that isn't really needed.

[wrbritz]

 Dan.Faux - where does the batch file run?  On the Vault Server or on the Client workstations?

[dan.faux]

On the Server Computer. We've been using it for a while now and it works
very well. Guys no longer even have to log out of the Vault. If they aren't
accessing it they lose their licence after 5 min. Autodesk should invoke
something like this, but of course then they would sell fewer licences
because people would only need one when they are actually using one.