Port number used for network licensing of Autodesk products (Firewall Exception)

[david.lau]

If you are setting up a Firewall exception for Autodesk Network Licensing, you will need to know the following:

• Port 2080 is used for the adskflex.exe
• Port 27000-27009 is used for the lmgrd.exe

The default license file will start with the following 3 lines:

   SERVER Your-SERVER-name 0025b3282c6b

   USE_SERVER  

   VENDOR adskflex port=2080

To force the lmgrd to use a particular port, just edit the network license file as noted below:

   SERVER Your-SERVER-name 0025b3282c6b 27000
   USE_SERVER
   VENDOR adskflex port=2080

You do not need to change 2080 as this port has been reserved for Autodesk.  

Firewall exception instructions are as noted below:

• Incoming > Add Port > Name: Autodesk 2080 > Port Number:  2080 > Protocol TCP
• Incoming > Add Port > Name: Autodesk 27000 > Port Number:  27000 > Protocol TCP

NOTE:  For Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you can actually put in a range of ports. i.e. 27000-27009.  You may not need to force the system to look at a particular port number i.e. 27000.

The client license, if you have added the custom port on the server license file would be:

SERVER Your-SERVER-name 0 27000
USE_SERVER

[TravisNave · Accepted solution]

lmgrd.exe uses ports 27000~27009.  It's also good to add all four of the NLM files to the exception list as well:

lmgrd.exe

lmutil.exe

lmtools.exe

adskflex.exe

If you have other vendors in addition to the Autodesk products (i.e. Minitab, VMWare, Ansys, etc.) be sure to add the appropriate vendor .exe and port number also. 

[Robert49494949]

On Windows Server 2008 R2, I added inbound TCP rules for the ports described.

• Port 2080 is used for the adskflex.exe
• Port 27000-27009 is used for the lmgrd.exe

Still clients can only connect when I disable the firewall completely.  I even tried adding all exe files and it still doesn't work with the Firewall enabled.  Any ideas?

The error on the client machine is:

Flexnet License Manager

Networking Error: Server ("myserver") not responding.  Please contact System Administrator for assistance.

As soon as I disable the firewall on the server, the error goes away.  I'm a bit confused as I added exceptions for all recommended ports and programs.

[Robert49494949]

Finally figured it out. I had to enable the Ping Firewall rule called "File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-In)"

[Darin.Green]

David,

First of all, Good Post!I

I have a few questions for you, and I hope someone would answer since this post is about a year old...

1. Can I change the port number to something other than 27000 - 27009 to something like 6799?

2. Can I have all of my licenses (which utilizes different vendor daemons) into one license file that is configured as one service within LMTOOLS?

Thanks!

[TravisNave]

Darin,

You can change the port as described. And you can combine license files for other vendors if the headers match. Regardless you can use one single license manager for all vendors. I just made a KB post on this. See my combining LIC files in my signature below.

[Darin.Green]

Thanks for the reply Travis. However, in you other post regarding combining licenses, it also reads you must create different services for each vendor's license.

Here's a snippet from your other post regarding combining license files:

• "Once the vendor daemons and the license files have been appropriately placed, a separate license service needs to be created for each vendor license.  To do this, open LMTOOLS and go to the Config Services tab.  In each separate service from the 'Service Name' pull-down list, you would point to the same LMGRD.EXE master daemon file listed in the first box labeled 'Path to the lmgrd.exe file.'  This will ensure that each service is using the latest master daemon file and that more than one master daemon version is not being used.  Next point each service to its relative license file.  Finally, you should also give each service its own separate debug.log file.  Save each service you create, making sure that both check boxes at the bottom are checked."

Also, in regard to the port numbers, the following link suggest using ports 27000 - 27009. Here's a snippet as well as a link to the page:

• "Note: Specifying a port outside of the 27000-27009 range should be avoided unless the vendor specifies that a particular port outside of the range should be used instead."

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=2865829&linkID=9240617

I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing before implimenting, and 90+ users are sitting around without licenses.

Thanks for all of you help!

[TravisNave]

You can only combine license files if the top lines of each license header are identical. If so, then just paste the vendor lone and then the necessary INCREMENT lines. If they are not the same, you cannot combine the files. In that case, you simply create a separate service from within the same LMTOOLS and using the same lmgrd.exe file.

Clear as mud yet?

[Darin.Green]

Ok, that make sense! Thanks Travis.

[TravisNave]

No problem! I've run this thing in so many configurations, not much surprises me anymore. If you ever need help with it, just let me know.

[TravisNave]

I've made another addition to my KB post on this issue with an example of how to combine license files from different products.  Hope that helps future members. 

[Anonymous]

Just to be clear, if I specify the lmgrd port in the license file  -  I still need to open TCP ports 27000-27009 in the firewall?  I have other flexlm licenses already being served on ports 27000 - 27004 and 27006

This is specified in the AutoDesk license file:

SERVER licenseservername 0050569A251A 27005
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080

thanks,

aberdamy

[Darin.Green]

Aberdamy,

Yes, you still need to open the ports via the firewall. Or, just change the port criteria to 27000 - 27006.

Also, if you open ports 27000-27009, there's no need to specify a particular port (within the license file) because it'll find the next available port to use.

Thanks,

[TravisNave]

Correct. I typically try not to use port 27005 though, as it is generally
reserved for redundant license managers by Autodesk.

[Anonymous]

Ok thanks guys.  I guess I'm just wondering why it needs to have all of those ports open even while specifying a port in the license file.  We don't have any redundant Autodesk license managers so i'm not really worried about that but it makes it difficult to run other flexlm products on defined flexlm ports and still lock down firewall rules.

I saw another post that said ICMP must be allowed as well for clients to check out a license is that true?

We are having some issues with specific clients checking out licenses after we updated the license manager on a different server and migrated the license over.

Aberdamy

[Anonymous]

I have a situation this year where Autodesk 2015 educational suite programs are taking a very very very very long time to get a license. It takes 5 minutes to 15 minutes to get the license from the server. License utility is version 11.12 so it is the latest. This is the same hardware/server that has issued Autodesk licenses for a 3 years now and is running on Windows server 2008 R2 physical server. I have firewall ports open for 2080 and ports 27000-27009. Last year I had an issue where Matlab was also using 27000 so moved it to 27009. In one case I was remoted into a cad machine and into the server and watched the workstation request a license and the server issued a license in 70 seconds. 4 minutes later the workstation got the license. Today I added the environment variables (ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE and FLEXLM_Timeout) to a couple workstations then tried to load AutoCAD 2015. From the time the application said it was checking license it was 13 minutes and 5 seconds to get the license from the server and the server log file verified that it issued the license 13 minutes later. I tried modifying the license file to include port 27000 (after the mac address on the first line) and LMGRD stopped working. I had to remove that. I added the line after VENDOR adskflex port=2080 VENDOR LMGRD port=27000 I do notice that the log file is telling me that TCP_NODELAY is off. Autodesk 2013 and 2014 only took about a minute to issue a license so 15 minutes just is not acceptable but am not finding a fix for my problem. Has anyone else run into this? Thank you. Jim

[Darin.Green]

Hi Southerner,

Change the contents in the license to include the 27000 in the following area.

SERVER name 0000111122223333 27000
USE_SERVER

VENDOR adskflex port=2080

After changing the license file, open the license manager utility to Stop then Start the server.

Next, on the client machines modify the Environment Variable to match the following:

ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE

27000@servername; 27000@server-IP-Address

The application should open alot faster.

[Anonymous]

I actually did have the license file where 27000 was at the end of the first line and that was where the server stopped and could not talk to LMGRD. When that happened I put it back. The one thing I did not do was on the line 27000@myserver.com I did not also have a line that had 27000@myserver-IP address in addition. I did have the environment line value 270000@myserver.com and that was when I got the 13 minutes to get license.

[mdhutchinson]

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@david.lau wrote:

NOTE:  For Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you can actually put in a range of ports. i.e. 27000-27009.  You may not need to force the system to look at a particular port number i.e. 27000.

Question: Very old post here. I have users who have just relocated into a new office building a bit more than a month ago, 80% or so brand new LAN.  Since moving I have several users getting nearly daily disconnects fromt the license manager.

What about under Windows Server 2012 R2... can you also do a range of ports?... if so is is like this?...

SERVER Your-SERVER-name 0025b3282c6b 27000-27009
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080

[Anonymous]

Yes 2012 and 2012R2 allow a port range just like 2008 did.