FLEXlm Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Hostids
Q1.1 How do I get the system hostid?
Q1.2 On HP700 the hostid seems to be blank. Why?
Q1.3 At some HP sites lmhostid gives an ethernet hostid, and at others a uname -i hostid. Why?
Q1.4 For some applications, the hostid on some SGI systems seems to be wrong. Why?
Q1.5 On NT, I'm getting a 0 hostid (or FFFFFFFF)--how do I fix this?
Q2. License File Locations
Q2.1 My application can't seem to find the license file. What do I do?
Q2.2 lmstat doesn't report all the features in my license file. Why?
Q2.3 I've received FLEXlm license files from 2 different companies. Do I have to combine them?
Q2.4 I want to combine license files. How do I do it?
Q2.5 When is it recommended to combine license files?
Q3. License File Contents
Q3.1 What are the components of a license file?
Q3.2 What does a demo license look like?
Q4. FLEXlm Versions
Q4.1 I have products from several companies at various FLEXlm version levels. Do I have to worry about how these versions work together?
Q4.2 I've received a new copy of a product from a vendor, and it uses a new version of FLEXlm. Is my old license file still valid?
Q4.3 I've received a new license file, and the format is different from the old one I had from the same vendor? Why? Are they compatible?
Q4.4 How do versions of FLEXlm differ?
Q5. Using FLEXlm
Q5.1 How do I install a FLEXlm license file?
Q5.2 How do I start the FLEXlm license server?
Q5.3 I'm having trouble starting the license server in the system bootup files. How can I get this to work?
Q5.4 My server refuses to start. I get the message `No licenses to serve'.
Q5.5 Does FLEXlm work across the internet?
Q5.6 If my client dies, does the server free the license?
Q5.7 What happens when the license server dies?
Q5.8 I'm getting the error `encryption code in license file is inconsistent'. What does this mean?
Q5.9 How do you tell if a port is already in use?
Q5.10 How do you start lmgrd on NT?
Q6. How FLEXlm Works.
Q6.1 What prevents me from changing a license file?
Q6.2 What goes into a license-key?
Q6.3 Q6.3 How hard is it to guess a license-key?
Q6.4 So, does that mean that FLEXlm is unbreakable.
Q6.5 How fast does a checkout occur?
Q6.6 Does FLEXlm licensing impose a heavy load on the network.
Q6.7 Does FLEXlm work with NFS?
Q6.8 Does FLEXlm work with subnets, fully-qualified names, multiple domains, etc.?
Q6.9 Is the FLEXlm `display' the same as an X-Display?
Q6.10 We're using FLEXlm over a wide-area network. What can we do to improve performance?
Q7. Redundant Servers
Q7.1 What are FLEXlm redundant servers?
Q7.2 How do I start up redundant servers? Is there a time-limit for starting all the servers?
Q7.3 Why is a quorum of 2 servers required?
Q7.4 When are redundant servers recommended?
Q7.5 When are redundant servers discouraged?
Q7.6 Is it OK to NFS-mount license files when using redundant servers?
Q7.7 How can the colon-separated list in $LM_LICENSE_FILE be used for redundancy?
Q7.8 Are there any drawbacks to using the colon-separated list for redundancy?
Q7.9 When is it recommended to use colon-separated list for redundancy rather than true redundant servers?
Q8. FLEXlm utilities (lmstat, etc.)
Q8.1 How do I tell who's currently using a feature?
Q8.2 How do I see historical usage of a feature?
Q8.3 How do I tell what version of FLEXlm I'm using?
Q8.4 Q8.4 How do I tell if I've typed in the license file correctly?
Q8.5 Q8.5 I'm getting `Cannot Connect' errors. How do I determine what's wrong?
Q8.6 lmremove doesn't seem to work: after freeing a license, it becomes checked out shortly after. Why?
Q8.7 How do I prevent users at my site from being able to use lmdown?
Q8.8 If I can't use lmdown, how do I shutdown the servers?
Q8.9 When I run lmdown on redundant servers, it doesn't seem to work. Why?
Q9. End-User Options File
Q9.1 How do I enable the Options file?
Q9.2 Why doesn't TIMEOUT work?
Q9.3 Is the Options GROUP the same as a Unix group (/etc/groups)?
Q9.4 I need to have more users in a GROUP - how can I get around the 240 character limitation?
Q9.5 I need a GROUP of hosts, not users.
Q9.6 What is REPORTLOG for?