FLEXnet Licensing

1 FLEXnet Licensing

Overview

This guide will walk you through the FLEXnet License Server installation process. Please do not hesitate to contact Thinkbox Support if you run into any problems along the way. Note that most Thinkbox software such as Deadline, Krakatoa or Frost can be run in license free mode and do not need a license server for limited functionality.

Before you can supply licenses using the license server, you must receive a license file from the Thinkbox Sales team. To request a trial license or purchase a permanent license, please contact Thinkbox Sales. Once the request for a license is sent, you will receive a response typically within one business day.

Once you have your license, you can then proceed to set up your License Server. If you have licensing difficulties, please read the License Server Troubleshooting section of this guide.

Supplementary documentation on FLEXnet licensing for end users is available from Flexera, the supplier of the FLEXnet licensing technology) at the following pages:

License Server Change

In late 2011, the vendor daemon was altered to allow better security as well as automatic configuration for client software on IPv4 networks. This required a new vendor daemon to be created so that previous licenses would continue to work in the future. For those who are familiar with flexnet publisher, the only change that must be made is to include the new 'thinkbox' vendor daemon with the original 'frantic' daemon. Both can be found within the download section of the Thinkbox website.

The following products moved from the frantic to thinkbox vendor daemon. All future products not listed here will by default require the thinkbox daemon.

Krakatoa SR/MX 2.0
Deadline 5.1
Frost 1.2
XMesh 1.01

To upgrade, you must replace the binaries. Simply follow the installation instructions mentioned further down in this document. Make sure that lmgrd and lmtools are not running during the copy phase of the installation so they can be replaced properly.

Information Needed For Licensing

License files require information about the server it will be hosted from, such as the network adapter's MAC address and the hostname or IP address of the machine.

The license file itself is stored as a plain text ASCII file, which contains encrypted keys that tie the license to the MAC address of the machine that will host the license server. Considering that the encryption is not set by the host name, it can be changed without needing a new license from Thinkbox Software.

Moving a License to a New Machine

When moving the license software to a new machine, you must contact Thinkbox Sales with the hostname and MAC address of the new machine so they may modify your license accordingly. Including your company and contact information will help the Sales department locate your previous license.

Note that a license relocation can only be done once free of charge per year while on an existing contract. Additional relocations are priced at $100 each.

MAC Address and Hostname

Your MAC address will either have the format XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX or XX-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX where X will be a number from 0 to 9 or letter from A to F.

To ease finding your MAC address and hostname, we have bundled scripts for OS X, Windows, BSD, and Linux. They perform the same steps as the following sections, but in an automated way. They will write a file to the current user's Desktop named license_info.txt.

You may download them

Finding on Windows

Follow these steps to find your MAC address on windows:

Find the 'run' box in the Windows XP start menu, or the 'Search programs' box in the start menu on Vista and above
Copy and paste the following text into that box: cmd /c hostname > %userprofile%/Desktop/license_info.txt && ipconfig /all >> %userprofile%/Desktop/license_info.txt
Press enter. This will create a text document on your desktop named 'license_info.txt'.
Find the line(s) beginning with 'Physical Address' within that file. These are your MAC addresses. Thinkbox requires only one.
If there are multiple MAC addresses specified, it's best to take one which has an 'IPv4 Address' or 'IPv6 Address' address associated with it.

Note: If you are supplying this information directly to Thinkbox Sales, you may skip steps 4 and 5 and attach 'license_info' directly to your support ticket.

Finding on Linux or OSX

Follow these steps to find your MAC address on Linux:

Open a terminal
Copy and paste the following into your terminal: hostname > ~/Desktop/license_info.txt && ifconfig -a >> ~/Desktop/license_info.txt
Press enter. This will create a text document on your desktop named 'license_info.txt'. You can now close the terminal.
Look for a line within the text file starting with 'ether'. This is your MAC address.
There may be multiple MAC addresses specified. It's best to take one which has an 'inet' or 'inet6' line defined.

Note: If you are supplying this information directly to Thinkbox Sales, you may skip steps 4 and 5 and attach 'license_info' directly to your support ticket.

Changing hostname or IP address manually

The encryption within the license file is only based on the MAC address. This allows end users to freely modify the IP or host name within the license file. This is helpful for when the host operating system has been reinstalled with a different host name or if network addresses have been reconfigured. To modify the file, follow these steps:

First, make a backup copy of your current license file so that you can roll back in case of error. As the license file is saved as text, you can use any plain text editor to edit your license file. There should be a line at the beginning of the file which begins with SERVER. For example, if your server's host name is 'MyServer' with a MAC address of 01:23:45:56:89:AB, the server line should read:

SERVER MyServer 0123456789AB

If your license file is using an IP address of '192.168.1.1' instead, the line should read:

SERVER 192.168.1.1 0123456789AB

Note that you can swap the host name with the IP address (or vice versa) in the SERVER line as you wish. To change the host name or IP address, just replace the existing text in the SERVER line. For example, if the new host name is NewServer, you would change the SERVER line to read:

SERVER NewServer 0123456789AB

After saving the file, reread the license file as explained here. When specifying the license server for your software, make sure you use the new server name. Using our example above, you would specify @NewServer. Don't forget the '@' symbol!

Retrieving your license server machine information on Windows

Open a command prompt, and run "ipconfig /all". Look for the Host Name, IP Address, and Physical Address properties to retrieve this information.

Retrieving your license server machine information on Linux and OSX

Open a terminal. To get the host name, simply run "hostname" and the name will be printed out. To get the IP address and MAC address, run "ifconfig" and look for the inet addr and HWaddr properties to retrieve this information.

Installing the FLEXnet License Server

Windows

The following instructions detail how to set-up your FLEXnet license manager using LMTools.

Create a FLEXnet directory on your license server machine. For the purposes of this example, let's assume this folder is C:\FLEXnet.
Aquire the licensing binaries from one of these locations
- From http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/license-server-download/
- From the Deadline repository in \\server\DeadlineRepository\flexTools
- From Krakatoa's install directory under the 'etc' folder.
- From Frost or XMesh Saver's install directory under the 'Licensing' folder.
Copy the license file provided by the Thinkbox Sales team to C:\FLEXnet.
Launch LMTools.exe from C:\FLEXnet.

Now that LMTools is running, you need to configure the license server to run as a service. Note that this requires Administrator privileges.

Select the Service/License File tab.
Click the Configuration using Services radio button.

Select the Config Services tab.
In the Service Name, type the name of the service that you want to define. It is recommended that you use the name Thinkbox License Manager.
In the Path to the lmgrd.exe file field, enter C:\FLEXnet\lmgrd.exe.
In the Path to the license file field, enter or browse to the license file provided by the Thinkbox Sales team.
In the Path to the debug log file, enter or browse to the debug log file that this license server writes. For most users, entering C:\FLEXnet\thinkbox.log should be sufficient.
To ensure that the license service is always running and automatically started upon system reboot it is necessary to check the Use Services and Start Server at Power Up check boxes at the bottom of the dialog.
To save the new Thinkbox License Manager service, click the Save Service button.

Now that the Thinkbox License Manager has been configured, you need to start the license server.

Select the Service/License File tab.
Click the Configuration using Services radio button.
Select the Thinkbox service name from the list presented in the selection box. If you followed the recommendations above, the service name should be Thinkbox License Manager.

Click the Start/Stop/Reread tab.
Start Thinkbox License Manager by clicking the Start Server button.

If LMTools indicated that the server started successfully, then Thinkbox License Manager should now be running and writing its debug log output to C:\FLEXnet\thinkbox.log. A quick way to confirm that the license server is running is to open the Task Manager and see if the lmgrd.exe, thinkbox.exe and frantic.exe (if using older products) processes are running under the Processes tab (make sure you're viewing the processes from all users). If they are not, then it's likely that the license manager exited with an error shortly after starting. When this happens, we recommend using the LMGRD method on Windows described below. It's a lot easier to get meaningful error messages from the license manager in this mode. Once the problem has been determined and fixed, then you can go back to using the LMTools method to get the server installed as a service.

If LMTools indicated that the license server failed to start, again we recommend using the LMGRD method on Windows described below. As an alternative, you can refer to the License Server Troubleshooting section to determine what the problem is.

Linux and OS X

The following instructions detail how to set-up your FLEXnet license manager using lmgrd.

Create a FLEXnet directory on your license server machine. We expect it to be /usr/local/Thinkbox/flexnet for the init.d script.

Aquire the licensing binaries from one of these locations
- From http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/license-server-download/
- From the root of the Deadline repository in the flexTools folder

Include the license file provided by the Thinkbox Sales team with these binaries.
Run the following command to start the license server:
```
./lmgrd -z -c *.lic
```
Note that this starts up the license server in the same terminal window. If you want to run it in the background as a daemon, omit the '-z' flag.

LMGRD will print out any errors to the terminal, which you can use to help diagnose problems. If you're having trouble, include the output text in a request to the Thinkbox Support team. Refer to the Licensing Error Message section for known error messages and possible solutions. As an alternative, you can refer to the License Server Troubleshooting section to determine what the problem is.

Automatically Start License Server On Linux

The Linux tar packages available on [our vendor daemon download page] includes the init script within the 'init.d' directory. Note that while there are no known issues with the script, they are provided as a convenience and are unsupported. Please also read and understand it's workings and configure paths as appropriate.

Refer to your distribution's documentation on how to install this init script. Typically, it should be as simple as copying the 'thinkboxlm' script into the `/etc/init.d` directory, then symlinking that file to `/etc/rc3.d/S99thinkboxlm` but as there can be differences, please cross reference these instructions to assure they will work on your server.

Automatically Start License Server On OSX

This is currently unsupported.

Updating the FLEXnet License Server to Use a New License File

Using LMTools On Windows

Find your old license file and make a backup copy of it. This should be the license file that the license server is currently using. Copy the new license file over the old one, and then do the following:

Run LMTools (if it is not already open), and select the Service/License File tab.
Click the Configuration using Services radio button.
Select the Thinkbox service name from the list presented in the selection box. If you followed the recommendations above the service name should be Thinkbox License Manager.

Click the Start/Stop/Reread tab.
Click the ReRead License File button.

Using LMGRD On Windows

Find your old license file and make a backup copy of it. This should be the license file that the license server is currently using. Copy the new license file over the old one, then stop the lmgrd license server application and launch it again as described above.

Using LMGRD On Linux and OS X

Configuring FLEXnet License Server to Use a Specific Port

By default, the license server will use the first available port it finds. It usually starts at 27000 and goes from there. However, there may be a case where you want the license server to use a specific port. This is done by editing your license file, and because the license file is only tied to the license server's MAC address, you can change port number manually.

First, make a backup copy of your current license file so that you have a roll back option. Then open your license file in a text editor (it's just an ASCII text file). You should see SERVER and VENDOR lines at the top. For example:

SERVER MyServer 0123456789AB

VENDOR thinkbox

FEATURE ...

FEATURE ...

Thinkbox products will use to connect to the license server. This is usually the one you want to specify, especially if you plan to create an exception for a firewall or other security application. This can be done by adding the port number to the end of the SERVER line. Using our example above, if we want to use the port 27009, our license file would now look like this:

SERVER MyServer 0123456789AB 27009

VENDOR thinkbox

FEATURE ...

FEATURE ...

After saving the file, reread the license file as explained here. When specifying the license server for your software, you will now need to use the format PORT@SERVER. Using our example above, you would specify 27009@MyServer (you only need to specify the SERVER port, not the VENDOR port). Don't forget the '@' symbol!

FLEXnet License Server Troubleshooting

The following is a step by step guide you can follow to ensure your license server is up and running, and to get your software connecting to it. If at the end of this guide you are still having problems, feel free to contact Thinkbox Support for help.

Check The Path That The License Server Is Being Run From

The license server may have trouble running if the directory that the license and vendor files are in is called 'thinkbox', for example:

C:\FLEXnet\thinkbox\

If this is the case, renaming the folder that the license and vendor files are in may help.

Check The License File

Open the license file that you received from Thinkbox Sales and confirm a few things. First, look at the SERVER line and you should see the following:

SERVER [IP ADDRESS OR HOST NAME] [MAC ADDRESS]

Confirm that the IP Address or Host Name matches that of your license server machine.
Confirm that the MAC address is the correct MAC address of your license server machine.

If the IP Address or Host Name is incorrect, simply change it to the correct value and save the license file. The license file is only bound to the to the MAC address, which is why you can change this manually. If the MAC address is incorrect, send the correct MAC address and Host Name/IP Address to Thinkbox Sales and we will generate a new license for you.

Another thing to check is the end-of-line (EOL) characters used in the license file. On Windows, there should be line feed (LF) and carriage return (CR) characters at the end of each line. On Linux and Mac OSX, there should just be LF characters.

A text editor that can show the EOL characters is SciTE. After opening the license file in SciTE, select View -> End Of Line. To change the EOL characters, select Options -> End Line Characters, then convert them by selecting Options -> Convert Line End Characters.

Make Sure The License Server Is Not Already Running

This mainly applies to users who are already using one of our products (like Krakatoa or Frost). All of our products use the same license server vendor daemon (thinkbox) to distribute floating licenses, and only one instance of this daemon can be running at a time on the same machine. If you already have a license server that is distributing floating Krakatoa licenses and need to add Deadline (for example), you will have to append your Deadline license to the Krakatoa license so that the license server can distribute both.

Let's assume you already have a floating Krakatoa license that looks like this:

SERVER machine_name 000000000000

VENDOR thinkbox

FEATURE krakatoa-max thinkbox 2.00 permanent 1 BORROW SIGN=0

FEATURE krakatoa-render thinkbox 2.00 permanent 2 SIGN=0

Now let's assume your Deadline license looks like this:

SERVER machine_name 000000000000

VENDOR thinkbox

FEATURE deadline thinkbox 5.00 permanent 45 SIGN=0

Because the SERVER and VENDOR lines are the same, you only need to append the Deadline FEATURE line(s) to the Krakatoa license. The result would be:

SERVER machine_name 000000000000

VENDOR thinkbox 

FEATURE krakatoa-max thinkbox 2.00 permanent 1 BORROW SIGN=0

FEATURE krakatoa-render thinkbox 2.00 permanent 2 SIGN=0

FEATURE deadline thinkbox 5.10 permanent 45 SIGN=0

Of course, if your Deadline license was generated for a different machine, you will need us to generate a new license using the same server information that was used for the Krakatoa license. If you mention it, we should be able to combine the licenses before sending it back.

Start The License Server

If everything looks correct, the next step is to start the license server.

On Windows

Some users have experienced problems running the 64 bit FLEXnet binaries on a 64 bit Windows machine. If this is the case for you, try using the 32 bit binaries instead. There aren't any known issues with running the 32 bit binaries on a 64 bit machine.

Start up LMTools.exe on your license server machine, and then select the Configuration Using Services option and select the Thinkbox License Manager from the list below. Then select the Config Services tab and confirm that the path to the lmgrd.exe file and the path to the license file are correct. Double check that the path to the license file is indeed pointing to the correct license file that you received from us.

If everything looks correct here, click the Save Service button, then select the Start/Stop/Reread tab. Hit the Stop Server button, then hit the Start Server button. Then select the Server Status tab, specify 'thinkbox' as the Individual Daemon (don't use the quotes), then hit the Perform Status Enquiry button. If everything is running properly, you should see something similar to this (of course it will be specific to your license server machine):

   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

   

   License server status: 27001@buttercup

   License file(s) on buttercup: C:\FLEXnet\your-license.lic:

   

   buttercup: license server UP (MASTER) v11.3

   

   Vendor daemon status (on buttercup):

   

   thinkbox: UP v11.4

   Feature usage info:

   

   Users of deadline: (Total of 10 licenses issued; Total of 0 licenses in use)

   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you don't see this (ie: you see an error message instead), please copy the contents of the status enquiry and send it to us. Note that sometimes LMTools will say that the license server was started successfully, but then the license server will crash immediately without any notification. The easiest way to check if your license server is running is to check the Task Manager to see if lmgrd.exe and frantic.exe are running. If they're not, then your license server isn't running.

In this situation, we recommend using the LMRGD method for Windows. Because you're running the license server from the command prompt, any error messages will be printed out to the console. This can help you diagnose the problem, or if you're unsure of what the error means, you could send it to us to look at. Refer to the Licensing Error Message section for known error messages and possible solutions. Once you've figured out what the problem is, you can then go back to using LMTools so that you can start your license server as a service.

On Linux and Mac OSX

Check out the LMGRD section for Linux and Mac OSX. If lmgrd prints out an error message, please copy the contents of the error message and send it to us. Refer to the Licensing Error Message section for known error messages and possible solutions.

Get Your Software Connecting to the License Server

If you've gotten this far, then that's half the battle. Now try starting your application and see if it pops up a license error message or if it starts in Free Mode (both cases mean that the it couldn't find a license). If that's the case, try the following.

Check Firewall or Other Security Software

If your software can't seem to connect to the license server, it may be due to difficulties with the FLEXnet floating licenses and a firewall or other security software. You may have to make exceptions for the lmgrd and thinkbox applications before they will function properly.

As an example, system administrators should follow these steps to enable floating licenses with Microsoft Firewall:

Stop the license server if it is currently running:
- In the directory where FLEXnet is installed on the license server, start the program LMTools.exe.
- Select the Configuration Using Services option and select the Thinkbox License Manager from the list below.
- Select the Start/Stop/Reread tab, click Stop Server.
From the Windows Control Panel, start the Windows Firewall applet.
Select the General tab and make sure On (recommended) is selected and the check box Don't allow exceptions is off.
Select the Exceptions tab and choose Add Program.
Choose Browse and navigate to the directory where FLEXnet is installed.
Select lmgrd.exe, choose Open, and then choose OK to add lmgrd.exe to the list of Programs and Services.
With the Exceptions tab of the Microsoft Firewall applet still active, again choose Add Program.
Choose Browse and navigate to the directory where FLEXnet is installed.
Select thinkbox.exe, choose Open, and then choose OK to add thinkbox.exe to the list of Programs and Services.
Choose OK to close the Microsoft Firewall applet.
Start the license server:
- In the directory where FLEXnet is installed on the license server, start the program LMTools.exe.
- Select the Configuration Using Services option and select the Thinkbox License Manager from the list below.
- Select the Start/Stop/Reread tab, click Start Server.

Try Swapping the Host Name/IP Address In The License File

First, make a backup copy of your current license file, because you'll be modifying it. Then open the license file in a text editor and try changing the server Host Name to its IP Address (or vice versa), then save it and reread the license file as explained above. Try starting your product again, and test both the server Host Name and IP Address in the Change License Server dialog. This has been known to work in some cases.

Try Using Specific Ports In The License File

See the documentation for using specific ports for more information. This has been known to work in some cases. If this doesn't help, you might have to configure your firewall on the server machine to allow communication over ports you specified in your license file.

Error Messages and Troubleshooting

The debug output of lmgrd is very helpful for diagnosing licensing problems. You can view this output in lmtools using the 'debug log' button under the 'Config Services' tab. This output is far more helpful than the service status text as the log will tell you at what point loading a license failed and why.

You can also view the debug log via the command line on Windows, OSX or Linux, as lmgrd will print out any errors directly to the command prompt. On all platforms, you can start lmgrd by opening a terminal and navigating to lmgrd's directory, and typing `./lmgrd -z -c Thinkbox_license.lic`. The command line option to notice here is '-z' as it will prevent the license server from going into the background so you can close it, either by exiting the terminal, or by holding 'Ctrl' and 'C'. Change the path to 'Thinkbox_license.lic' if it is not within the same directory as lmgrd.

Note that if lmgrd is currently serving some Thinkbox licenses, will need to close it before debugging it in this way.

Below are some common error dialogs shown by our client software.

Cannot connect to license server system.

This error can occur for a few of reasons:

The license server isn't running on the specified host. Either point your software to the correct host, or follow the troubleshooting steps above to ensure that the license server is running on the given host.
The license server is running, but it is using a different port number than the one specified. Remember that if your license file is configured to use a specific port, you must included that port when configuring your product to connect to the license server.
The license server is running, but your software can't connect to it. This could be due to a firewall or security system. Follow the troubleshooting steps above to allow the product to connect to the license server host.

The desired vendor daemon is down.

This error usually means that the your software can connect to the license server machine, but the license server isn't running. Follow the troubleshooting steps above to ensure that the license server is running on the given host.

License server system does not support this feature.

This error means that the software is connecting to the license server, but the license file that it is using doesn't contain a license for the particular product or 'feature' (in this case 'deadline'). You may also need to merge another product license file with the one currently configured. Please refer to the instructions mentioned previously within this document. Also, feel free to contact the Thinkbox Sales team and refer them to the missing feature.

License server system does not support this version of this feature.

This error means that the software is connecting to the license server, but the license file that it is using doesn't support the version of the given product (in this case 'deadline'). Please contact the Thinkbox Sales team about upgrading your license file.

"HOSTNAME.DOMAIN": Not a valid server hostname, exiting. Valid license server system hosts are: "HOSTNAME"

This error can occur on OSX, and is a bit misleading when "HOSTNAME" is actually being used in the license file, not "HOSTNAME.DOMAIN". The common solution to this problem is to add .local to "HOSTNAME" in your license file.

For example, if this is your SERVER line:

SERVER myServer 1234567890AB

You would change it to this:

SERVER myServer.local 1234567890AB

See the Changing the Host Name or IP Address section for more information on changing the host name in your license file.