Installation and Licensing Documentation
Most ANSYS products use a small program that runs in the background on the server machine(s) to perform standard licensing operations. This program is called a daemon. The license manager daemon lmgrd and the vendor daemon ansyslmd perform license manager functions such as processing requests for clients. Both of these daemons must be running on the license server. On Windows systems, the license manager daemon is installed as a service named ANSYS FLEXlm License Manager.
Although we do recommend using the default settings when starting the license manager, you may find the need to change one of the options.
On UNIX systems, use the Modify Startup Options option of the ANSLIC_ADMIN utility to modify the directory path to the license file and the directory path to the license.log file.
You can also set FLEXlm's -2 -p or -local options. The -2 -p restricts the ability to shut down the license manager, reread the license file, or remove a client to a FLEXlm administrator (who is by default root) or a member of the lmadmin group, if one exists. If the root administrator is not a member of this group, then he does not have permission to use any of the above utilities. The -local option further restricts the ability to shut down the license manager to only an administrator running on the same machine where the license manager was started. Both options are off by default. See the FLEXnet Licensing End Users Guide (accessible from the ANSLIC_ADMIN utility) for more information on using these options.
This ANSLIC_ADMIN utility option writes an ansyslmd.ini file in the licensing directory. This file contains modified settings. If the file does not exist, the defaults are used. This option will also update boot_ansflex with any changes. Follow the procedure in Table 4.1: "License Manager Automatic Startup Instructions" to make sure these new options are used at system boot.
The license.log file for each server should be located on a local disk. Writing to an NFS-mounted disk or remote file server creates a situation where the license server(s) may fail. If the remote system containing the license.log file crashes, the license manager would be unable to log license transaction data. This would create a fatal error condition.
On Windows systems, run the FLEXlm LMTOOLS utility in the ANSYS FLEXlm License Manager folder to configure the service. See the documentation provided with LMTOOLS for more information.
The lmgrd program must be running on a quorum of systems designated to be servers. In a one-license server system, lmgrd must be started on that server and in a three server system, lmgrd must be started on at least two of the three servers before an ANSYS product can be run.
You can start the license manager manually via the Start the License Manager option of the ANSLIC_ADMIN utility. This option starts the lmgrd license manager daemon, which in turn will automatically start the ansyslmd vendor daemon.
Table 4.1: "License Manager Automatic Startup Instructions" details the steps for each UNIX hardware platform that must be performed on each license server to start the license manager automatically when the system is rebooted. You should substitute your platform name (see Supported Hardware Platforms) wherever you see <platform>. On Windows systems, the license manager is set to start up automatically at system reboot.
The procedure described in this section starts the license manager at boot time as root. It is not essential that the license manager be started by the root user; it may be run by a non-privileged user, depending on your preference. If you do not want the license manager to be started by root, see the FLEXnet Licensing End User Guide for an example of starting the license manager as a non-root user at boot time.
Table 4.1 License Manager Automatic Startup Instructions
| Platform | Instructions |
|---|---|
| HP Alpha | cd /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/<platform>
cp boot_ansflex /sbin/init.d
chmod 750 /sbin/init.d/boot_ansflex
ln -s /sbin/init.d/boot_ansflex
/sbin/rc3.d/S90ansysflex |
| HP | cd /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/<platform>
cp boot_ansflex /sbin/init.d
chmod 750 /sbin/init.d/boot_ansflex
ln -s /sbin/init.d/boot_ansflex
/sbin/rc2.d/S900FLEX |
| IBM RS/6000 | cd /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/<platform> cat boot_ansflex >> /etc/inittab |
| SGI | cd /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/<platform> cat boot_ansflex >> /etc/rc2.d/S40FLEX chmod 750 /etc/rc2.d/S40FLEX |
| Sun, Fujitsu | cd /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/<platform> cat boot_ansflex >> /etc/rc3.d/S40FLEX chmod 750 /etc/rc3.d/S40FLEX |
| Linux: Red Hat | cd /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/<platform> cat boot_ansflex >>/etc/rc.d/rc.local |
| Linux: SuSE | cd /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/<platform> cat boot_ansflex >>/etc/rc.d/boot.local |
Once the procedure is in place for starting the license manager automatically at boot time, reboot the system.
When the system comes back up, check to see that the license manager is running by typing the appropriate ps command and looking for ansyslmd in the resulting display under the column labeled COMMAND.
For SYS V UNIX systems:
ps -ef
Next, check the license.log file in the licensing directory for error messages. This file contains a history of ANSYS product activity across the network when this computer is chosen as the master license server by the licensing software. It will also contain start-up messages and possibly error messages.
You can shut down the license manager via the Shutdown the License Manager option of the ANSLIC_ADMIN utility (see "License Administration"). This option will shut down all three servers of a redundant setup, unless the license manager was stored with the -local option.
The license manager must be running to be able to run ANSYS products.
Do not use kill -9 (on UNIX systems) to shut down the license manager. Use the ANSLIC_ADMIN utility option or lmdown.