Application Note 1032: Monitoring FlexLM license denials

General:

OpenLM monitors and optimizes the usage of various license managers (e.g.: FlexLM / Flexnet publisher, Sentinel RMS Reprise RLM, MathLM, DSLS, Sentinel HASP, LM-X, IBM-LUM etc).

As part of FlexLM license monitoring, OpenLM also produces license denial reports, i.e.: an account of instances where the vendor daemon has declined an application’s license request. License denial is a key parameter in license maintenance and in the planning of additional license procurement.

The Denials report window

License denial information is clearly presented in the OpenLM EasyAdmin web interface, in the Reports → Denials window. It includes the details of the denial event (Denied user, Denied workstation, Time, License Server, Denied Feature, and vendor) as well as the cause for denial (e.g.: limit of available licenses reached or User on Option file exclude list)

Set up OpenLM to monitor license denials

In order to produce denial reports for monitored licenses, please:
1. Set up the OpenLM Server to monitor the License server. In this case, the host is vmw_win2008_64, its type is FlexLM, the Server port is 27000, and the time zone is Central:

2. Install the OpenLM Broker on the License server machine:
Application Note 1004: OpenLM Broker quick start guide
Make sure that the License server name is exactly (case sensitive) the same as configured in the OpenLM server configuration tool (e.g.: vmw_win2008_64). The OpenLM server in this example resides in 102.101.100.135. The Broker communication port is (by default) 7016.

3. Set the OpenLM Broker to read the Denials’ information from the Monitored application’s debug log file: Type in the filename and click the ‘Enabled’ check box in the image below. Click ‘Apply’ and “Restart Broker” to finalize the configuration.

4. Make sure the Broker indication in the EasyAdmin “License Servers” window turns green. Note the green rectangle adjacent Server name vmw_win2008_64 in the image below. If it isn’t so – wait a while and refresh the “License servers” window. If it is still red – recheck your configuration, and check for alerts in the Easy Admin → Start → Management → Alerts window.

License number surpassed: Case study

In case the number of licenses has been surpassed – the vendor daemon would deny the license request, and a license denial notification will be produced. In the case of AutoCad: this is Network license error -96.

The debug log file shows this too as a string
Licensed number of users already reached. (-4,342)
Note the last denial report at 4:12:22 (Central time US):

It would also be apparent on the EasyAdmin Denial reports window at 11:12:22, according to the difference in time zones between the location of the OpenLM Server (Europe) and the AutoCad License server (Central time, US).

This same information can be presented as a column or pie chart, according to Users, Servers, Vendors, Features or time of occurrence.

Troubleshoot: Denials do not appear in the Flexnet debug log

Denial reports may not appear in the FlexLM debug log if the application’s option file contains a NOLOG line, with a DENIED flag. If this is the case, edit the option file to exclude this flag, and restart the license server. See this document for more information.

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