Learning Forum

[degiorgi]

Dear all,

Our actual license server is running on an old operating system version.

So we decided to create a new license server, running on RHEL 8.3.

My question is about the license file, as it is “configured” for the old license server.

Do you think I just can replace the MAC address written on the head of the license file by the one from the new license server?

SERVER  this_host  xxx

to

SERVER  this_host  yyy

From the documentation Getting-Licenses-from-Ansys-Licensing-Portal.pdf , there is a chapter that looks promising (Rehosting a License File). I'm not sure I have to enter all fields (Host Name, Host ID)?

And what about Host ID Type? There are three options (DISK_SERIAL_NUM, ETHERNET & FLEXID). What are these? (I guess I have to use ETHERNET in my case).

What means borrowable (from the Licensing Portal – Activate Entitlements)?

Last question, will I be able to use the latest Ansys Lumerical FDTD with this new license file/server as the actual license ends the 28th of September?

Thank you for your help.

Yours truly,

Jean-Claude

[greg_baethge]

Thank you for posting your question on the forum. In order to move the license to a new machine you will have to generate a new license file. Changing the MAC address in the existing license file will not work as the license increments will still be defined for the "old" machine.
The rehosting feature you found in the documentation is meant for that purpose. It allows to generate the new license file based on the new server information. You can use ETHERNET as host id type, I think it is the most common.
I'm not sure our licenses support the "borrowable" option yet, so I wouldn't worry about this.
Regarding the version, no problem you should be able to use the latest version.
Let us know if you have any issue

[degiorgi]

Hello Greg Thanks for your post.
I managed to rehost the license file.
I tried to import if from the License manager (Release 2021 R2) but get an error:
Did not upload file - Error: The hostid in the license file is not a valid hostid for this license server machine.
But I don't think the problem is the license file, as I could find this error message in View LIcense Management Center Log:
UploadLicenseFile
Error: Cannot run program "/ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmutil": error=2, No such file or directory
This error comes quite often actually:
getHostIDInfo
Error: Cannot run program "/ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmutil": error=2, No such file or directory
But this files exists and has no dependency problem:
ldd /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmutil
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffeb4ffc000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f5a42d94000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00007f5a42a12000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib64/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f5a427fa000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007f5a42437000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f5a42233000)
/lib64/ld-lsb-x86-64.so.3 => /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f5a42fb4000)
And event stronger:
/ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmutil -help
-bash: /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmutil: No such file or directory
­ƒñö­ƒñö

The installation of the LM did not show any errors.
Maybe a clue:
The License Management Guide says to install it you have to do as follow:
./INSTALL -LM
But there is no such option:
./INSTALL -help
The possible options are:
-silent, -lang, -install_dir "path", -, -productfile "path", -licserverinfo
Here is the downloaded installation package:
ANSYSLICMAN_2021R2_LINX64.tgz

Thanks for your help.

Yours sincerely Jean-Claude

[degiorgi]

Found the problem.
I had to install the redhat-lsb-core.x86_64 package.
I make some tests and back to you.
Regards Jean-Claude

[greg_baethge]

Hi Jean-Claude, thanks for the information. Glad you found the issue! Let us know if you have any other problem.

[degiorgi]

Hi Greg I think the license server is working.
But, as my new license starts from the 28th of September, I cannot test it.
Is that right?
From the server.log:
17:15:39 (ansyslmd) Feature a_spaceclaim_catv5 is not enabled yet, starts on 29-sep-2021
17:15:39 (ansyslmd) Feature a_spaceclaim_dirmod is not enabled yet, starts on 29-sep-2021
...
17:15:39 (ansyslmd) No features to serve, exiting
17:15:39 (ansyslmd) EXITING DUE TO SIGNAL 36 Exit reason 4

This is "hot" as I need to test our license server before putting it in production.
Is there a way to get a temporary license for testing purposes?

Regards Jean-Claude

[greg_baethge]

You're correct Jean-Claude, from the information above, the new license will only be available from Sept 29. I can't generate any license but you can check with Catriona, I think she should be able to get one issued.

[degiorgi]

Hi Greg Thanks for your help.
Yours sincerely Jean-Claude

[degiorgi]

Hi Greg What would be the best firewall configuration practice ?
I'm using the firewalld (firewall-cmd command on RHEL 8.3) and I'm wondering if I should create a specific zone or use an existing one, such as public.
As far as I understood, these two ports are needed: 1055 & 2325 (TCP I guess).
Thanks for your answer.

Yours sincerely Jean-Claude

[greg_baethge]

Hi Jean-Claude Actually, the license manager uses 3 ports, the 2 you mentioned (1055 and 2325) and the vendor daemon uses a third one, but by default, it is allocated dynamically. This can cause some problems with firewalls so the best thing is to set a fixed port in the license file, in the VENDOR line, for example port 1056:
VENDOR ansyslmd port=1056
Then you can open these 3 ports in your firewall.
To be honest, I'm not too familiar with firewall configuration, but I guess you could use a custom zone if you want to limit the access to the license to certain machines only. If this is not a requirement, you can simply use the default zone.

[degiorgi]

Hello Greg Thanks for your answer, and especially for the nice tip regarding the VENDOR.
Yours sincerely Jean-Claude

[greg_baethge]

You're very welcome, Jean-Claude! :)