FlexNetManagerEngineeringApplications 15 3 ConceptsGuide

FlexNet Manager for
Engineering
Applications 15.3
Concepts Guide
Part Number FNM-1530-CG01
Legal Information
Book Name:
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide
Part Number:
FNM-1530-CG01
Product Release Date:
January 2013
Copyright Notice
Copyright 2013 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.
This product contains proprietary and confidential technology, information and creative works owned by Flexera Software LLC and its licensors,
if any. Any use, copying, publication, distribution, display, modification, or transmission of such technology in whole or in part in any form or by
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LLC intellectual property rights, whether by estoppel, implication, or otherwise.
All copies of the technology and related information, if allowed by Flexera Software LLC, must display this notice of copyright and ownership in
full.
FlexNet Manager incorporates software developed by others and redistributed according to license agreements. Copyright notices and licenses
for these external libraries are provided in a supplementary document that is available from the Flexera Software download site.
Intellectual Property
For a list of trademarks and patents that are owned by Flexera Software, see http://www.flexerasoftware.com/intellectual-property. All other
brand and product names mentioned in Flexera Software products, product documentation, and marketing materials are the trademarks and
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Restricted Rights Legend

The Software is commercial computer software. If the user or licensee of the Software is an agency, department, or other entity of the United
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accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 12.212 for civilian purposes and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement 227.7202
for military purposes. The Software was developed fully at private expense. All other use is prohibited.
Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Intended Audience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Additional Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Deployment Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Getting Started with FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
The FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
License Server Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

License Server User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Roles and Permissions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Starting and Stopping FlexNet License Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Stopping License Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Starting License Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Stopping Vendor Daemons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Starting Vendor Daemons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Determining FlexNet License Server Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Configuring the License Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Common Vendor Daemon Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
FlexNet License Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

License Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
FNM-1530-CG01
Contents
License Rights Representation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Trusted Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Trusted Storage License Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Licenses Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Activity Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Interpreting License Counts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Analyzing FlexNet License Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Strategies for Analyzing Usage Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Basic License Usage Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
License Denials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Eliminating Spurious Denials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Duplicate Grouping Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
Overdraft License Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
Deciding When to Add Additional Licenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Balancing License Load Across Your Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Remixing Licenses Within Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Investment Planning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Basic Investment Planning Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
Adding Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
Importing Product Definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
Product Definition XML Format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
Importing Product Definitions at the Command Line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Exporting Product Definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Adding Features to Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Software Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
Associating Vendor Daemons with Software Producers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
Contracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
Contract Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
Product Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
License Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
Remixing or Renewing Contract Pools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Basic Remix or Renewal Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Importing Contract Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Software Vendors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
Product Choices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Product Aggregation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Product Event Creation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
Product Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
FNM-1530-CG01
Contents
A Discovering FlexNet License Server Managers and Vendor Daemons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

B Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
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1
Preface
About This Manual

This manual provides strategies and guidelines for managing your licenses and license servers using FlexNet
Manager for Engineering Applications.
Chapter 2, Overview,contains an architectural and operational overview of a FlexNet-managed system.
Chapter 3, License Server Management, conceptualizes the ways in which you can use FlexNet Manager for
Engineering Applications to manager your license servers.
Chapter 4, FlexNet License Administration explains basic licensing concepts that are useful in interpreting
license categories and counts displayed in FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications.
Chapter 5, Analyzing FlexNet License Usage, introduces you to ways you can use usage reports to make
informed FlexNet license management decisions.
Chapter 6, Investment Planning, provides information about FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applicationss
investment planning functionality, which enables you to input contract data and map features to products, so
you can track usage on the product level.
Intended Audience
This manual is intended for license administrators of FlexEnabled software applications at end-user sites. It is
assumed that the reader has an understanding of FlexNet licensing component configuration and operation.
Additional Documentation
In addition to this concepts guide, Flexera Software provides a number of documentation resources to assist you in
installing and configuring FlexNet Agents, understanding licensing concepts, and working with FlexNet Manager
for Engineering Applications to monitor and manage license usage throughout your enterprise.
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Chapter 1: Preface
Additional Documentation
The following PDF documents are available from the Flexera Software download site, FlexNet Operations On
Demand (https://flexerasoftware.subscribenet.com)
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Installation Guide: Provides installation and
configuration information for the initial and subsequent FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications
installations, available from the Flexera Software download site.
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Reporting Guide: Provides information about
generating FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Classic reports, use of the Cognos reporting facility
by Report Designer, and use of the command-line reporting interface.
FlexNet Report Designer Guide: Provides information about FlexNet Report Designer (Cognos) reports
and capabilities.
FlexNet Agent Installation Guide: Provides installation and configuration information for the initial and
subsequent FlexNet Agent installations, available from the Flexera Software download site.
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Help Library: For context-sensitive instructions on how
to use FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, available by clicking the Help button on each FlexNet
Manager for Engineering Applications page.
FlexNet Publisher License Administration Guide: For details related to FlexNet licensing component
configuration and operation. This guide describes the setup and administration of a FlexNet licensing system,
including starting and stopping license servers, setting up an options file, enabling report logging, and using
FlexNet license administration tools. (This guide is part of the FlexNet Publisher documentation set.)
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2
Overview
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications is a Web-based administration, reporting, and planning tool for
usage-based licenses and license servers. It provides tools for comprehensive license management that can help
you reduce software costs and increase user productivity while leveraging existing technology.
The key to meeting these objectives is informationknowing what licenses your enterprise is using, knowing
which individuals are using them, and knowing how frequently they are being used. Armed with this information,
you can:
Identify areas of overspending.
Share expensive licenses across your enterprise.
Reduce license administration costs.
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications provides a single console view of all your FlexNet licenses and
license servers, thereby enabling you to centrally manage, track, and control them across your enterprise. You
simply identify your license server environment and immediately have a network-wide view of your enterprises
FlexNet license assets. From the management console, you can monitor and manage license servers, set alerts to
identify potential problems, view real-time license usage, and run historical usage reports.
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications

Architecture
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications communicates with a FlexNet license server using a FlexNet Agent
that is installed on each license server machine. A single FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications installation
can be used to manage licenses and license servers throughout your organization.
For descriptions of the various deployment options, see the Deployment Options section in the FlexNet Manager
for Engineering Applications 15.3 Installation Guide.
FNM-1530-CG01
Chapter 2: Overview
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Architecture

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications enables the centralized management of license servers, licenses,
and historical usage data throughout an enterprise. In most cases, one FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications installation can serve an entire organization. FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications consists of
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Adminwhich provides the capability to manage license servers
and vendor daemonsand FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Reportingwhich provides usage
reportint functionality.
FlexNet Agent
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications interacts with each license server using a FlexNet Agent that is
installed on the license server machine. The FlexNet Agent provides secure, remote administration of one or more
license servers on that machine on behalf of FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications.
FlexNet Report Designer (Cognos)

FlexNet Report Designer is a separately licensed component that enables you to generate dynamic reports using
Cognos. For more information, see the FlexNet Report Designer 15.3 Guide.
Deployment Options
Depending on your enterprises needs, you can deploy FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications in one of a
few different ways. Figure 2-1 shows a basic deployment that includes FlexNet Report Designer.
For information about different FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications deployment options, see the FlexNet
Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Installation Guide.
Note If you have an existing FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications deployment and you want to scan your
network for instances of FlexNet license servers and vendor daemons, you can use the lmscan utility. See Appendix
A, Discovering FlexNet License Server Managers and Vendor Daemons, for information.
FNM-1530-CG01
Chapter 2: Overview
Getting Started with FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications
Figure 2-1: Basic FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications deployment with FlexNet Report Designer
(Cognos)
Getting Started with FlexNet Manager for

Engineering Applications
Read this section after you have installed FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications and tested the
management of at least one FlexNet Publisher license server. For installation and testing information, see the
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Installation Guide and FlexNet Agent Installation Guide.
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10
Chapter 2: Overview
The FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications User Interface
Prerequisites
To make the most of managing your FlexNet licensing environment using FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications, you need a thorough understanding of the following:
Your network topology and host names.
The names and locations of all the vendor daemons that contribute to your managed environment.
The location of all FlexNet license servers and license files.
The location of report logs, debug logs, and options files associated with your license servers.
The names of those users authorized to access FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications.
Considerations for Using FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications maintains a database of all details related to license server topology,
management, and status. After you begin using FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications in your
environment, you should not revert to manual license server operations.
The FlexNet Manager for Engineering

Applications User Interface
Figure 2-2 shows the main Summary page that is displayed when you sign in to FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications.
Figure 2-2: FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Summary page

This page contains the following components:
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11
Chapter 2: Overview
The FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications User Interface
Tabs: Click a tab to access a specific piece of FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications functionality. See
the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Help Library for specific information about the screens
available from each tab.
Profile Button: Click this button to access the Edit Profile screen, which contains information about the
current user. Access this screen to view and edit user information and to change the users password.
Access to Online Help: The Help button provides access to the context-sensitive FlexNet Manager for
Engineering Applications Help Library. Clicking the Help button on any screen displays help for the
functionality related to that screen.
Logout Button: Click this button to log out of the system.
Breadcrumb Trail: Text navigation trail that shows you where you are currently in relation to the site
hierarchy. Click any part of the breadcrumb trail to return to that part of the interface.
Tables: Each screen has a set of tables relevant to the tasks that are supported there.
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3
License Server Management
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications assists you in the network-wide management of licensing activities
at your enterprise. This chapter provides an introduction to license-management concepts and explains how to
map vendor daemons to a common vendor daemon (in cases where a software publisher deploys a single vendor
daemon to serve features previously authenticated by one or more vendor daemons).
License Server User Interface

You access license server management using the Servers tab on the user interface. This screen presents the
portal through which you can access all aspects of license server status and management. Clicking a license
server name displays in-depth information about that license server.
Figure 3-1 shows the License Manager Summary screen, which is the main screen for managing your license
servers.
Figure 3-1: License Manager Summary screen
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13
Chapter 3: License Server Management

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Roles and Permissions

Roles and Permissions
Each FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications registered user has one or more assigned roles. A role
specifies the permissions allowed for various operations within FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications. All
roles can be created, edited, and viewed using the Roles screen (available from the Admin tab). To view the
associated permissions and status (active or inactive) for a specific role, click the Role Name.
During installation, the following system-defined roles are created for FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications:
License AdministratorUsers with this role can manage licenses and options files.
License Server AdministratorUsers with this role can manage license servers and vendor daemons, and
make use of all License Administrator permissions.
Super AdministratorThis is the most powerful role; it enables users to manage all aspects of FlexNet
Manager for Engineering Applications operation.
You cannot modify these system-defined roles. Additionally, during FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications
installation, the default user (admin) is created and assigned the Super Administrator role.
When planning FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications deployment, consider creating roles with varying
degrees of permissions that correspond with your users responsibilities. For example, you may want to allow
certain users to manage license availability, but at the same time restrict their ability to start or stop a license server
or vendor daemon. To do this, you could create a new role, ck_usage, with just the Manage Licenses and Manage
Licenses in Use permissions selected. Then, when you create these users, assign them the ck_usage role.
Table 3-1 FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Permissions
Permission
Allowed Activities
Manage License Servers
Start license servers
Stop license servers
Reread all license files
Modify server configurations
Schedule activities
Start vendor daemons
Stop vendor daemons
Reread the license file for a specific vendor daemon
Modify vendor daemon configuration
Schedule and rotate report logs
Add new licenses
Delete inactive licenses
Manage Vendor Daemons
Manage License
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Starting and Stopping FlexNet License Servers
Table 3-1 FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Permissions

Permission
Allowed Activities
Manage Licenses in Use
Free a license currently checked out
Manage Options for Vendor Daemons
Add, edit, and delete items in options files

Important When you begin using FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, it must have complete control
over the license servers throughout your enterprise. Do not perform server operations manually. Additionally, you
should disable all Windows services and UNIX startup scripts that have been configured to automatically manage
the FlexNet license managerlmgrd or lmadminand associated vendor daemons.
The FlexNet license server is a virtual container of processes consisting of one license manager process (lmadmin
or lmgrd) and one or more vendor daemons. All members of the container must reside on the same machine, with
one or more license servers existing on a given machine.
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications maintains the notion of a license server display name, which can be
thought of as a shortcut to refer to the set of processes for a given license server. One or more license servers are
configured when a FlexNet Agent is installed.
Figure 3-2 shows an example license server machine with three license servers: Server_1, Server_2, and Server_n,
along with its FlexNet Agent.
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Figure 3-2: Sample FlexNet license server machine

At startup, the FlexNet Agent registers all license servers within its authority with FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications. FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, in turn, notes them in its database along with statistics
about each one, such as its run status, vendor daemons, scheduling parameters, and so on.
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Stopping License Servers

Stopping a license server stops its lmgrd process, as well as all vendor daemon processes managed by that lmgrd
process. All licenses served by that license server are checked back in. The connection between the license server
and FlexEnabled application which it serves licenses is severed. In most cases, the application exitsconsult your
vendor for the specific behavior. Exercise caution when stopping a license server.
This operation requires the Manage License Servers permission. See FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications Roles and Permissions for details.
Notifying Users
Before stopping a license server, ensure that users of licenses for the license server are aware of the impending
shutdown.
Task:
To identify and notify users:

1.
Click the Activity tab, then click Concurrent By User. This displays the Concurrent Usage by User - Summary
page.
2.
Click the Host Name column heading to sort the list by host name and find all entries for the license server
display name of interest.
3.
Notify all users of the impending license server shutdown.
Stopping the License Server

After all users have checked in the licenses for features served by the vendor daemon, you can stop the license
server.
Task:
To stop the license server:

1.
Click the Servers tab, then click License Managers.
2.
Click the display name for the license server of interest. This displays the Configure and Manage License
Server page for that license server.
3.
Click the Stop button.
4.
After a period of timeseveral seconds to several minutes, depending on your network response time
observe the License Server Status on this page. The License Manager Status field and all Vendor Daemon
fields should contain the red x icon indicating a successful shutdown.
At this point, the license server of interest, including its lmgrd and all vendor daemon processes, are stopped.
Other license servers on the same machine are not affected.
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Starting License Servers

This operation starts a license server, including its lmgrd process and all vendor daemon processes. The user must
have the Manage License Servers permission. See FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Roles and
Permissions for details.
Task:
To start a license server:

1.
Click the Servers tab, then click License Managers.
2.
Click the display name for the license server of interest. This displays the Configure and Manage License
Server page for the license server.
3.
Click the Start button.
After a period of timeseveral seconds to several minutes, depending on your network response timethe
License Manager Status and Vendor Daemons fields will contain a green check mark icon if the license server
was successfully started.
If, after a reasonable amount of time, these fields still contain the red x icon, review the FlexNet application logs to
determine why the license server did not start. See the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3
Installation Guide for more information about application logs.
Stopping Vendor Daemons

This operation requires Manage Vendor Daemons permission. See FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications Roles and Permissions for details.
Notifying Users
Make sure that users of licenses for the vendor daemon are aware of the impending shutdown.
Task:
To identify and notify your users:

1.
Click the Activity tab, then click Concurrent by Feature to display the Concurrent by Feature - Summary
page
2.
Click the Vendor Daemon column to sort the list by vendor daemon name and find all entries for the vendor
daemon name of interest.
3.
Click the Users link for each feature served by the vendor daemon and note the user names.
4.
Notify all users of the impending vendor daemon shutdown.
5.
Wait for licenses to be checked in, or click the Free Selected Licenses button for each feature to check the
licenses back in on behalf of the users.
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Determining FlexNet License Server Status
Stopping the Vendor Daemon

When all users have checked in the licenses for features served by the vendor daemon of interest, you can stop the
vendor daemon.
Task:
To stop the vendor daemon:

1.
Click the Servers tab, then click Vendor Daemons.
2.
Click the display name for the vendor daemon of interest. This displays the Configure and Manage Vendor
Daemon page for the vendor daemon.
3.
Click the Stop Daemon button.
4.
observe the Vendor Daemon Status on this page. This field should contain the red x icon indicating a
successful shutdown.
Starting Vendor Daemons

This user who performs this operation must have a role with the Manage Vendor Daemons permission. See
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Roles and Permissions for details.
Task:
To start a vendor daemon:

1.
Click the Servers tab, then click Vendor Daemons.
2.
Click the display name for the vendor daemon of interest. This displays the Configure and Manage Vendor
Daemon page for the vendor daemon.
3.
Click the Start Daemon button.
4.
observe the Vendor Daemon Status. This field should contain a green check mark icon indicating a successful
startup.
If, after a reasonable amount of time, these fields still contain the red x icon, review the FlexNet application logs.
See the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Installation Guide for more information about
application logs.
Determining FlexNet License Server Status

The License Manager Summary page (available by clicking the Servers tab, then clicking License Managers)
provides overall status information for each license server within your enterprise, including all lmgrd and vendor
daemon processes. Status is updated every 5 minutes by default; click the Update Status button for current
status.
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Configuring the License Server
License Manager Status

For detailed status on the particular lmgrd process for a given license server, click the license server display name.
From here, you can configure and view license server logs, configure schedule details, and perform other
management tasks related specifically to the lmgrd process.
Vendor Daemon Status

The Vendor Daemons subtab provides status information for each individual vendor daemon in your environment.
Click the display name for the vendor daemon of interest. The Configure and Manage Vendor Daemon page is
displayed. From here you can configure details related to a vendor daemons report log, daemon-specific debug
log, and the group to which the vendor daemon belongs.
Configuring the License Server

This operation requires Manage License Servers or Manage Vendor Daemons permissions, as appropriate. See
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Roles and Permissions for details.
You can configure various aspects of your license servers and their associated lmgrd and vendor daemon
processes using the Servers tab. Table 3-2 lists the configuration items available. Consult the FlexNet Manager for
Engineering Applications Help Library for details on each item.
Table 3-2 FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Configuration
Configuration Item
How to Configure
Refresh rate for license server status
1. Click the Servers tab, then click License Managers.
License file reread interval
2. Click the display name for the license server of interest to open
the Configure and Manager License Server page.
3. Click the License Server Scheduling link to open the License
Server Scheduling page.
4. Modify the setting as appropriate.
5. Click Save.
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Common Vendor Daemon Mapping
Table 3-2 FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Configuration (cont.)

Configuration Item
How to Configure
License server display name
1. Click the Servers tab, then click License Managers.
License manager port

License manager options
Auto Restart
2. Click the display name for the server of interest.

3. Modify the values in the License Manager Configuration section
as appropriate.
4. Click Save.
License server host name

Debug logging activation
License manager debug log location
Vendor daemon options
1. Click the Servers tab, then click Vendor Daemons.

2. Click the display name for the vendor daemon of interest.
3. Click Edit Options File.
4. Click the Edit button and make modifications as appropriate.
Vendor daemon group name

Vendor daemon debug log location
1. Click the Servers tab, then click Vendor Daemons.

2. Click the display name for the vendor daemon of interest.
3. Modify the vendor daemon value as appropriate.
Report logging activation
4. Click Save.
Report log name

Report log rotation interval

FlexNet Publisher provides a common vendor daemon option to software publishers who want to deploy a single
vendor daemon that serves features previously served by other vendor daemons. This scenario typically applies to
software publishers who have acquired or merged with other companies, where the individual companies have
previously sold FlexEnabled applications with their own vendor daemons.
For example, ABCware merges with DEFware, and begins to deploy the new vendor daemon abcdef. When the
abcdef vendor daemon registers with FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, it receives usage information
only about features served by the abcdef vendor daemon. Data received about features served by previously
deployed abcware and defware vendor daemons is disregarded. To ensure that FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications receives all relevant data for the merged publishers features, you must map the secondary vendor
daemon names (abcware and defware) to the primary vendor daemon name (abcdef).
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Use of a common vendor daemon enables the publisher to use one vendor daemon to serve features with different
vendor names. A common vendor daemon configuration contains:
Task:
One primary vendor daemonThis is the vendor daemon for the acquiring company.
One or more secondary vendor daemonsThese are the vendor daemons that were deployed prior to the
merger or acquisition.
To configure common vendor daemon mapping:

1.
Stop the Admin server if it is running.
2.
Open a command prompt and change to the following directory

<fnmea_admin_install_diry>/release/manager/webapps/flexnet/WEB-INF/classes
3.
Open the file secondaryVendors.properties. (This is an empty file.)
4.
Add the common vendor daemon mappings to the .properties file in the following manner:
secondaryVendorName1=primaryVendorName
secondaryVendorName2=primaryVendorName
In the case of the previous example, the .properties file would contain the following:
abcware=abcdef
defware=abcdef
5.
At the command prompt, change to the <fnmea_admin_install_diry> directory, then type the following
command:
flexnet site make
6.
Restart the Admin server.
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4
FlexNet License Administration
The ability to view and administer FlexNet Publisher licenses is a valuable tool to assist you in managing your
license assets and allocating them efficiently.
The administration capabilities available in FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications enable you to:
View your license assets, as well as their usage and availability.
Manage license rights by adding licenses or freeing inactive licenses.
This chapter explains basic licensing concepts that are useful in interpreting license categories and counts
displayed in FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications.
For information on usage reports, see the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Reporting Guide. See
Chapter 5, Analyzing FlexNet License Usage, for ways in which you can analyze usage data to determine your
licensing needs.
License Basics
This section discusses the two main types of license rights representation and the three main groups of licenses
and their organization in FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications.
License Rights Representation

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications supports the management of licenses represented in license files
and in trusted storage.
License Files
A license file is a text file containing license certificates from one or more software publishers. A license certificate,
in turn, is licensing rights information specific to a single publishers FlexEnabled application.
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Chapter 4: FlexNet License Administration

License Basics
Trusted Storage
Trusted storage is a secure location in which a publisher can install license rightsin the form of fulfillment records.
Unlike a license file, which cannot be changed by the publisher after it is delivered to an end user, license rights in
trusted storage can be updated by the publisher.
Also, license rights in trusted storage can be transferred (rehosted) from one license server to another within an
end-user enterprise without the involvement of the software publisher.
License rights in trusted storage can be equivalent to those expressed in license files. Just as license files can be
placed on both end-user machines and license-server machines, trusted storage can be created on end-user
machines and license-server machines.
Trusted Storage
Trusted storage is a secure storage area used to store fulfillment records and other licensing information.
Fulfillment records in trusted storage contain four types of information:
License lines: Similar to FEATURE and INCREMENT lines in license files, but containing values that may be
overridden by other data held in the fulfillment record
Override values for the license lines in the fulfillment
Details of the transaction that provided the fulfillment record
Details of how the licenses can be used by the serveras concurrent licenses, as activatable licenses (see
Trusted Storage License Groups), and for transfer to other servers.
Trusted storage is segmented into publisher-specific areas, each identified by a Trusted ID. The security of each
segment is set separately, using different binding and anchoring configurations. Anchors detect deletion,
tampering, and subsequent restoration of trusted storage. Binding is the combining of one or more properties of a
machine into a unique fingerprint, which is used to lock trusted storage to that machine.
Trusted Storage License Groups

License rights in the license servers trusted storage can be served to FlexEnabled products on end-user machines
or transferred to other license servers. These licenses are divided into three groups. The distribution of licenses
into these groups is determined by the software publisher whose FlexEnabled products you license.
Concurrent licenses: License rights available network-wide from a license server system that can be shared
by a predetermined number of simultaneous instances of the FlexEnabled application. These are similar to the
license rights within a license file served by a license server.
Concurrent licenses can be stored in both license files and trusted storage.
Detachable licenses: License rights that serve a dual purpose; that is, when a system is on the network and
can access a license server, detachable license rights function as concurrent license rights.
However, these licenses can also be securely detached onto an end-user machine for a certain amount of
time. This means that detachable licenses can be used to run an application on a computer that is no longer
connected to the license server, such as a laptop being used at home.
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License Basics
Activatable licenses: License rights that have been delivered to a license server system, but not yet made
available for checkoutafter being activated on an end-user machine, the rights are available for checkout by
the FlexEnabled application on that end-user machine.
Activatable licenses are stored only in trusted storage, not in license files. Counts for activatable licenses are in
terms of products, not features.
Licenses Tab
The Licenses tab displays deployed licenses by typeconcurrent, detachable, activatable; and by license rights
representationlicense files, fulfillment records in trusted storage.
Concurrent license information can come from license rights in both license files as well as trusted storage. The
Concurrent Licenses page provides the following information for each concurrent license:
Vendor daemon
Feature name
Feature version
Count information, including overdraft counts (see Interpreting License Counts)
A link to access information on servers serving the feature
Activity Tab
Real-time license status is displayed under the Activity tab for concurrent, activatable, and detachable licenses.
You can view concurrent license activity by feature or by user, and detachable and activatable license activity by
product or by host.
Concurrent licenses are represented in both license files and trusted storage. The View Activity: Concurrent by
Feature page lists concurrent license activity as follows:
Vendor daemon
Feature name
Feature version
Total number of concurrent licenses available for the feature (See Interpreting License Counts)
Percentage of those licenses currently in use
Grouping of those licenses into pools (On each license server, licenses for the each feature are divided into
pools based on several license characteristics. See the FlexNet Publisher License Administration Guidepart
of the FlexNet Publisher documentation setfor details.)
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Interpreting License Counts

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications displays the number of deployed licenses for each license group:
concurrent, detachable, or activatable, with and without the overdraft count.
Overdraft Licenses
Overdraft licenses are granted by a software publisher and allow for enterprises to use more licenses than
purchased. Usually, these overdraft licenses are valid only for a short period of time before additional licenses must
be purchased.
Figure 4-1: Concurrent Licenses page

In Figure 4-1, the feature netf2avend9 has a total license count of 4 and an overdraft license count of 3. This means
that one license of the four available has been purchased by the enterprise, while the publisher has authorized the
use of three overdraft licenses.
Note FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications supports triggering an alert every time an activatable
overdraft license is used.
Total
Total license counts for a feature or product are computed based on the license source (license file or fulfillment
record in trusted storage).
For licenses in license files, the total is the sum of licenses purchased plus overdraft licenses.
Total = Count + Overdraft
CountThe count field of the license line.
OverdraftThe value set for overdraft in the license line.
For licenses in fulfillment records, the count in the license line is multiplied by the number of licenses to arrive at the
total. For example, the total concurrent count for product A is:
Total = (Count x Concurrent) + (Overdraft x ConcurrentOverdraft)
CountThe count field of the license line.
ConcurrentThe number of concurrent licenses purchased.
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ConcurrentOverdraftThe number of concurrent overdraft licenses purchased.
To further understand counts as they appear in different pages of your Licenses tab, consider the following
example of the license assets of Company A.
Table 4-1 License Assets for Company A
License Source
Product
Product
Count
Feature
Feature
Count
License Type
Fulfillment Record 1
P1
f1
Activatable
f2
f1
f2
P1
10
Detachable
P2
f1
Concurrent
License Certificate 1
f1
Concurrent
f2
Concurrent
There are several points to note:
In the column License Source, Company A has both trusted storage, as well as license filebased licenses. A
fulfillment record is stored in trusted storage, while license certificates make up license files.
In the column License Type, trusted storage has licenses of the activatable, detachable, and concurrent types.
License certificates only have concurrent licenses. This is always true of license filebased licenses, not just
for Company A.
Features are the basic unit of licensing for both license file- and trusted storage-based licenses. However, in
license certificates, features are not grouped into products. (See the Product column in the table above.) For
example, both Fulfillment Record 1 and License Certificate 1 contain licenses for features f1 and f2. However,
f1 and f2 are grouped to form the product P1 in Fulfillment Record 1.
Fulfillment Record 1 contains 6 activatable licenses (see Product Count) for product P1.
Fulfillment Record 2 contains 10 detachable licenses (see Product Count)) for product P1.
Fulfillment Record 3 contains 1 concurrent license (see Product Count)) for product P2.
License Certificate 1 contains 7 concurrent licenses each (see Feature Count) for features f1 and f2. These
features do not combine to form a product.
Each product P1 contains one each of features f1 and f2.
Each product P2 contains 4 of feature f1.
This is how the information appears in the Licenses tab for Company A:
There are a total of 21 concurrent licenses for feature f1:
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10 (Fulfillment Record 2) + 4 (Fulfillment Record 3) + 7 (License Certificate 1) = 21

Note that the 6 licenses in Fulfillment Record 1 do not contribute to this total. This is because these are
licenses that cannot be checked out of and in to a license server machine; they can only be activated on enduser machines.
Feature f1 cannot be activated or detached independently; along with feature f2, it combines to form Product
P1, for which Company A has activatable and detachable licenses. (See Fulfillment Record 1 and Fulfillment
Record 2)
Checking out a concurrent license for feature f1 does not require checking out a license for feature f2.
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5
Analyzing FlexNet License Usage
This chapter introduces ways in which you can analyze output from the FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications reporting module in order to understand license-usage patterns in your enterprise.
Strategies for Analyzing Usage Data
Basic License Usage Concepts
Deciding When to Add Additional Licenses
Balancing License Load Across Your Enterprise
Remixing Licenses Within Features
Strategies for Analyzing Usage Data

Analyze your usage data with the following questions in mind:
Are all users getting licenses when they need them?

You determine the level of need based on the nature of your FlexEnabled applications. Does a user need one
license continuously for eight hours or for just a few seconds? See Deciding When to Add Additional
Licenses, and License Denials, for additional information.
What is your usage profile?

Determine which users show the most license usage activity. Consider reserving licenses just for them and
leaving the remaining available licenses for the more casual users.
Are there licenses that are underutilized?

If so, consider remixing your features. See Remixing Licenses Within Features, for further information.
What is the future staffing in your organization?
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Chapter 5: Analyzing FlexNet License Usage

Consider defining groups of users based on categories such as assignment, server usage, or license need.
Set up FlexNet licensing groups to help manage license usage.
Is license usage balanced across your enterprise?

You may have your licenses divided up among the license servers in your enterprise. First, ensure that all
license servers are available and serving licenses. Second, make sure that license requests are distributed
evenly among your license servers.
If there is one license server that seems to be getting more requests than the rest, consider redistributing the
total pool of licenses so that more are available on that license server. See Balancing License Load Across
Your Enterprise, for more information.
How often should you take a usage snapshot?

A monthly review of usage data provides you with a helpful view into the usage patterns across your
enterprise. You may need to vary the frequency for various reasons; for example, while you are fine-tuning
your license usage. Perform an in-depth annual review to determine your license renewal needs.
What is the licensing business model your vendor applies to your licenses?
Take into consideration the renewal or license usage review period put in place by your vendor. Negotiate a
contract that incorporates license rehosting and feature remixing.

This section describes basic license usage concepts that will assist you in better understanding how your
organization uses licenses and how you can best manage that usage.
License Denials
You can use FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications to analyze license denials. A denial indicates that the
software was not able to check out a license at the time that the license was requested.
The Usage Summary report gives you an idea of the number of denials relative to the total number of license
requests. If you want to determine specific details about each license denial, generate a Raw report specifying the
Reason for Denial/Checkin field in Step 5 of the Create Report Configuration wizard for Raw reports.
The following table provides possible explanations for license denials in Raw report output.
Table 5-1 Denials in Raw report output
Denial
Explanation
All licenses are reserved for others.
The available licenses are being withheld because some of the

licenses are reserved for other users in the options file.
Checkout exceeds MAX specified in

options file.
The available licenses are being withheld because there is a MAX

available for this feature set in the options file.
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Denial
Explanation
Checkout request rejected by vendordefined checkout filter.
The application has a built-in test for the license that failed and
rejected the license checkout.
Clock difference too large between client

and server.
The license checkout request was denied because the time

difference between the client and server was more than 24 hours.
Duplicate selection mismatch for this

feature.
A different version of the application is in use and has specified

Duplicate Grouping criteria that is different than the one specified
in the checkout request.
Feature has expired.
The license for this feature has expired; a new license is required.
Feature removed during lmreread or

wrong SERVER line hostid.
Checkout failure due to two possible causes:
The feature is removed during lmreread, but the FlexEnabled

application is reading an old copy of the license file that still
has the removed feature.
The hostid on the SERVER line is for a different host, so all

features in this license file were removed.
Feature start date is in the future.
The feature is not enabled yet. The current date is before the
feature start date.
FlexNet Publisher version of vendor

daemon is too old.
The vendor daemon is built with an older version of FlexNet

Publisher than the client application. The vendor daemon must
use at least the same version of FlexNet Publisher as the client
application.
Contact the software vendor for a new vendor daemon.
License BORROW support not enabled.
A user requested license borrowing, but the license or the

application does not support license borrowing.
License file does not support this version.
The version of the application is not supported by the license. You

need to obtain a new license from the software vendor.
Licensed number of users already

reached.
All available licenses have been checked out.
License server does not support this

version of this feature.
The version of the feature is not supported. You need to obtain a

new license from the software vendor.
License server system does not support

this feature.
The feature has expired on the server, has not yet started, or the
version is greater than the highest supported version.
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Denial
Explanation
No licenses available to borrow.
There is no license available for the borrower to check out. This

applies to applications created using FlexNet Publisher 8 or later.
No such feature exists.
The feature could not be found in the license file.
Platform not enabled.
The software is running on a platform for which it is not authorized

by Flexera Software. Contact your vendor for further information.
Request for more licenses than this

feature supports.
A checkout request was made for more licenses than are

available.
Requested borrow interval extends

beyond license expiration date.
The user has specified a borrow period longer than the license
allows.
This platform not authorized by license.
The license includes a PLATFORM=keyword and this platform is not

listed.
User/host on EXCLUDE list for feature.
The user is restricted from accessing a license because it is listed

in the EXCLUDE list in the options file.
User/host not on INCLUDE list for feature.
The user is restricted from accessing a license because it is not

listed in the INCLUDE list in the options file.
USER_BASED license has not specified
The user-based licenses must have users specified in the options

file.
users -- see server log.

Users are queued for this feature.
All available licenses have been checked out and there are other
users in the queue for this feature.
If a client application was built using FlexNet Publisher 9.0 or later, raw report output displays ultimate denial events
separately from other denial events. Only true (ultimate) denial events by vendor daemon will be in the Usage
Summary report. All that are not ultimate denial events are ignored.
Eliminating Spurious Denials

If an application requests a license from a license server that uses a license file containing several INCREMENT lines
for the same feature, it is possible to get a cluster of denials reported before a successful checkout is obtained.
You can eliminate extraneous or spurious denial events from a report by selecting the Eliminate spurious
denials check box during the Filter Properties step of the Create Report Configuration wizard and specifying a
time interval in seconds. With this filter set, denials for the same feature, user, host, process id, and report log file
that occur in clusters within the specified time interval are considered qualified for elimination.
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FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications analyzes the qualified denials in each report log according to the
following criteria and eliminates extraneous denials from a report:
If the FlexEnabled application is built with a version of FlexNet Publisher earlier than version 9.0, all qualified
denials occurring within the time interval are considered together. If at the end of the time interval, the license
has not been granted, the last denial is reported and all previous denials in the interval are eliminated from the
report. If a series of denials is seen followed by a checkout, the checkout is reported and the denials are
eliminated.
If the FlexEnabled application is built with FlexNet Publisher 9.0 or later:
An ultimate denial event is never folded.
Regular denials are always ignored.
Reports that display denial information contain several lines in the report header that indicate whether denial
filtering is turned on and if so, show the results of the denial filtering. The results include the number and the
percentage of eliminated denials.
The specified time interval should not be more than a few seconds. A reasonable interval corresponds to the
number of seconds an individual license server spends granting a license. It should not be the total amount of time
the application might wait for a license to be grantedthat total time may include network latency and waiting for
one or more license servers to respond to multiple requests. Large time intervals may impact FlexNet Manager for
Engineering Applications performance because more events are queued to analyze the denials.
Note that this filter considers eliminating only clusters of denials reported in one report log, that is, only clusters of
denials issued by the same license server. It will not eliminate false denials that are the result of checkout
attempts from several license servers in a license file list.
Duplicate Grouping Information

Several fields can be added to Raw report output to help correlate checkouts related by duplicate grouping:
handle, shared_handle, and shared_group. All of these fields are identifiers that are re-used by a vendor daemon,
and are not, therefore, unique.
All license checkouts are assigned a handle. If a checkout shares a license with a previous checkout, as a result of
duplicate grouping, the later checkout is assigned a shared handle that matches the previous checkouts handle.
All license checkouts are assigned a shared group identifier, in addition to a handle. All checkouts that share the
same license have the same shared group identifier.
A shared handle is meaningful on a checkout, not necessarily on both a checkout and its associated checkin. For
example, consider an application license that has duplicate grouping based on host.
If user A starts the application on host A and checks out a license, that checkout has a handle and a shared
group identifier.
When user B starts the application on the same host, user Bs application instance shares a license with user
As application instance. User Bs checkout has its own handle, a shared handle that matches user As
checkout handle, and the same shared group as user As checkout.
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If user C starts the application on host A and checks out a license after user A has checked in his license, but
while user B still has his license checked out, user Cs application instance shares a license with user Bs
application instance. User Cs checkout has its own handle, a shared handle that matches user Bs handle,
and the same shared group as user Bs checkout.
Note that the checkouts of user A and user C each overlap with the checkout of user B and are all, therefore, part of
the same legitimate shared group. Therefore, be careful filtering out usage when examining duplicate grouping
informationyou might filter out a checkout that links the usage of legitimate shared groups and the filtered data
might incorrectly indicate a re-used shared group handle rather than a legitimate shared group.
Time 1
User A checks out license on Host A
A: handle 1
A: shared group 100
Time 2
User B checks out license on Host A
B: handle 2
B: shared handle 1
B: shared group 100
Time 3
User A checks in license on Host A
Time 4
User C checks out license on Host A
C: handle 3
C: shared handle 2
C: shared group 100
Overdraft License Usage

Your vendor may have issued you some overdraft licenses in addition to the regular licenses. The overdraft
licenses for a feature include the OVERDRAFT=overdraft_count keyword in a FEATURE line. FlexNet Manager for
Engineering Applications reports on the availability and usage of overdraft licenses differently depending on the
type of report.
In a Usage Over Time or High Water Mark report, the number of available licenses, the total number of available
and overdraft licenses, and the number of licenses used are shown separately. Clearing the Show Available
Licenses check box in Step 5 of the Create Report Configurations wizard for a Usage Over Time or a High Water
Mark report will suppress both the line representing license availability and the line representing total license
availability.
In a Usage Efficiency report, overdraft usage is denoted with an asterisk, *, next to the bar. Overdraft usage is
also shown in the Type column of RIF output for a Usage Efficiency report. The Type column appears in RIF output
only if there are overdraft licenses available or unlicensed usage.
In a Summary Barchart report, a Usage Summary report, or a Raw report, maximum availability and usage of
available and overdraft licenses are not distinguished.
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By analyzing the output from a combination of reports, you can determine if you have enough licenses for the
users in your enterprise. The first step is to determine if all users can gain access to software when they need it.
The following scenario demonstrates a method for making this determination.
1.
Generate a Usage Over Time report, sorted by feature.

This report shows the actual number of licenses in use for each feature specified in the configuration during
any given period of time versus the total available number of licenses. The granularity of this report is
controlled by the Summary Period setting in the configuration. Note any peaks in usage when all available
licenses are in use. This may indicate the possibility that some users were denied a license.
2.
Generate a Usage Summary report, sorted by feature and then user.

This report breaks down the usage for each feature so you can see who is using the licenses. Locate data for
the feature in question from Step 1. Review the usage statistics for each user to determine the quantity of
license request denials. If any users show denials, you should investigate further; see License Denials, for
further information.
3.
Generate a Usage Efficiency report, sorted by feature.

This report shows the hours each available license was used for each feature specified in the configuration.
Locate the graph for the feature in question. Look for trends such as the number of licenses used to their full
capacity and the overall number of licenses used.
Next, use these statistics to make decisions about the number of licenses you need. If the reports indicate daily
maximum usage peaks combined with full-capacity efficiency, consider obtaining more licenses from your vendor.
In addition, you should consider the following:
Your enterprises present and future staffing requirements, including whether your enterprise may merge with
or acquire another organization.
The duration for which each license is needed. Fewer licenses are needed if they are checked out for a short
amount of time.
Requirements for specific users. If one or two users need dedicated licenses with the balance shared among
the rest of the users, consider reserving licenses for the dedicated users and re-evaluating the number you
need for the rest of the enterprise.
Balancing License Load Across Your

Enterprise
By analyzing license usage on a per-server basis, you can determine if your licenses are distributed across your
enterprise in the most efficient manner. For example, usage reports may reveal an unacceptable number of license
denials on one license server while, for the same feature, another license server has a surplus of licenses.
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The process of redistributing licenses to minimize denials is known as load balancing. Follow these steps to
determine which licenses need load balancing:
1.
Generate a separate Usage Over Time report for each license server.
This report shows, on a server-by-server basis, which features are at or are surpassing available license usage.
Note these feature names when analyzing subsequent reports.
2.
As supporting documentation, generate a Usage Summary report, specifying denied event types only, for
those license servers reaching peak usage.
This report helps you determine the degree to which denials are happening on a given license server. Look at
the data for those features identified in Step 1. If the data indicates a high percentage of denials, consider
adding more licenses for the feature to this license server.
3.
To further investigate the reason for denials, generate a Raw report, specifying denied event types only and
include the Reason for Denial/Checkin field, for those license servers and features reaching peak usage.
This report produces information for each license request denial including its reason. Refer to License Denials,
for explanations of the different reasons for denials.
The data these two reports provide in combination helps you to determine which license servers in your enterprise
have the heaviest license usage. Take some licenses away from over-utilized servers and add them to the underutilized ones. If your licenses are node-locked, they need to be re-hosted, which will require your vendors
assistance.

When you analyze your license usage, you may see that a few features are used more often and generate the
greater proportion of license request denials, and that other features are relatively unused. You may consider
remixing the particular quantity of licenses you have for each feature.
Remixing involves trading in licenses for rarely used or unused features and replacing them with licenses for
overutilized features. This process requires the cooperation of your vendor.
To see a profile of feature usage, generate a Usage Summary report sorted by feature. If you see that Feature1 is in
use for only a small percentage of the time, compared to Feature2, which has a higher level of usage, you may
want to consider remixing the quantity of licenses for those two features.
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6
Investment Planning
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applicationss investment planning functionality enables your enterprise to
analyze product usage trends in order to forecast future product license needs and product license distribution for
the entire organization. The planning and forecasting capabilities provided in FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications are built on the functionality offered by the product formerly known as LinkRight Tracker.
Using the investment planning functionality available from the Planner tab, you map licensed features to the
software products that are used in your organization. This feature-to-product mapping enables FlexNet Manager
for Engineering Applications to report on product usage, in addition to feature usage. Using the product usage
reports, you can discover usage trends and use this information to optimize your product license purchases by
remixing your contract pools according to the terms specified in your license contract.
Key investment-planning features include:
The ability to input and manage contractual data.
Feature-to-product mapping to facilitate product-based usage reporting.
Remix calculations and analysis to show where license re-allocation may benefit your enterprise.
Combined with organizational structure functionality, enables you to accurately calculate chargebacks for
different departments and project groups within your enterprise. (See the FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications 15.3 Reporting Guide and the online help for information about organizational structures.)
Basic Investment Planning Steps

The following basic steps are necessary to compare your enterprises contract (licensing) data to actual product
usage.
1.
Add information about software producers (companies that create software products) and software vendors
(companies that sell software products).
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Chapter 6: Investment Planning

Products
Note The software producer and the software vendor may be the same company, if you purchased the
product directly from the software producer.
2.
Add products to FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, then associate licensed features with the
products.
3.
Input contract data.
4.
Create organizational structures, if necessary. See the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3
Reporting Guide for information about organizational structures.
5.
Run data aggegation. See the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Reporting Guide for
information about data aggregation.
6.
Run reports to view product-based usage trends.
7.
Compare the usage trends shown in the reports to the entitlements specified in your contracts to determine
whether you are under- or over-licensing specific software products in your enterprise.
8.
Run remixes to determine where your enterprise may be able to optimize licensing costs by purchasing
licenses for a different mix of products.
Products
The Products screen, available from the Planner tab, displays a list of the products that have been added to and/or
imported into FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications.
A software product is composed of one or more licensed features. A software producer creates a product by
grouping together separately licensed features and distributing the products to its enterprise customers, along with
the feature licenses.
The same feature can be used in multiple products. This practice enables a software producer to create different
product tiers, where each tier contains progressively more (and/or more advanced) features. For example, a
software producer may have a professional and an express version of a product, where both products include the
same core features, but the professional version includes additional advanced features that are not included with
the express version.
To enable product-based reporting in FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, you must add products, then
map those products to licensed features.
Adding Products
Before you can map licensed features to a product (to provide for product-based reporting), you create a product
definition in FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications by using the Add Product page in the interface or by
importing product definitions using an XML file.
After you add a product, you assign features to the product to provide the basis for product-level usage reporting.
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Products
Importing Product Definitions

From the Products page, you can import product definitions contained in an XML file to populate the FlexNet
Manager for Engineering Applications database. You can also import product definitions from the command line.
The imported products will be displayed on the Products screen.
The XML file must contain product definitions from a single software producer. If the XML file contains a reference
to a software producer that does not already exist in the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications system,
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications creates the software producer.
See Product Definition XML Format for information about the XML file format and the location of .xml and .xsd
sample files.
Product Definition XML Format

The following XML example is from the sample file provided. The product and feature settings are the same as the
settings presented in the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications user interface for the Add Product and Add
Product Feature pages.
<producer category="EDA Tools" name="Producer ABC" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchemainstance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="products.xsd">
<product category="PCB Layout" family="Board Designer" name="Board Designer Expert"
number="100002" version="1">
<feature daemonName="abcd" name="BoardDes" licenseSystem="flex" licensesPerProduct="1"
minimumVersion=""/>
<feature daemonName="abcd" name="layoutPlus" licenseSystem="flex" licensesPerProduct="1"
minimumVersion=""/>
<feature daemonName="abcd" name="floorPlanner" licenseSystem="flex" licensesPerProduct="1"
minimumVersion=""/>
</product>
</producer>
All settings that are required in the user interface are also required in the XML file, except for the following feature
settings:
The licenseSystem attribute is optional. Valid values are flex or lum; the default value is flex.
The licensesPerProduct attribute is optional. The default value is 1.
Product Definition Sample Files

To assist you in creating product definition files for import, FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications provides
the following sample files in the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Reporting installation directory (in
\site\samples):
ProductSample.xmlContains the format for product definition import with example data.
products.xsdContains the formal definition that can be used by XML editors to ensure the XML files are
correct.
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Features
Importing Product Definitions at the Command Line

You can import product definition XML files from the command line.
Task:
To import the product definition XML file:

1.
From a Command prompt, change to the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Admin installation
directory.
2.
Type the following command:

flexnet importproducts u<user> p<password> f<filename_with_path> [s<server>]
Exporting Product Definitions

From the Products screen, you can export product definitions to a .csv (comma-separated values) file. Exporting
this data may be helpful if you want to work with your product data using another tool (for example, a spreadsheet).
Adding Features to Products

A feature is a discrete, separately licensed unit of functionality. A single feature can be a part of multiple products.
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications tracks usage by feature. To enable usage reporting by product
(which are composed of one or more features), you must associate licensed features with products.
You can also use the Assign Features page to assign unassigned features to products.
Features
Within software products, features are discrete, separately licensable units of functionality. A software product is
composed of one or more licensed features. To facilitate product-based usage reporting, you must associate
licensed features with software products that are used in your enterprise.
The Features page displays a list of the licensed features that have been mapped to products. This feature-toproduct mapping facilitates reporting on product usage.
The Assign Features page displays a list of unassigned features, which are features that have not been mapped to
a product.
Software Producers
In FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, a software producer is a company that makes software products
that use a licensing system to control access to product functionality. The product functionality is defined in the
products features, which are licensed to your enterprise by the software vendor. The licensing terms are defined in
a contract.
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Contracts
The software producer may also be the software vendorthat is, the same company may both produce and sell its
software products to customers.
Note LinkRight Tracker used the term vendor to refer to both the company that produces software and the
company that sells software. In FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, these two companies are
represented by software producers and software vendors, respectively.
Each product that you define in FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications must be associated with an existing
software producer.
Software Producer Contacts

To help you better manage your relationship with software producers, you can define contact information for
various personnel within the software producers company. For example, you might add contact information for the
support representatives who service your account.
Associating Vendor Daemons with Software Producers

The vendor daemon is the process that serves licenses for a particular products features. A single software
producer may have multiple vendor daemons associated with it.
Vendor daemons are automatically added to the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications database as
needed, when report logs are imported. You associate vendor daemons with software producers to tie the usage of
featuresserved by vendor daemonsto the usage of products, which are created by software producers.
Depending on whether the vendor daemon has already exists in the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications
database, you can:
Assign an unassigned vendor daemon to a software producer.
Manually add a vendor daemon to a software producer.
Contracts
A contract defines the terms under which you (the enterprise) purchase product licenses from a software vendor
(which may be the same company as the software producer). The contract terms include the start and end dates,
the fixed and variable costs of the contract, any license restrictions (for example, geographic license restrictions),
and the remix rules for the contract, which define the percentage of the contract for which you can reallocate
licenses.
The product licenses purchased under a contract are typically grouped together into one or more contract pools.
The Contract Summary page, available under the Planner tab, shows a list of the contracts that have been input to
or imported into the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications system. From the Contract Summary page, you
can delete contracts and sort the contracts by column headings.
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Contracts
Contract Pools
Contract pools are used to define common license terms for a group of product licenses purchased under a
contract. These terms can include geographic and other license usage restrictions, and the remix rules. Contract
pools have the same license type and the same remix type. A single contract may contain multiple pools, each with
different license terms.
Product Licenses
To use licensed software, you purchase product licenses from a software vendor. The contract specifies the terms
of the license and indicates how many copies of the product you own. At a particular point in time, the total number
of copies is the sum of the quantities of all product licenses that have an effective date on or before the point in time
and an expiration date that is either blankwhich indicates that the product license is perpetualor after the point
in time.
For reporting and chargeback purposes, a product license can be distributed to different organizational units within
your enterprise. For example, if you have a license for 10 copies of Product A, you could distribute six copies to the
Broadband division and four copies to the Memory Products division.
In FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, you add product licenses to contract pools. After adding the
product licenses, you can add license distributions.
License Distributions
You can add a license distribution for a product license, which enables you to capture the number of product
licenses that are allocated to your enterprises various organizational units. For example, if you have a total of 100
licenses for a product, you may want to allocate 30 of them to the Memory Products division and 70 to the
Communications division.
License distributions are used primarily for reporting, chargeback, and inventory control purposes; there is no way
to restrict product usage.
You can distribute product licenses automatically or manually. Automatic distribution is based on each
organizational units percentage usage of the product. Using the previous example, if the Communications division
is using the product three times as much as the Memory Products division, they would receive 75 product licenses
and Memory Products would receive 25 product licenses.
You can use manual distribution if you know the quantities used by your organizational unitsif the quantities are
known or fixed and not based on relative usage.
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Contracts
Remixing or Renewing Contract Pools

Remixing is the process of optimizing the money spent on software by adjusting the quantities of product licenses
within a set of rules defined by the contract and contract pools. Customers are typically limited to a fixed number of
remixes per year over the life of the contract. The remix process uses historical product usage patterns and the
limits defined in the contract and pools to forecast the number of licenses your enterprise will require for each of
the products purchased under the contract.
A remix is performed on the product licenses within the same contract pool; any manipulation for a remix between
the product licenses that belong to different contract pools of a contract are not permitted.
Basic Remix or Renewal Process

The basic process for remixing contract pools using FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications is as follows.
You perform these steps using the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications interface. See the FlexNet
Manager for Engineering Applications Online Help Library for information specific to each of the steps.
The renewal process is similar to remixing, but the investment decision is related to perpetual licenses and is
based on whether your enterprise will choose to renew maintenance.
1.
Add a remix to define the remix parameters, and select the contract pools to be remixed.
2.
Using the View Remix screen, specify any additional quantities or buffer percentages for the products in the
contract pools being remixed.
3.
View the usage trend analysis, as shown by the Product Peak Usage Trend report. (See the FlexNet Manager
for Engineering Applications 15.3 Reporting Guide for information about the available reports.)
4.
Override any of the quantities suggested using the View Remix screen.
5.
Complete the remix.
Importing Contract Data

You can import your existing contract data to FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications using an XML file. The
XML schema (contracts.xsd) is located in the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Admin installation
directory in the following location: <fnm_admin_installdir>\site\samples.
The following is an example of an XML contract import file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vendor name="Mentor Graphics">
<contract endDate="2011-12-31" fixedCost="1000000" name="Contract One" notes="contract notes"
paymentAmount="100000" paymentEndDate="2011-10-01" paymentInterval="4" paymentStartDate="200904-01" startDate="2009-01-01" variableCost="500000">
<pool annualFeePercent="30.0" discountPercent="60.0" geography="geo notes"
initialValue="23456" name="Pool One" notes="pool notes" remixablePercent="100.0"
remixesPerYear="4" shareable="global" site="Site notes">
<product listPrice="2345" producerName="Mentor Graphics" productName="Advanced
Interconnect Op SW" productNumber="206143" productVersion="1">
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Software Vendors
<license effectiveDate="2009-01-01" notes="License Comments" poNumber="ponum"

purchaseReq="purch req" quantity="123"/>
<license effectiveDate="2009-07-01" quantity="22"/>
</product>
<product listPrice="44444" producerName="Mentor Graphics" productName="Advanced Rule Set
Op SW" productNumber="214756" productVersion="1">
<license effectiveDate="2009-01-01" quantity="333"/>
</product>
</pool>
<pool annualFeePercent="25.0" discountPercent="60.0" forProductionUse="false"
initialValue="234234" licensingModel="timeBased" name="Pool two"
remixablePercent="52.564102" remixesPerYear="2" shareable="regional">
<product listPrice="54444" producerName="Mentor Graphics" productName="Boardsim"
productNumber="Unknown" productVersion="1">
<license effectiveDate="2009-01-01" expireDate="2009-12-31" quantity="32"/>
</product>
<product listPrice="23423" producerName="Mentor Graphics" productName="Board Station
Designer" productNumber="39986" productVersion="1">
<license effectiveDate="2009-01-01" expireDate="2009-12-31" quantity="345"/>
</product>
</pool>
</contract>
</vendor>
Task:
To import the contract data XML file:

1.
From a Command prompt, change to the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Admin installation
directory.
2.

flexnet importcontracts u<user> p<password> f<filename_with_path> [s<server>]
Software Vendors
Software vendors are the organizations that sell licensed software to your enterprise. The terms of the license are
defined in a contract.
The software vendor may be the same organization as the software producer.
Note LinkRight Tracker used the term vendor to refer to both the company that produces software and the
company that sells software. In FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications, these two concepts are represented
by software producers and software vendors, respectively. The software producer and the software vendor may be
the same company.
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Product Choices
Product Choices
Product choices are automatically created by the product usage aggregation process. FlexNet Manager for
Engineering Applications uses a data aggregation process (also referred to as a roll-up) to determine which
products are being used at your enterprise, based on the feature usage data generated by report logs. FlexNet
Manager for Engineering Applications makes the product determinations based on the feature-to-product
associations that you provided.
The Product Choices screen displays a list of all product choices, including the following information for each:
Possible ProductsList of the products that the product usage aggregation process had to choose from
when determining product usage. It is a list of products that share the features listed in the Common Features
column.
Common FeaturesFeatures that each of the possible products have in common.
Chosen ProductName of the software product that the product usage aggregation process chose for the
product usage.
Product Choice OverrideName of the software product that the user chose to override the product
chosen by the product usage aggregation process.
Product Aggregation
Product aggregation refers to the portions of the aggregation process that are responsible for populating the
product-centric areas of the data warehouse. This allows for reporting to be performed on a per-product basis,
rather than focusing on simple feature usage. In addition to reporting, product aggregation is also necessary to
enable the Investment Planning functionality, including remixing.
If you have purchased Investment Planning functionality, product aggregation is automatically performed during
every aggregation process. During aggregation, feature events (imported from report logs) are considered
chronologically, and contribute to the usage summaries for individuals and organizations, for specific hours. These
usage summaries are stored in the measure tables of the data warehouse for reporting. Product aggregation is
similar, but includes two addition phases: the creation of product events from feature events, and product
resolution.
Product Event Creation

Each product is defined (either using the Products screen in the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications
interface or by importing a product-definition XML file) to include a specific set of features. In order to generate
product usage summary data similar to the feature usage summary data produced in aggregation, FlexNet
Manager for Engineering Applications must first create product events from the feature events being processed.
As feature events are processed chronologically, each individual feature event is compared to the product
definitions. If the feature in use is found to be part of one or more products, it is either added to an existing product
event, or a new produce event is created.
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Product Aggregation
When a new product event is created, it is assigned the start and end times that correspond to the start and end
time of the feature event currently being processed, and a list of possible products is assigned. This set of possible
products is the set of all products that include the feature in question.
When a feature event is added to an existing product event, the end time of that product event is extended, if
necessary, to the end time of the feature event. Also, the list of possible products is reduced to only contain
products that include all the features in the product event.
The decision to add to an existing product event is based on the following questions:
Is the start time of this feature event before the end time of the product event?
Is this feature included in one or more of the possible products for that product event?
Is the feature available (not already in use) in this product event at the feature events start time?
If the answer to all of these questions is yes, the feature event is added; otherwise, a new product event is created.
Because feature events are processed chronologically, once the aggregation process reaches a feature event that
starts after the end time of a specific product event, it is safe to say that no more feature events will be added to that
product event.
Product Resolution
When FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications is finished adding feature events to a product event, it must
determine what product this event is for. In the simplest case, there would only be one possible product that
included all the features that contributed feature events to the product event, and there is then no choice that
needs to be made. However, if there is more than one possible productdue to multiple products including the
same featuresthen the aggregation must resolve this list of possible products to a single product.
The product resolution is dictated by four rules of comparison, which are considered in the order listed:
1.
The product with the lowest net cost is selected. If this still results in more than one possible product, then the
next rule is evaluated.
2.
From products identified by rule 1, the product with the least number of features is selected. If this still results
in more than one possible product, then the next rule is evaluated.
3.
From products identified by rule 2, the product with the largest number of licenses is selected. If this still
results in more than one possible product, then the next rule is evaluated.
4.
The first product created (with the lowest ID in the database) is selected.
Before these comparison rules are applied, the aggregation will first check to see that all products have valid
licenses. If some do, and others do not, then only the products with valid licenses are considered. However, if none
of the possible products have valid licenses, then all products will be considered; however, without product
licenses, only rules 2 and 4 will have any affect on the product-resolution process.
When these rules are applied, product choice objects are created, and these product choices are displayed on the
Product Choices screen in the FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications interface. There, you can override the
product choice with another product, and the override you enter will be applied in future product aggregations.
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A
Discovering FlexNet License Server
Managers and Vendor Daemons
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications provides a command-line utility, lmscan, that enables enterprises to
scan their network for FlexNet Publisher license server managers and vendor daemons. The scan discovers both
lmadmin and lmgrd license server managers. The scan output is an XML file (lmgrd-scan.xml) that lists the
discovered license server managers and the vendor daemons on each license server.
The utility is delivered as a .zip package: fnm-lmgrdscan.zip.
Task:
To scan your network for FlexNet Publisher license servers and vendor daemons:
1.
Download the lmscan utility .zip file (fnm-lmgrdscan.zip) and unpack it.
2.
Open a Command prompt and change to the following directory:

<fnm-lmgrdscan_install_dir>\bin\
3.

lmgrdscan.bat m <targetSpec> l <portSpec> [d]
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Chapter A: Discovering FlexNet License Server Managers and Vendor Daemons
The file lmgrd-scan.xml is output to the folder <fnm-lmgrdscan_install_dir>\bin\.

Table A-1 lmscan Parameters
Parameter
Description
m <targetSpec>
Instructs lmscan to discover the machines on the subnet specified by

<target_spec>, which must be a valid IP address or range of IP addresses.
You can use wildcards and/or ranges when specifying the target subnet. For
example, the following are valid target specifications:
172.16.6.200255
172.31.5.*
172.31.1-7.*
The scan duration (length of time) is dependent on the number of IP addresses that
lmscan must scan. To minimize scan time, limit the range of IP addresses to a subset
of addresses on your network.
l <portSpec>
Instructs lmscan to discover license servers by searching the known machines on

the network. Specify the ports to scan for license servers.
To specify multiple ports, use a comma separator.
To specify a range of ports, use a hyphen (for example, 10002000).
Discovers the vendor daemons on each license server.
Displays helpthe parameters and parameter descriptionsfor lmscan.
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B
Glossary
The following table defines many of the terms that are used throughout the FlexNet Manager for Engineering
Applications documentation.
Term
Definition
concurrent license
Entitlement defined as a fixed number of licenses available to be shared among a

group of users. Also referred to as network or floating licenses.
contract
A document that defines the terms under which an enterprise purchases product
licenses from a software vendor. These terms typically include the contracts start
and end dates, the fixed and variable costs, remix rules for the contract, and any
license usage restrictions (for example, geographic restrictions).
Product licenses purchased under a contract are grouped into one or more license
pools.
counted license
A license with a non-zero license count. A license server is required to manage a

counted license. Counted licenses can either float on a network or be node-locked.
data aggregation
The process through which FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications

determines which products are being used, based on the feature usage contained in
report logs.
daemon
A process that serves clients. Sometimes referred to as a server or service

process.
debug log file
One or more ASCII text files written by the license server. A debug log file contains
status and error messages useful for debugging the license server.
duplicate grouping
Duplicate license requests from the same user, vendor, host or display share one
license.
FNM-1530-CG01
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Chapter B: Glossary
Term
Definition
end user
Your customer to whom the FlexEnabled product is supplied.
end-user license
administrator
The staff member or members at the end-user site chartered with installing the
FlexEnabled product and administering the license file and server as appropriate.
This could be the same person as the actual user of the product.
entitlement
The characteristics that define the legal right to use the feature or product.
feature
A separately licensed unit of functionality in a product. The meaning of a feature

depends entirely on how it is used by a product developer. For example, a feature
could represent any of the following:
A product consisting of one or more components
A specific version of a product
A part of a product
A piece of data (restricted via the access routines)
One feature can be included as a part of many different products.

feature license
A license to use a discrete unit of functionality in a software product. A software

vendor delivers feature licenses to the enterprise in one or more license files.
Feature licenses are distributed over a network by a vendor daemon running on a
license server. Feature licenses are used when an end user accesses licensed parts
of a software product.
feature license event
A feature license event records the usage of a feature license by an end user. The
license server creates feature license events each time a feature license is used.
feature line
A line in a license file that licenses a particular feature. A feature line begins with one
of the keywords FEATURE, INCREMENT, or UPGRADE.
FlexNet Agent
An application deployed on each FlexNet license server machine that provides

communication between one or more license servers and FlexNet Manager for
Engineering Applications.
FlexNet Manager for

Engineering
Applications
An application deployed at an enterprise to manage FlexNet licenses and license

servers. FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications comprises two modules
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Admin and FlexNet Manager for
Engineering Applications Reporting.
FlexNet Publisher
components
The individual parts the vendor delivers to the enterprise that compose the FlexNet
Publisher solution.
FlexNet Publisher
toolkit
Contains all the necessary components and libraries used by the software publisher
to create a FlexEnabled product.
FNM-1530-CG01
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Chapter B: Glossary
Term
Definition
FlexEnabled product
A product, instrumented with calls to the FlexNet Publisher client library, that
requests a license.
floating license
A license that can authorize usage of a product by one of a group of users on a

network.
A license server is required to manage a floating license. Floating licenses can either
be counted or uncounted. An uncounted floating license is effectively a site license.
fulfillment record
A data structure specific to a publishers FlexEnabled application that contains

license rights.
heartbeats
Periodic messages sent from a FlexEnabled product to a license server to solicit

replies that ensure that the license server is still running. Heartbeats can be
implemented automatically or called explicitly from a FlexEnabled product. If called
explicitly, they are referred to as manual heartbeats.
hostid
A means used to uniquely identify a specific system.
hostid type
The scheme in which the hostid is determined for a particular system architecture.
license
The legal right to use a feature. FlexNet Publisher can restrict licenses for features by
counting the number of licenses already in use for a feature when new requests are
made by the FlexNet Publisher product. FlexNet Publisher can also restrict product
usage to particular node or user name.
license certificate
One or more feature lines specific to a vendors FlexEnabled product. This certificate
is provided to the end user who incorporates it into a license file.
license file
A license file is a collection of feature licenses. It is a text file specific to an enterprise

site containing the license certificates from one or more software publishers and/or
vendors. The enterprise installs the license file on a license server.
This file can contain descriptions of the following, for one or more FlexEnabled
products:
License server node or nodes
Vendor daemon or daemons
Licenses
license-file list
A list of license files separated with a colon : on UNIX and a semi-colon ; on

Windows. A license-file list can be accepted in most places where a license file is
appropriate. When a directory is specified, all files matching *.lic in that directory
are automatically used, as if specified as a list.
license key
A 12- to 20-character hexadecimal license signature used to authenticate a license.

See also signature.
FNM-1530-CG01
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Chapter B: Glossary
Term
Definition
license model
The set of defining characteristics for product entitlement. The fundamental layer of
a licensing policy.
license pool
License pools are used to define common license terms for a group of product
licenses purchased under a contract. These terms include remix rules and license
usage restrictions.
license server
A license manager daemon (lmadmin or lmgrd) and one or more vendor daemon
processes. License server refers to the processes, not the computer on which they
run.
license server
machine
A computer system that runs the license server processes. The license server
machine hosts all site-specific information regarding licensed feature usage.
Multiple license server machines used for three-server redundancy can logically be
considered the license server machine. Also known as license server node.
license sharing
Duplicate license requests from the same user, host or display share one license.
See duplicate grouping.
license system
A system used to license product features. FlexNet and IBMs LUM are examples of
license systems.
licensing policy
The constraints applied to the legal right to use a feature.
lmgrd
The daemon that sends client processes to the correct vendor daemon on the
correct machine. The same license manager daemon process can be used by any
application from any vendor because this daemon neither authenticates nor
dispenses licenses. lmgrd processes no user requests on its own, but forwards
these requests to a vendor daemon.
network license
Entitlement defined as a fixed number of licenses available to be shared among a

group of users across a network. Also referred to as concurrent or floating licenses.
node-locked license
A license that can authorize use of a product to be run on a specific machine based
on a unique identifier known as a hostid. Node-locked licenses can be counted or
uncounted. Node-locked, uncounted licenses do not require a license server.
options file
A text file implemented for a particular vendors product by a FlexNet license

administrator at an end-user site to customize the behavior of the vendor daemon or
to enable or restrict the use of the licenses managed by the vendor daemon at that
site.
package
A set of independent components to be licensed as a single product. Packages are

defined in the license certificate, not in the product; this allows a vendor to change
the components of a package until just prior to shipping the license.
FNM-1530-CG01
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Chapter B: Glossary
Term
Definition
package suite
A set of products combined into a package with the restriction that the package
components of a single license may not be simultaneously shared.
product
Software that comprises one or more licensed features.
product choice
A product choice captures the results of the product resolution process for each
unique set of possible products to choose from.
product license
Defined in a contract, the product license specifies the quantity purchased, pricing
information, and the license start and expiration dates.
product license event
A product license event records the usage of a product license by a user. Product
license events are not created directly by the license server; they are created by the
product usage aggregation process by combining feature license events.
product resolution
The process of determining which product was used when the feature license
events could have come from more that one product.
product usage
aggregation
The process of creating product license events by analyzing feature license events.
This is how FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications identifies which products
were used.
remix
Remixing is the process of optimizing the money spent on software by adjusting the
quantities of Product Licenses within a set of rules defined by the Contract and
Pools. Customers are usually limited to a fixed number of remixes per year over the
life of the contract. The remix process uses product usage patterns and the limits
defined in the contract and pools to forecast the number of licenses required for
each of the products purchased under the contract.
report log file
The feature usage data written by a single vendor daemon. Report logs are not
human readable; the data is compressed and authenticated for use with FlexNet
Manager for Engineering Applications.
FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications uses the data contained in the report
log files to produce various usage reports.
rotation
The action of switching the report log file by moving the existing report log
information to a new file, then starting a new report log with the original report log file
name.
served license
A license that requires the management of a license server.
signature
A secure, 12- to 120-character hexadecimal number that authenticates the readable

feature line in the license file, ensuring that the license text has not been modified.
See also license key.
FNM-1530-CG01
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Chapter B: Glossary
Term
Definition
software producer
A company that makes software products that use a licensing system to control
access to various functions (features) of the product. The software producer may
also be the software vendor.
software vendor
A company that sells licensed software products. The software vendor may also be
the software producer.
suite
See package suite.
supersede
A way of changing characteristics of a license with new ones, thereby making

obsolete the earlier ones. For example, a supersede license can be issued to both
change the name of a feature and obsolete the older name at the same time. This is
more powerful than upgrading.
tamper-resistant
licenses
An encryption method employing an industry-recognized asymmetric, public/private

key digital signature.
unassigned feature
A feature that is not associated with any products.
uncounted license
A license that does not restrict the number of uses of a feature. Usually node-locked
to a machine hostid.
unserved license
A license that does not require the management of a license server.
upgrade
The concept of upgrading the version entitlement for a given license certificate.
vendor
See software vendor.
vendor alias
The alias given to one or more vendor daemon names that symbolically represents
the vendors name from whom the daemons are deployed.
vendor daemon
The server process that dispenses licenses for a particular software publishers
features. The software publisher builds this binary using libraries supplied by Flexera
Software.
vendor name
A unique vendor name that is supplied to the software publisher by Flexera

Software. This is used as the name of the vendor daemon.
FNM-1530-CG01
54
Index
A
activatable license 25
activation
debug logging 21
report logging 21
adding
products 38
additional licenses 35
administrator, end-user 50
agent 9, 50
aggregation 49, 53
analyzing your data, strategies for 29
anchor 24
architecture, FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 8
assigning features to products 40
audience of manual 6
Auto Restart 21
B
balancing license load 35
basic usage concepts 30
binding 24
C
changing the password 12
common vendor daemon
mapping 21
components, FlexNet licensing 50
concurrent license 24
concurrent licenses 49
configuring the license server 20

contacts
adding for software producers 41
contract 49
contract pools 42
contracts 41
importing 43
remixing 43
counted license 49
D
daemon 49
daemon, vendor 54
data aggregation 49
data, strategies for analyzing 29
debug log
definition 49
debug log location 21
vendor daemon 21
debug logging activation 21
denials
eliminating spurious 32
in raw reports 30
license 30
reasons 30
ultimate 32, 33
deployment 9
detachable license 24
determining flexnet license server status 19
discovering license server managers 47
display name, license server 21
distributions
FNM-1530-CG01
55
Index
adding 42
documentation, additional 6
duplicate grouping 49
E
eliminating spurious denials 32
end user 50
end-user license administrator 50
entitlement 50
exporting product definitions 40
F
feature 50
unassigned 54
feature license 50
feature license event 50
feature line 50
features 40
assigning to products 40
features, remixing licenses within 36
file
debug log 49
license 51
options 52
report log 53
FlexEnabled product 51
FlexNet 50
FlexNet Agent 9, 50
FlexNet licensing components 50
architecture 8
getting started 10
user interface 11
FlexNet Publisher licensing toolkit 50
floating license 51
fulfillment record 24, 51
G
getting started 10
glossary 49
group name, vendor daemon 21
H
heartbeats 51
host name, license server 21
hostid 51
hostid type 51
I
importing contract data 43
importing product definitions 39
interface
license server 13
interval
report log rotation 21
investment planning 37
K
key, license 51
L
license 51
counted 49
feature 50
floating 51
node-locked 52
product 53
served 53
sharing 52
uncounted 54
unserved 54
license certificate 23, 51
definition 51
license counts 26
license denials 30
license distributions
adding 42
license events
feature 50
product 53
license file 23, 51
license groups 24
license key 51
license load, balancing 35
license manager 21
options 21
port 21
status 20
license manager daemon 52
license model 52
license pool 52
license pools 25
license rights representation 23
license server 52
configuring 20
FNM-1530-CG01
56
Index
display name 21
host name 21
starting 15, 18
status, determining 19
stopping 17
user interface 13
license server machine 52
license server managers
discovering on network 47
license system 52
license usage, overdraft 26, 34
license-file list 51
licenses
product 42
licenses, adding 35
licensing policy 52
line, feature 50
lmadmin
lmgrd 52
lmscan 47
parameters 48
load balancing, license 35
location
license manager debug log 21
vendor daemon debug log 21
log file
debug 49
report 53
logging activation
debug 21
report 21
M
machine, license server 52
mapping
common vendor daemon 21
mapping features to products 40
model, license 52
N
name, report log 21
name, vendor 54
name, vendor daemon group 21
network license 52
node-locked license 52
O
options
license manager 21
vendor daemon 21
options file
definition 52
overdraft license usage 26, 34
P
package 52
package suite 53
password 12
Planner tab 37
policy, licensing 52
pool
license 52
pools
contract 42
port, license manager 21
preface 6
prerequisites 11
producer 54
product 53
product choice 53
product choices 45
product definition XML 39
product license 53
product license event 53
product licenses 42
product resolution 53
product usage aggregation 53
products
adding 38
assigning features 40
exporting definitions 40
importing definitions 39
products.xsd 39
ProductSample.xml 39
R
raw report
denials in 30
refresh rate 20
remix 53
remixing 43
remixing licenses 36
report
denials in raw 30
FNM-1530-CG01
57
Index
raw text 30
Report Designer 9
report log
activation 21
name 21
rotation interval 21
report log file 53
rotation
report log 53
rotation interval, report log 21
S
sample files
product definition XML 39
served license 53
server
configuring 20
starting 15, 18
stopping 17
server display name 21
server host name 21
server machine, license 52
server status, determining 19
server user interface 13
server, license 52
signature 53
software producer 54
software producers 40
adding contact information 41
software vendor 54
software vendors 44
spurious denials, eliminating 32
starting
license server 15, 18
vendor daemon 19
status
determining flexnet license server 19
license manager 20
vendor daemon 20
stopping
license server 17
vendor daemon 18
strategies for analyzing your data 29
suite, package 53
supersede 54
trusted storage 24
type, hostid 51
typographic conventions 7
U
ultimate denials 32, 33
unassigned feature 54
uncounted license 54
unserved license 54
upgrade 54
usage concepts 30
user interface 11
license server 13
users, notifying 17, 18
V
vendor 54
vendor alias 54
vendor daemon 54
group name 21
option 21
starting 19
status 20
stopping 18
vendor daemons
associating with software producers 41
common vendor daemon mapping 21
vendor name 54
X
XML
for importing contract data 43
product definition format 39
T
tamper resistant licenses 54
Trusted ID 24
FNM-1530-CG01
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FlexNetManagerEngineeringApplications 15 3 ConceptsGuide

Uploaded by

FlexNetManagerEngineeringApplications 15 3 ConceptsGuide

Uploaded by

FlexNet Manager for

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Product Release Date:

Restricted Rights Legend

License Server Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

FlexNet License Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

License Rights Representation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Analyzing FlexNet License Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

A Discovering FlexNet License Server Managers and Vendor Daemons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

About This Manual

Chapter 2, Overview,contains an architectural and operational overview of a FlexNet-managed system.

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Identify areas of overspending.

Share expensive licenses across your enterprise.

Reduce license administration costs.

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications

FlexNet Report Designer (Cognos)

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Getting Started with FlexNet Manager for

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Your network topology and host names.

The location of all FlexNet license servers and license files.

Considerations for Using FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications

The FlexNet Manager for Engineering

Figure 2-2: FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Summary page

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Logout Button: Click this button to log out of the system.

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

License Server User Interface

Figure 3-1: License Manager Summary screen

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Chapter 3: License Server Management

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications

Manage License Servers

Start license servers

Stop license servers

Reread all license files

Modify server configurations

Start vendor daemons

Stop vendor daemons

Reread the license file for a specific vendor daemon

Modify vendor daemon configuration

Schedule and rotate report logs

Add new licenses

Delete inactive licenses

Manage Vendor Daemons

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Chapter 3: License Server Management

Table 3-1 FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications Permissions

Manage Licenses in Use

Free a license currently checked out

Manage Options for Vendor Daemons

Add, edit, and delete items in options files

Starting and Stopping FlexNet License Servers

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Chapter 3: License Server Management

Figure 3-2: Sample FlexNet license server machine

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Chapter 3: License Server Management

Stopping License Servers

To identify and notify users:

Notify all users of the impending license server shutdown.

Stopping the License Server

To stop the license server:

Click the Servers tab, then click License Managers.

Click the Stop button.

FlexNet Manager for Engineering Applications 15.3 Concepts Guide

Chapter 3: License Server Management

Starting License Servers

To start a license server:

Click the Servers tab, then click License Managers.