INTERNAL: Multiple applications use FlexLM - options

Anonym Thursday, May 6, 1999

Topic:
Multiple applications use FlexLMDiscussion:
IF YOU USE A COMBINED LICENSE FILE AND ONE LMGRD FOR ALL APPLICATIONS THAT USE FlexLM

If your license files are compatible, you can combine them with any text editor. To combine license files, read all of the compatible license files into one file, then edit out the extra SERVER lines so that only one set of SERVER lines remains. Write out this data, and you have your combined license file. If you combine license files from multiple vendors, it is a good idea to keep a copy of the combined license file in each vendor's default license file location. This way, your users can avoid having to set LM_LICENSE_FILE, because each package finds its license information in the default place. On UNIX, you can do this with a symbolic link from each default location to the location of the combined license file.

When you combine license files for two different FLEXlm-licensed products, it may be the case that those products do not use the same version of FLEXlm. FLEXlm is designed to handle this situation. There are two basic compatibility rules for FLEXlm:

1. A newer lmgrd can be used with an older vendor daemon, but a newer vendor daemon might not work properly with an older lmgrd.

2. A newer vendor daemon (or lmgrd) can be used with an older client program, but a newer client program might not work properly with an older vendor daemon. From these two compatibility rules come the simple rules for selecting which version of administration tools to use:

Always use the newest version of lmgrd and the newest version of each vendor daemon.

Use the newest FLEXlm utilities.

For specific application programs, you can use either the new or the old version (of course the vendor daemon for that application must be at least as new as the application itself).

IF YOU USE A SEPARATE LICENSE FILE AND LMGRD FOR EACH APPLICATION THAT USES FlexLM

You must run a separate copy of lmgrd for each license file. When you run multiple copies of lmgrd, there are two details to remember:

1. The port number on the SERVER line of each license file must be unique. You can use a standard text editor to change the port number in each license file so that they are all different.

2. You must make sure that you are using a compatible version of lmgrd when you start it up for a particular license file. This can be done by using an explicit path to lmgrd. When running client programs (such as a licensed application), you can set the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable to point to multiple license files. For example, you may have a license file from vendor ABC and a license file from vendor XYZ with incompatible servers. You can place the license file from vendor ABC into:

/usr/flexlm/abc.dat and the license file from vendor XYZ into:

/usr/flexlm/xyz.dat then set the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable to point to both of them. Each name in LM_LICENSE_FILE should be separated by a colon (“:”) on Unix systems.

In the C shell:

% setenv LM_LICENSE_FILE /usr/flexlm/abc.dat:/usr/flexlm/xyz.dat In the Korn and Bourne shells: