NX Licensing Issue regarding Include Statement

I thought I would share this NX Licensing issue as it was a tough one:

1.       I asked for a new NX license file to install NX on my machine that has the TC Server working on the VM.  I received a license file, but could not get it to work.  I kept getting this (I removed the ip address and servername for privacy…

Flexible License Manager status on Wed 12/2/2015 10:28

[Detecting lmgrd processes...]

Error getting status: License server machine is down or not responding.

See the system administrator about starting the license server system, or

make sure you're referring to the right host (see LM_LICENSE_FILE).

Hostname:      XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

License path:  28000@servername;

FLEXnet Licensing error:-96,491

For further information, refer to the FLEXnet Licensing documentation,

available at "www.flexerasoftware.com".

____________________________________________________________________________

2.       Looking at the log file I saw this.  With about 30 of the INCLUDE missing things listed. 

10:53:00 (ugslmd) USER_BASED license error for prd_ps_teamcenter_access (INCLUDE missing)

10:53:00 (ugslmd) USER_BASED license error for prd_vkrc1_ps_controller (INCLUDE missing)

10:53:00 (lmgrd) ugslmd using TCP-port 53740

11:04:23 (lmgrd) ugslmd exited with status 58 ()

11:04:23 (lmgrd) Since this is an unknown status, license server

11:04:23 (lmgrd) manager (lmgrd) will attempt to re-start the vendor daemon.

11:04:23 (lmgrd) EXITING DUE TO SIGNAL 1

3.       So I knew that it was reading the license file and the CID had to be right or it would error on that.  I had never seen this before.  I knew this had to do with the Flex options file as INCLUDE is a statement in the options file.  I did some googling and found that this was looking for the options file to have a list of users for these features.   What I did not know was why as this was not the way it was before – GTAC did not know why either.  So, I called the guy I know at Siemens that is the most knowledgeable person on licensing.  He had not seen it either so he talked to the developers.  Here is his response to me.

So what we have found out is that the TCDIST is a user based license and it actually requires an options file.  All of the following lines are because of the missing options file that would have the INCLUDE line in it:

(ugslmd) USER_BASED license error for planner export (INCLUDE missing)

The options file is just a text file and has to be named ugslmd.opt  I have attached the one that I used.  There is one thing that I did find with this is that the file is case sensitive.

You should be able to put this file in your directory and restart the flexlm service and it should start with no errors. You can change the user names to fit your environment and users.

4.       So now I created an Options file and tried to get it to work (see my blog post on Flex options files at http://allyplm.com/knowledgebase/2014/9/26/reserving-a-license-for-an-individual-or-group?rq=options%20flex).  However, NX requires you to use the name ugslmd.opt and you do not need to add it to the license file.  It must be located in the same directory as the license file and they both must be in the Siemens…PLMLicenseSever directory of the license server install.  Here is what is in my options file contained (just a notepad file renamed ugslmd.opt).  You have to have the same amount of Includes as licenses available.  Since, I have 4, I have to have four usernames (replace WindowsUserName with your NX users Windows User Login Name).  When I put in 5, it gave an error saying I had 5 in the log file and the max was 4.

INCLUDE TCDIST USER WindowsUserName1

INCLUDE TCDIST USER WindowsUserName2

INCLUDE TCDIST USER WindowsUserName3

INCLUDE TCDIST USER WindowsUserName4

5.       So, I did a stop, start, reread as I usually do.  I got a license reread failed at the bottom of LMTools.exe.  Talking again with my license guru revealed that in the middle of the log file, you see the following:

11:59:30 (ugslmd) NOTE: Some features are USER_BASED or HOST_BASED

11:59:30 (ugslmd)   If a reread is done, and the INCLUDE list changes for these

11:59:30 (ugslmd)   there is a delay of 12 hours for this to take effect.

11:59:30 (ugslmd)

11:59:30 (ugslmd) Licenses are case sensitive for ugslmd

6.       So, even though it said failed, it was ok.  I loaded NX and was able to open it fine.  It was just that I had to have an options file for the include statements. 

Madison Rye

Application Engineering Manager

Ally PLM Solutions, Inc.