Help me to understand FlexLM

[ayeong]

flexlm help

OKay, I have this strange encounter happening twice on the same day.

I have a floating license for PowerPCB v5. Everything is working now except I'm quite confuse with the installation process.

Even though I have set my environment variable (in win2K environment) to point the license to myhostID@port, it still require me to put the license at c:\flexlm with the name "license.dat" (instead of pcblic.dat). And using lmtools, I have pointed my license file to be in somewhere else.

Although, it's not a problem now, but let say, I have another flexlm protected software, how do I installed without overwriting the same file "license.dat" ?

The same thing happen in ARM ADS v1.2 as well. It require me to place the license file in "c:\flexlm\license.dat".

Thanks

Best Regards

 

[padspcb]

flexlm license.dat

Hi
You should get all info reading the manuals, like this one:
**broken link removed**
But basically you have 2 kinds of licenses:
1- Floating
2- Nodelocked

Floating licenses, as the name implies, may not reside on the same machine you are running the software, but "floating" on the network. The license is accessed through a Host@port.
On the server (the one containing the license) a Service is started, and features are "served" in acount basis by the LM service. If you got per example 1 license to edit and one to plot, you can edit in one machine while ploting elsewhere, but if you grab both licenses, nobody else can use them.
The floating license may be also tied to a hardware dongle, that must then reside in a port of the license server.

Nodelocked licenses are theoretically tied to the current NODE or to the current Machine. Are normally UNCOUNTED and can only be used by the machine they reside on.

You may also append any ammount of nodelocked licensed into the same license.dat file. But for Floating licenses, as the access/daemon may be different, its a good practice to place all in different folders. The services may be started as the servers boot, and are managed by the lmtools facility.

Another thing not to be misunderstood are the HostIDs. HostID is the ID of the Host where the license is valid. It can be a lot of things, like Dongles, Networt Card Addresses, HardDisk Serial Number, Demo or even ANY...
Licenses have also a Version number and Expiry date.

Every info is then crypted into a string named KEY, and afore the default crypting scheme, globes has provided links to custom host ids, custom crypt algorithms and other vendors sha/rc5 stuff.

Theoretically, a license is inviolable, so the vendor can control sw usage and sell features that are enabled as paid for or limitied in some ways.

As we know, there is no way of realy protecting a sw, because it must be sometime be readable by the cpu itself, so reversing is always possible, thus bypassing any scheme. But for the average user, should work.

We still hope that sometime vendors will take another aproach on this issue. Software, like EDA tools, are realy costly for us that pay for them, but basically we have not seen any realy big improvement, just changings in protection schemes, as kids broke them. This is why nobody should discuss openly any of these protections anymore. Let the cicle be a little more longer. Take CDRWin or FlashFXP per example.

Remember that sometimes cheap sw is the best way to be the leader. Or don't you agree that Mr. Gates was the cleaverst of all ? He killed all others, like cpm86, by this simple command: format A:/S
lol :lol:

 

[se7en]

understand flexlm license file

you should use lmtools:
use "configuration using services"

this way you can add several services (each onde referred to one protected software)

se7en

 

[dibl01]

flexlm feature increment

There is a simple way to do a quick license check in windows:

for example run

H:\MDLSIM\win32\lmgrd.exe -c H:\LDV4\lic\license.dat

just using lmgrd.exe -c to bring up the license server. And there is no need to change winnt services.

 

[redsk_y]

flexlm license dat

Just one another thing:
You can put multiple license (FEATURE/INCREMENT...) in the some license.dat, without overwriting the license.dat.

Bye

 

[toonafishy]

flexid uncounted.lic ads example

We have one server licensing node here so I combine all my license files. I suppose you can do the same thing if all your licenses reference the same port@computerID

 

[mild-seven]

view flexlm users

While using PowerPCB 5.0, i don't have this problem.
Use the installation .exe to open the installation screen.
Click on the license installation icon and direct to your location of license.

 

[aramis]

protection id, flexlm

Just one another thing:
You can put multiple license (FEATURE/INCREMENT...) in the some license.dat, without overwriting the license.dat.

Bye

I have little to say about this, we can only do this when
the license use the same machine port number(if using LM server)

REGARDS

 

[CatKing]

read flexlm license.dat

the node-locked lic can be put together in one file, but floating can not be done as this.

 

[windflower]

flexlm no expiry

Hi, ayeong:
you can read the attached file, which is flexlm user guide,
It tell you a lot of about flexlm license.

 

[ljkong]

problems arm flexlm

thanks a lot

 

[toad_th]

flexlm increment usage

the node-locked lic can be put together in one file, but floating can not be done as this.

It is no problem to combine floating licenses into one file, even from different vendor. The key is you need to point each vendor daemon program to its own correct location. To make things easy, you can copy all those vendor daemon programs together into one directory, then specify daemon file names in license file.