- A license file? What's that?
- License not included
- Default port numbers
- Custom port numbers
- Automatic port numbers
- Resolving port conflicts
A license file? What's that?
When you set up a license server to host your FlexSim licenses, you'll configure settings for a FlexNet licensing service (lmtools, lmadmin). Some settings are specified in a plain text file ending in the .lic file extension.
You'll find FlexSim's license file, flexsim.lic, alongside the other downloaded license server materials (lmtools, lmadmin). The license file is just plain text. You can open it and examine its contents using your favorite text editor (Notepad, Notepad++, VSCode, etc.).
If you've used FlexNet licensing before, you know that often a .lic license file contains license codes and hashes that authenticate a product license on a computer system. However, this isn't the case for FlexSim.
License not included
FlexSim's license file doesn't contain any license information. Instead FlexSim licenses are held in FlexNet's Trusted Storage. That's why every customer downloads an identical license file alongside all our other license server materials.
FlexSim's flexsim.lic license file is a bootstrapper that tells FlexNet's licensing service to find FlexSim's license information in Trusted Storage, and to specify port numbers that will be used for serving the licenses.
Here are the complete contents of FlexSim's default flexsim.lic license file:
SERVER this_host ANY 26914 VENDOR flexsim port=56914 USE_SERVER FEATURE serverfeature flexsim 1.000 permanent uncounted HOSTID=ANY \ SIGN="05CB 6F61 116D 06E3 A08D CAFB FC5C BEF3 DF53 BDC6 AF68 \ 060C 27B8 9968 CB94 0515 2BE7 E30C 2FAF C0D6 1D77 CCEB 878E \ 2D67 1434 0E3F 6BA5 1FDA BD35 F98D"
Default port numbers
You can see on lines 1 and 2 above where we've defined FlexSim's default license server port numbers:
- 26914 (lmgrd.exe - the licensing service. Client PCs specify this port on the license server.)
- 56914 (flexsim.exe - the vendor daemon)
Custom port numbers
While we recommend remaining with FlexSim's default port numbers, you can edit your flexsim.lic file to specify your own custom port numbers. Simply replace the default port numbers in your plain text license file with any valid, available port numbers you wish to use.
Automatic port numbers
Also not recommended - you can also remove the port numbers (and the “port=”) from the flexsim.lic file to allow the FlexNet Licensing Service to auto-assign port numbers, like this:
SERVER this_host ANY VENDOR flexsim USE_SERVER FEATURE serverfeature flexsim 1.000 permanent uncounted HOSTID=ANY \ SIGN="05CB 6F61 116D 06E3 A08D CAFB FC5C BEF3 DF53 BDC6 AF68 \ 060C 27B8 9968 CB94 0515 2BE7 E30C 2FAF C0D6 1D77 CCEB 878E \ 2D67 1434 0E3F 6BA5 1FDA BD35 F98D"
We don't recommend auto-assigned port numbers since the FlexNet Licensing Service could auto-assign new, different port numbers any time the licensing service is restarted (such as when your server restarts to install Windows updates, etc.).
Port numbers that change regularly can make it more difficult to maintain the firewall exceptions or other network settings needed for your license server to communicate properly with client PCs.
Resolving port conflicts
If your licensing service has trouble starting or properly hosting licenses, or if other licensing services fail after starting your FlexSim licensing service, you could have a port conflict.
You could try specifying your own custom ports as described above. This is a good solution if you know what port numbers are in use with existing services and can choose unused port numbers. After changing the port numbers defined in your flexsim.lic license file, restart your FlexSim_Licensing service.
If you’re not sure what port numbers to try, you could allow FlexNet to auto-assign port numbers itself – it tries to find and use free ports, though it isn’t foolproof. After modifying your flexsim.lic license file to allow automatically chosen port numbers, restart your FlexSim_License service. Then check the log file (lmtools, lmadmin) to see what ports were auto assigned.
If everything works, we suggest that you take the port numbers automatically assigned by FlexNet and hardcode them into your license file. This way you can maintain static exceptions more easily in your firewall. Be sure to configure your client PCs to use the new license service port number.
