Flex LM crashing on Windows 10

[jsawyer-2]

I am having an issue on multiple Windows 10 machines where the Flex LM service is crashing multiple times a day. This seems to be linked to licenses that have been installed in the last 90 days.  The license server is being installed as part of a Creo 4 M080 install with a local license for each machine.

[Mahesh_Sharma]

@jsawyer-2 

Did you try re-installing license manager? Update on Windows can lead to such issues.  

[jsawyer-2]

I am still having massive issues with this. It seems to me that the way that PTC has elected to instantiate the service is the main issue. Windows removes it because it is not a correctly formed or authorized service. It is also not a stable service and does not like to continue running after a machine is suspended. With the escalating support costs coupled with the almost doubling of the maintenance fees, it would almost seem like PTC wants to push people to competing products so that they can focus on "the internet of things" rather than their core software.

[MartinHanak]

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@jsawyer-2 wrote:

I am still having massive issues with this. It seems to me that the way that PTC has elected to instantiate the service is the main issue. Windows removes it because it is not a correctly formed or authorized service. It is also not a stable service and does not like to continue running after a machine is suspended. With the escalating support costs coupled with the almost doubling of the maintenance fees, it would almost seem like PTC wants to push people to competing products so that they can focus on "the internet of things" rather than their core software.

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Hi,

my personal rules for FLEXnet on Windows 10 follow:

• turn off automatic/manual switch to sleep mode in W10 (if this is not acceptable, prepare a simple tool for the user to restart the FLEXnet service)
• turn off power saving mode for all physical network cards in W10 (if this is not acceptable, prepare a simple tool for the user to restart the FLEXnet service)
• NOTE: I read somewhere that a system service can be installed so that even a non-admin user can restart it. 
• do not use lmadmin_ptc service, instead of it install FLEXnet 10.8.10 64-bit to create FLEXlm server for PTC service, then stop the service and replace 4 files in its installation to get  FLEXnet 11.14.1.2
• FLEXnet 10.8.10 64-bit installation package is available on Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5.0 M050 installation media which can be downloaded from PTC web
• 4 files which will switch FLEXnet 10.8.10 to FLEXnet 11.14.1.2 can be downloaded from http://support.ptc.com/WCMS/files/121640/en/PTC_LMS_Download.pdf document using http://download.ptc.com/download2/products/FLEXnet/flex11.14.1.2_x86e_win64.zip  link (these files are located in FLEXnet's x86e_win64\obj sub-directory

[jsawyer-2]

Thanks. I will give these a try. It is amazing that PTC is so far behind the curve that the license server that is included with their latest release is almost 5 years old and does not work correctly with current generation operating systems. 

[MartinHanak]

Hi,

when you install FLEXnet from Creo 4.0 media >>> lmadmin_ptc service is created by default.

My suggestions follow:

• stop lmadmin_ptc service
• disable lmadmin_ptc service
• manually define alternative service named FLEXlm server for PTC
• use procedure mentioned on following page in FlexNet Installation using the LMTOOLS Utility section

https://support.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/standards/freefull_cskdb.jsp?&im_dbkey=123883&im_language=en

[jsawyer-2]

Has PTC fixed the license server that is installed with Creo 5 or Creo 6 so that it works correctly and is not uninstalled by Windows 10 every 6 months?

[MartinHanak]

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@jsawyer-2 wrote:

Has PTC fixed the license server that is installed with Creo 5 or Creo 6 so that it works correctly and is not uninstalled by Windows 10 every 6 months?

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Hi,

as far as I understand the situation PTC cannot solve the problem. Solving the problem is the task of Microsoft and Flexera. The question is whether any of these companies solves the problem. I guess that problem resolution has very low priority, because of existence of 2 workarounds.

W1: Deinstalllation/installation of FLEXnet, i.e. lmadmin_ptc service.

W2: Disabling lmadmin_ptc service + manual creation of Flexmlm server for PTC service.

[jsawyer-2]

If that were the case I could go out and get the latest version of the Flexera software but it will not work with a PTC product. PTC licenses and modifies the Flexera product and then modifies it to disable features like revoking licenses. This is just an issue with the PTC modified version. The version included with Creo 4 is still 11.14.2 from 2016. The version that is included with the latest version of Creo 6 is 11.14.2 from 2016. This is very much a PTC issue.

[BenLoosli]

Are these purchased licenses or subscriptions?

Why are you not using a single license server for your licenses, one install and done. The only time I do standalone license installs is on laptops.

Have you tried running the licenses on a different OS? I have Creo4 running from Windows Server2008sp2 and Windows2012Sp1.

[jsawyer-2]

These are purchased licenses. They are on laptops that are used by our MEs at customer locations. Different operating systems or a single license server are not options.