Flexnet License on VMWare Virtual Server

[KenFarley]

The server we currently use to supply our Creo licenses is being replaced. In the process of building our new server, the IT folks have provided me with a VMWare virtual server that I have full control over, so I can manage our Flex licensing. All well and good, but I can't seem to get the license software to function on the virtual server.

(1) Is a virtual server an acceptable "home" for the license software?

(2) If so, are there configurations that I need to do to that server to make it functional?

I ran the setup and provided the newly created license file and things seemed to go, but the end result was the status report of "Unreachable" and an inability to "Finish" the process.

I checked the Services running, and find "lmadmin_ptc" is there, but Stopped.

I do not see "ptc_d" the daemon.

There is no log file and thus on indication of what could be wrong or missing.

I checked the "license.dat" file and the entries that were automatically created by the setup utility are correct.

So, does anyone have any pointers as to any easy things I might have missed because of my ignorance of virtual servers? If there's something simple I can do, it would be nice, otherwise I'm going to have to call in the PTC licensing experts to poke around.

[TomU]

We also run our license servers on VMware virtual machines and I haven't had to do anything special to make it work other than make sure the operating system was supported.  Maybe try installing from this download.  Additional information is available in this PDF.

[KenFarley]

Thanks, Tom.

If I go the route of trying the "pure" flex install, I'll need to hand edit the license file I got from PTC to fill in all the particulars, like the ptc_d daemon locations, hostname and all that, correct?

[TomU]

No, you can just use the "FlexNet Admin Web Interface" from the start menu to import it:

If you have trouble logging into this page, stop the service and edit the server.xml file in the "C:\Program Files\PTC\FLEXnet Admin License Server\conf" folder.  Find the access control section near the bottom and replace the password for the admin user with whatever you want.  (It can be in plain text.)

Also realize there are two separate Windows services, one for the daemon (lmadmin_ptc) and one for FlexNet (FlexNet Licensing Service).  You may need to stop both of them if manually changing things like the XML file or the contents of the license.dat file.

[MartinHanak]

Hi,

according to CS283253 (see attachment) Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86) must be installed. I suggest you to install this piece of software manually.

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INFO: I do not use lmadmin version of FLEXnet. Instead of it I install lmgrd version of FLEXnet 10.8.10 and "upgrade" it to 11.14 manually by replacing 4 files.

[KenFarley · Accepted solution]

Just to follow up, it appears the chief problem was the license server tries to access the internet. Our IT guy tells me that access was turned off for this virtual server or for my particular user. Maybe with the version of server (2016) it's off by default? I don't know. But that was killing the license server. Once corrected, it runs perfectly.