License Server Problem with Creo 4 M030 and M040

[sully7]

Hey all, 

So, I've been running into an issue with my license server with Creo 4 M030 and M040... I was wondering if anyone else was having the same issue (FYI - our license server is already using FlexNet 11.14).

We use our license server hosted "outside" of our local network - we connect to that license server via the public IP address.

I can connect to the license server with every datecode of Creo Parametric 2 and Creo Parametric 3, and can connect with Creo Parametric  4 M010 and M020... however, when I use Creo Parametric 4 M030 or M040, Creo will returns:

(-96) Failed to connect to server. Server is down or unreachable.

We've tried several computers, different networks, clean installations, and are running into the same result every time.

Oddly enough, during the INSTALLATION of both Creo 4 M030 and M040, when I enter the address of my license server, it finds the server just fine, and shows "Available". 

I can test the port on the server using telnet, and it shows that the port is wide open. Similarly, I can completely disable every firewall on both the local machines and on the license server... and nothing seems to help. 

I've reached out to support on this, and we're working on figuring it out... but I figured I'd ask - is anyone else having this problem too?

Thanks, 
James Sullivan

[sully7]

I did a little more digging... and if I load up Creo Layout (something that we DO NOT have a license for)... it actually gives me MUCH more information:

This is really interesting because it is showing that the "License Server is UP". Similarly, it is actually returning the licenses I DO have... so I know that it's actually getting a response from the license server. Any ideas?

Thanks, 
James Sullivan

[dnordin]

James,

We have not had this issue, but you may wish to check the following:

On the server,

Check which port the ptc_d.exe daemon is using. You can see the port number in the debug.log file for lmgrd.exe. See PTC article CS28776 or the FlexLM/FlexNET manuals for instructions on how to change it. https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS28776

On the client,

Check if the nsmd.exe is starting and stays running.

Check if there is an environment variable that is controlling the nsmd.exe port number (not the timeout). [Article - CS27764] You may need to change the port number or set it up in the firewall.

Regards,

Dan N.

[sully7]

Hi Dan, 

Thanks for the hint! This ultimately helped us get to the root of the problem.

For all of our previous versions of Creo (2, 3, 4 M010, 4 M020)... we had been pointing our license file to the Port used by the License server (7788), NOT by the "ptc_d" daemon itself (in our case, something random like 55298).

 
So my license file for Creo 3, Creo 4 M010, and everything else could be

ENV=PTC_D_LICENSE_FILE-=7788@<XXXXXXXXXX>

But now, in Creo 4 M030 and M040, we have to point directly at the "ptc_d" daemon. 

So our ".psf" file has to say:

ENV=PTC_D_LICENSE_FILE-=52298@<XXXXXXXXXX>

Is this what you are doing today also? I'm curious because all the PTC documentation that I have seen so far has pointed us towards using the IP of the server itself, and it seems like it should be something we should be able to do.

For reference:
https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS49606

https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article?n=CS252590

Again, all of our other installations of Creo can use 7788 just fine... and I've even tested the newer datecodes with all my firewalls completely disabled, so I'm wondering if something changed with the newer datecodes? or maybe if the issue is still something with my configuration that I'd need to track down.

Either way, thanks for the help, because at least for now, I can connect to my license server, so my problem is fixed 🙂

Thanks, 
James Sullivan

[dnordin]

James,

We don't use the PTC license installation or the FlexNET Publisher GUI.  Also, we don't specify a port for the ptc_d.exe daemon.  However, we do use a non-default port for the lmgrd.exe, so our .psf files contain 2001@<servername>.  We use the basic lmgrd.exe, lmutil.exe, lmtools.exe, ptc_d.exe, a license file, and an options file.

Some other items to check are the version of the ptc_d.exe file and the lmgrd.exe file that is used.

Open a CMD window, browse to the folder containing the ptc_d.exe file and simply type ptc_d.exe.  For the lmgrd.exe file use lmgrd.exe -version.

Our versions are shown below.

(ptc_d) FlexNet Licensing version v11.14.0.1 build 188735 x64_n6
lmgrd v11.14.0.2 build 191018 x64_n6 - Copyright (c) 1988-2016 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The ptc_d.exe that we use is from the Creo Parametric 4.0 M020 installation.  We pull the ptc_d.exe file directly from the .cab files.

Regards,

Dan N.

[sully7 · Accepted solution]

For anyone else that may run into this problem in the future - after a brief chat with PTC technical support, we were able to get to the bottom of this.

Basically, on our license server, we had to use the "internal IP" of the license server, instead of the server's machine name.

This is located in two places inside the "C:\Program Files\PTC\FLEXnet Admin License Server" directory:

• "conf/server.xml" file
• "licenses/ptc_d/lm_########_######" file

When the license server was originally installed, both of those had a reference to the machine name - for us, this was originally something along the lines of "WIN-ABCDEFGHIJK" because our license server is hosted on an AWS cloud instance. We simply had to replace all references to the machine name with the INTERNAL ip address - found either from the AWS console, or via a traditional "ipconfig" via the command line. 

Once that was done, we were able to connect to the license server via ALL versions and datecodes of Creo, including Creo 4 M030 and M040, via the EXTERNAL ip address - aka, we are now able to simply use the "7788@XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX" instead of having to use the daemon's IP directly. 

Problem solved 🙂 Thanks so much to @dnordin for the tips!

Thanks,
James Sullivan

[sully7]

FYI - just an update...  somehow this issue came back to life? Nothing changed in my setup at all...but all of a sudden, any of these same date codes started having trouble connecting again.

Creo 4 M020, M030, M040, and Creo 5.0.0.0 were all crashing or getting locked up. Creo 3 M110 works fine. Creo 2 works fine.

The issue was happening on 4 different computers and would happen regardless of the user's working directory or configuration options. Similarly, if I "borrowed" my license via "parametric_borrow.bat", then Creo worked fine... so I figured it had to be having trouble connecting to the license server in all newer versions of Creo again for some reason.

After beating my head into the wall for a few days... I went back and changed my license file back to show the server's HOSTNAME instead of the IP ADDRESS.... and now all versions of Creo work fine again.

So I'm not sure what keeps changing... but it really feels like something is changing that is outside of my control. Maybe the license server validation or something like that.... but oh well. I've had to change configurations once every few months at this point, but luckily it's working yet again. 

Hope this helps someone else someday 🙂

Thanks,
James Sullivan

[Innoptus_Ferry]

Dear Sully7,

This is indeed interesting, we also have the experience 'things' are changing beyond our control. 

Please also see my latest forum topic...

https://community.ptc.com/t5/System-Administration/notation-options-for-ENV-PTC-D-LICENSE-FILE/m-p/563754#M22927

where i'm asking help to explain how it is possible that our client only get's connection with the server by adding FLEXnetserialnumer@FLEXnetVersion to the psf file...

BR Ferry

[bmüller]

Hi,

you have to make sure that the Client can connect to the Server with the data entered in license.dat for SERVER.

So if you enter SERVERNAME (NETBIOS) only make sure Clients can reach the Server by Servername without domain.

try the FQDN SERVERNAME.company.local. Check that DNS is working correctly.

Firewall can make troubles too.

is the connection to AWS stable? multiple routes?

[sbuckley]

Hellishly annoying - I will be changing CAD systems throughout.

PTC no longer have a core purpose on the core product I've believed in for 20 years.