Permanent LSF Licenses and FLEXnet on Windows hosts

Managing LSF licenses is described in Administering Platform LSF. This chapter includes additional information that is necessary to license a cluster that includes Windows hosts. You must have a valid license to run LSF.

If you install a permanent license using the LSF installer, and you do not already use FLEXnet software, you must install and configure FLEXnet before running the LSF installer.

Types of LSF licenses

You can run LSF with either an DEMO (evaluation) or a permanent license.
DEMO (evaluation) licenses

If you have not yet purchased LSF, get a demo license key. Typically, a demo license licenses all LSF products and expires after 30 days. If you purchase LSF during this time, you can switch to a permanent license with no interruption in service.

Permanent licenses

A permanent license restricts the total number of hosts in the cluster and defines which LSF products will be used. It defines which hosts in your network will run LSF, and how they are arranged into clusters. This type of license does not expire, but has to be updated if you add more hosts or add another LSF product.

FLEXnet license management

Platform LSF uses the FLEXnet license management software from Acresso Software.

LSF is compatible with FLEXnet version 7.0 or later. If you run an older version, you must upgrade FLEXnet before you can use LSF.

FLEXnet license server

A FLEXnet license server is required for permanent licenses only. Permanent LSF licenses are managed by the FLEXnet license server daemon (lmgrd) running on one or three hosts in your network.

If you install a permanent license using the LSF installer, and you do not already use FLEXnet software, you must install and configure FLEXnet before running the LSF installer.

To get a permanent license, you must provide information about the license server host. Platform Computing requires the hardware host name and host identifier for each license server host at your site.

Choose a reliable host as the FLEXnet license server to ensure that the LSF licenses are always available. In many installations, the license server runs on the host that is the dedicated file server for the Platform LSF software. This permits the licenses to be available whenever LSF is available.

You can specify 3 hosts to be license servers instead of just one.

Existing FLEXnet server

If you already have a FLEXnet license server installed, you can merge the contents of your LSF license file into your existing FLEXnet license file.

FLEXnet license management tools

On Windows, FLEXnet commands are subcommands of lmutil.

For example, to retrieve the FLEXnet host ID, run lmutil lmhostid (on UNIX, run lmhostid). To check the license server, run lmutil lmstat (on UNIX, run lmstat).

LSF license file (license.dat)

The LSF license is stored in a text file. By default, the file name is license.dat. Your permanent license file must contain all the products that are defined in LSF_CONFDIR\lsf.cluster.cluster_name.

For a description of the license file format, see Administering Platform LSF.

Locations of the license file

By default, there are two copies of your permanent license file. The installer copies your LSF license to the LSF directory, but you must update the FLEXnet directory manually. After the permanent LSF license is installed, you have to update both copies when you make changes to your LSF licensing.

  • LSF uses the file specified by LSF_LICENSE_FILE in lsf.conf. By default, the file is license.dat in LSF_CONFDIR. For example, if your LSF installation directory is lsfshare\lsf on HostA, your lsf.conf file might include the following line:

    LSF_LICENSE_FILE=\\HostA\lsfshare\lsf\conf\license.dat
  • The FLEXnet license manager uses the file in the FLEXnet installation directory on the host that is the FLEXnet license server. By default, the file is license.dat in C:\flexlm. For example, your license server might include the following file:

    C:\flexlm\license.dat

Using FLEXnet to manage other software

If you use FLEXnet to manage other software, the license.dat file used by FLEXnet contains information that is not related to LSF, but the license.dat file used by LSF only contains LSF information. Even if the files in both locations are not identical, the lines relating to LSF must be exactly the same.

Modifying the LSF license

  • On Windows, you must always modify the file used by FLEXnet manually. The installer does not overwrite the file C:\flexlm\license.dat if it already exists.

  • If you move the license file used by LSF, you must update the LSF_LICENSE_FILE parameter in lsf.conf.

Obtain an LSF license

Where to get it:
  • Contact your LSF vendor.

  • Complete the evaluation form on the Platform Web site (www.platform.com).

To allow Platform or your LSF vendor to create or update a permanent license, you must provide the following information:

  • Host name of the license server

  • FLEXnet host ID of the license server

  • Number of LSF license units

Get the host name

To retrieve the host name of the license server:

  1. Log on to the host that is going to be your license server.

  2. Open a command prompt (Start | Programs | Command Prompt).

  3. Type the hostname command:

    hostname

    Windows displays the hardware host name.

Get the FLEXnet host ID

To retrieve the FLEXnet host ID of the license server, run the lmutil lmhostid command at an MS-DOS prompt:

C:\temp>%LSF_SERVERDIR%\lmutil lmhostid
lmutil - Copyright (C) 1989-1997 Globetrotter Software, Inc.
The FLEXlm host ID of this machine is "0090273eeb99"

Update licenses

Once you have created an LSF cluster, you can update the licensing at any time. The procedure varies:

Update an evaluation cluster

If you have a demo license, you must update it to a permanent license when you finish the evaluation and purchase LSF. LSF permanent licenses use FLEXnet license management software.

  1. If you already use FLEXnet, check the version. LSF is compatible with FLEXnet version or later. If you have an older version, you must upgrade FLEXnet before installing the permanent LSF license.
  2. If you do not have FLEXnet installed, learn about FLEXnet and permanent licensing.
  3. Obtain a new permanent license.
  4. If you already have FLEXnet installed, you must update your FLEXnet license file manually. Append the entire contents of the new LSF license to your existing file.
  5. If you have not yet installed FLEXnet, you must install FLEXnet, then set up the permanent license file used by FLEXnet.

Expand an existing cluster

When you have a permanent LSF license, the number of hosts and selection of LSF products and features is controlled by licensing.

  • To expand the size of the cluster by adding hosts, you probably need to purchase additional licenses for the additional hosts.

  • To enable new LSF products or features such as LSF MultiCluster, you need to purchase additional licenses. Sometimes you also need to install additional software. Update your license before you update the PRODUCTS line in the Parameters section of LSF_CONFDIR\lsf.cluster.cluster_name.

    To make a change that involves additional licensing, the first step is to manually update your existing license files. In the license file used by FLEXnet, the lines related to LSF must be identical to the contents of the license file used by LSF.

  1. Obtain a new permanent license.

    Instead of getting an entire new license, you will probably get an LSF INCREMENT license key or a new FEATURE line. Append the new lines to the existing LSF content without overwriting or deleting any information. If you have INCREMENT lines, you must add them immediately after the FEATURE line for the product.

  2. Update FLEXnet.
  3. Update LSF.

Upgrade to a new version of LSF

Sometimes a minor upgrade or patch does not require any changes to the licensing. If the upgrade requires a new license, update the FLEXnet license manually and follow the steps in Migrate Your Windows Cluster Platform LSF Version 7.

Update LSF license features

  1. Open the license file using a text editor such as Notepad.

    The license file used by LSF is specified by LSF_LICENSE_FILE in lsf.conf.

  2. Make the required changes. This normally involves appending the new lines without overwriting or deleting existing content.
  3. Save and close the file.
  4. Reconfigure LSF:
    lsadmin reconfig

Update a FLEXnet license

  1. Open the license file using a text editor.

    The license file used by FLEXnet is normally C:\flexlm\license.dat on the license server host.

  2. Make the required changes.

    This normally involves adding the new lines to your FLEXnet license. The only time you replace existing lines is when you upgrade from one version of LSF to another. Do not overwrite or delete any content that is not related to LSF.

  3. Save and close the file.
  4. Update FLEXnet. Log on to the license server host and re-read the updated license file:
    C:\flexlm\bin> lmutil lmreread -c C:\flexlm\license.dat

    You see a message similar to the following:

    lmreread - Copyright (C) 1989-1997 Globetrotter Software, Inc.
    lmreread successful

Create the FLEXnet service

If you are using a permanent LSF license, you must run installs.exe to install or remove the FLEXnet license manager as a Windows Service. installs.exe is located under LSF_TOP\7.0\etc.

The installs command has the following syntax:
installs -c license_file_path -e path_to_lmgrd.exe -l log_file_path -n service_name [-k lmgrd_parameters]

If -n is not specified, FLEXnet License Manager is used as the service name.

The -k switch is optional and is used to pass one or more startup command-line parameters (-local, -x lmdown, and -x lmremove) to lmgrd.

You must use -l log_file_path to specify the path to the lmgrd.log file.

See the FLEXnet Reference Manual for more information about the installs command.

Install the FLEXnet service

Run installs.exe to install or remove the FLEXnet license manager as a Windows Service.

  1. Open a Windows Command Prompt.
  2. Run the installs command.
    LSF_TOP\7.0\etc\installs -c license_file_path -e path_to_lmgrd.exe -l log_file_path
    For example:
    C:\LSF_7Update6\7.0\etc\installs -c C:\sharetest\license.dat -e C:\LSF_7Update6\7.0\etc\lmgrd.exe -l C:\sharetest\logs\lmgrd.log

    The lmgrd.exe is located under LSF_TOP\7.0\etc.

Remove the FLEXnet service

If you need to remove the FLEXnet license manager service, run installs.exe.

  1. Open a Windows Command Prompt.
  2. Run the installs command.
    LSF_TOP\7.0\etc\installs.exe -r -n "service_name" 
    For example:
    LSF_TOP\7.0\etc\installs.exe -r -n "FLEXnet License Manager"

    If you did not specify -n when you installed the license manager service, FLEXnet License Manager is used as the default service name.

Start the license server on Windows

Start FLEXnet automatically

Restart the license server host.

Start FLEXnet manually

  1. Log on to the license server host.
  2. Choose Services in the Windows Control Panel.
  3. Choose Services in the Windows Control Panel.

Check the license server status

If you are using a permanent LSF license, check the license server by starting the license manager and displaying the status with the lmutil lmstat command on Windows.

If you are using a demo license, you do not have to perform this check because a demo license does not run a license server daemon.

  1. Start the license server.
  2. Check the status of the license server and display the number of licenses available. For example:

    C:\flexlm\bin> lmutil lmstat -a -c C:\flxlm\license.dat

    The output of lmstat gives the status of the license server together with the name of the LSF vendor daemon (lsf_ld). The usage information for each product in the license file is provided

Install a new permanent license

If you do not already use FLEXnet, you must make sure FLEXnet is installed and running properly.

Complete the following steps to replace a temporary demo license used by LSF with a permanent license.

  1. Shut down the master host.
    lsfshutdown -m master_host_name
  2. Copy the path to the permanent license to LSF_LICENSE_FILE defined in lsf.conf.

    If you installed LSF with a default installation, the license file is installed in the LSF configuration directory (LSF_CONFDIR\license.dat).

    Note:

    You can put the permanent license anywhere you want, as long as you update the LSF_LICENSE_FILE parameter in $LSF_CONFDIR\lsf.conf.

  3. Start the master host.
    lsfstartup -m master_host_name