Issue:
You want to be able to reserve a network license.
Resolution:
You can reserve a network license for a user, group, host, or IP address.
Following are the steps required to reserve a network license:
- Create and save an Options file
- Stop and restart the Autodesk® License Manager (AdLM)
Create and save an Options file
With the Options file, the license administrator can control several operating parameters of the AdLM, including license reservation.
Important: All of the text in an Options file is case-sensitive.
To reserve a network license, in a text editor create a text file that contains the Reserve statement. The syntax of the Reserve statement is as follows:
RESERVE [number of licenses] [feature][type][name]
where
- [number of licenses] is the number of licenses you want to reserve
- [feature] specifies the application that you want to control. The feature can be found in the license file, right after the word INCREMENT.
- [type] is either USER, HOST, GROUP, or INTERNET
USER is the user logon name
HOST is the client machine name
GROUP defines a group of users
INTERNET is the IP address of a client machine
- [name] is the name of the user, host, or group
For example, to reserve one AutoCAD® 2002 license for a user named smith,
1. Open a new file in a text editor and enter the following line:
RESERVE 1 41100ACD_2002_0F USER smith
2. Save this file as adskflex.opt in the same folder as the FLEXlm® license file. The default location of the license file is C:\Program Files\Autodesk License Manager\License
One license is now reserved for smith. This means that if you have five licenses, only four will be available to the other users, because one seat is reserved for smith at all times.
Additional examples:
- RESERVE 1 41100ACD_2002_0F HOST diamond
This options file will reserve one license for a computer named diamond, regardless of the user that is logged on the that computer.
- GROUP acad smith jones Administrator
RESERVE 3 41100ACD_2002_0F GROUP acad
This options file will reserve three licenses for a GROUP named acad, and the members of the GROUP are smith, jones, and Administrator.
Note: When reserving a license for Administrator, be aware that Administrator begins with an upper case A on Microsoft Windows operating systems.
- RESERVE 1 41100ACD_2002_0F INTERNET 231.172.17.156
This options file will reserve one license for the computer that has an IP address of 231.172.17.156 regardless of the user that is logged on to the computer.
Stop and restart AdLM
For the options file to be read, you must stop and restart the network license server.
1. Start the LMTOOLS utility.
2. Click Configuration Using Services.
3. Click the Start/Stop/Reread tab, and click Stop Server, wait 20 seconds, and then click Start Server.
4. To confirm that a license is reserved, select the Server Status tab in LMTOOLS and choose Perform Status Enquiry. If everything is working correctly, the Enquiry display will show the reservation.
Reserved License Behavior
The following analogy may help you understand how licenses are distributed when the AdLM has both reserved and unreserved licenses.
Imagine a group of AutoCAD network licenses as a deck of cards with two suits: one suit being reserved licenses, and the other unreserved licenses. The deck is always organized with the reserved licenses on the top.
- When a user starts AutoCAD, the license manager deals out the first card it comes to that the user is qualified for. This means that users qualified for reserved licenses will receive a reserved license, unless all reserved licenses are gone, then they will receive an unreserved license. Users who are not qualified for reserved licenses will only receive unreserved licenses.
- Once a user has received a license, the license does not change in nature. If a user qualified for a reserved license receives an unreserved license, it remains unreserved, even if another user holding a reserved license releases the license. If only reserved licenses are available, users unqualified for reserved licenses will be refused a license.
- The only way to change license type, making an unreserved license available for unreserved users, is to release the license by closing the program and restarting, thereby requesting the "top card" from the license manager.
Additional notes on reserving a network license:
- If you reserve more licenses than the license file authorizes, the reservation will be invalid.
- To reserve licenses for more than one USER or GROUP, define them on additional lines in the Options file.
