Troubleshooting

When troubleshooting Network licensing issues on an end user machine, the first step is to always ensure that the correct product and version license is available on the server. Do not assume that just because it worked yesterday, it still does, as your IT department may have had something to say about that!

Topics in this section:

Check License Availability on the Server

  1. Log in to the license server directly or via any remote access tool
  2. Locate ‘LMTools’ (Flexera License Manager) and run it
  3. Toggle to ‘Server Status’ tab
  4. Pick ‘Perform Status Inquiry’
  5. If the server shows errors, see below
  6. If licenses show as available, but you can’t access them from the user workstation, review Firewall settings here
  7. If there are Ideate licenses available, just not the correct product or version, you will need a new license file. Please contact support or your internal software admin.
  8. If all licenses of the correct type and version are in use, either manage the license usage or consider increasing the license seat count

 

License Mode Keeps Reverting to View-Only Mode

This state may also be caused by all licenses taken up by other users. see the section “Check License availability’ above before implementing this fix.

Depending upon the network speed, a request for a license may time out before the request reaches the license server. In this event the software may frequently lapse into View-Only Mode, which can be quite common for remote or VPN users. This issue can be fixed by creating and setting an environment variable on the workstation. The system variable should be named FLEXLM_TIMEOUT and a recommended setting would be 1000000.

Licensing Service is Not Starting

The most common reasons why a licensing service does not start, or shows errors when you ‘perform status inquiry’:

If licenses show as available, but you can’t access them from the user workstation, do not proceed with the steps below, go here instead!

  1. Missing ideate.exe (see here for more info)
  2. Mis-configured ‘Config Services’ tab (Do not point to ideate.exe)
  3. Incorrect servername (fix it in Notepad) or MAC address (Do not edit, you need a new license file!)
  4. A licensing service is already running (hit ‘Stop Server’ & wait for a confirmation or stop it via ‘services.msc’)
  5. Using a 32 bit Windows or a 32 bit version of LMTools (is your path pointing to “C:/Program Files (x86)”?)
  6. Open ‘services.msc’, R-Click on Ideate service, select ‘Properties’. Go to ‘Log On’ tab, and switch ‘Log On As’ to ‘Local system’
    Now perform Stop/Start/Reread through LMTools again

    Do not start the licensing service through the services list!

 If the issue is not resolved, contact Ideate Technical Support ([email protected]).

Autodesk Licenses are Not Working 

If, after setting up the Ideate network license service, the network licenses for Autodesk (or any other vendor) stop working then follow these steps in LMTools. If the issue is not resolved, contact Ideate Technical Support.

  1. Check that the services are NOT using the same logfile. If they are not, continue
  2. Select the ‘Config Services’ tab
  3. Select the name of the service that is not working properly from the drop-down.
  4. Select the ‘Start/Stop/Reread’ tab 
  5. Verify that the correct service is highlighted 
  6. Click ‘Start Server’ 
  7. Wait a moment 
  8. Select ‘Re-read License File’ 
  9. If you set up specific ports in the license files, make sure they are not the same ports for both services

Understanding Licensing Errors

There are a few common licensing errors that can occur. This list explains the error and the first steps to resolving it.

 -1    No such file or directory. Check for syntax on the server name. This may also be an indication that the "@" symbol is missing from the front of the server name. Refer to the Setting the Server Path topic for more information.

 -4    Licensed number of users already reached. Wait for licenses to be available. You can determine who is using licenses by performing a Status Enquiry on the server(s).  Refer to Verify Service is Running.

 -5    No such feature exists. Verify that you have network licenses for the software you are using. Either install the correct software title or request a new license file. 

-10   Feature has expired. Request a new license file. 

-15   Cannot connect to license server system. This is a general connectivity error. 

-18   License server system does not support this feature. Verify that you have network licenses for the software you are using. Not all Ideate Apps are part of IdeateApps! 

-68   License was not borrowed. This error is an indication that both the license file and the vendor daemon are old. See related issue -123. 

-96   License server machine is down or not responding. Check if the license service is running, then check your server Windows Firewall rules. See more here. If the error still occurs, identify which workstations and which software is affected and contact Ideate Technical Support.

-97   The desired vendor daemon is down. Restart the license service. If the error still occurs, identify which workstations and which software is affected and contact Ideate Technical Support

-123 Return of license failed – This is an indication that the vendor daemon is old and does not support license borrowing. The feature was added with version 2013.2 (12/17/12) 

-124 License Return Error – This can occur in both Revit and the Ideate software when the licenses are not returned in the order they were borrowed. This is a known Flexera issue. Read more about this under the License Borrowing topic in this document.

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