Setting environment variable for Questa FPGA Edition floating license server

[NoahHuguenin]

Good day, 

We recently purchased a Quartus Prime Pro license, which is set up on a server and working fine. We would like to use Questa FE since the license is included with Quartus Pro, but the floating license does not seem to be recognized. 

In Quartus, the license location is indicated in the 1800@server format and presents no problems. 

When setting up Questa FSE, the local license path is indicated through the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable. 

When setting up Questa FE, I tried using the MGLS_LICENSE_FILE variable as 1800@server, as the documentation seems to suggest, but the simulator does not seem to recognize the license. 

I tried using the LM... variable instead, and having only either one of them declared in the system variables. 

When running the "lmutil lmdiag" command, the "intelqsim" license appears correctly and it is said that it can be checked out. 

I am working from Windows 11 Pro 23H2 OS, and all of the software versions involved are the latest (24.2).

Is there anything that I may have missed which may cause Questa to not recognize the license? 

Thank you in advance, 

Noah

[AR_A_Intel]

Hi

Welcome to Intel forum. It appears that the version of Questa included in 24.2 is no longer compatible with the old FlexLM daemon. To resolve this issue, upgrade to the Siemens FlexLM (SALTD) daemon v11.19.5.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/software-kit/709649/flexlm-license-daemons-for-intel-fpga-software.html   

In Siemens License version v11.19.5.0, there's a change that requires action if you're running a floating license server. You need to manually update the VENDOR daemon line in your license file from mgcld to saltd. For example: VENDOR saltd <path to saltd>.

The KDB is online here

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/programmable/articles/000099465.html

[NoahHuguenin]

Hello, and thank you for your answers. 

I checked the daemon version in the server (.../Intel/flexlm/alterad and .../Intel/flexlm/lmgrd), and it seems to be the latest version (11.19.6.0).

I assume this version should work as well?

About the vendor, I assume I need to change the following section near the beginning of my LR-..._LICENSE.dat file:

################################################################################
SERVER {...}
VENDOR alterad <{...}/Intel/quartus/linux64>
VENDOR mgcld <path to daemon executable>
USE_SERVER
################################################################################

I see that the mgcld path was not defined. In any case, when changing 'mgcld' to 'saltd', I am not sure where the 'saltd' executable path is located. 

Could you provide further assistance on this step? 

Lastly, after this change in the license is made, could you confirm that the environment variable that should be set up in my client is SALT_LICENSE_SERVER?

[FvM]

Hi,
in addition, also previous versions of Questa had the problem, that they don't recognize MGLS_LICENSE_SERVER entries if SALT_LICENSE_SERVER is set, e.g. for other Mentor/Siemens products.

[NoahHuguenin]

UPDATE:

The issue is solved. 

Although the daemon executables themselves were up to date, I had to install the Flexlm License Daemon v11.19.5.0 for Siemens ModelSim/Questa Intel FPGA software. 

For other users in a similar situation, the steps were: 

1. Change 'mgcld'  to 'saltd', indicating the path which in my case is the same as for 'alterad' (home/user/Intel/quartus/linux64).

2. Install the License Server mentioned above (link in @AR_A_Intel 's message).

2.a. During installation, the license file to indicate is the recently changed .dat.

2.b. During installation, take note of the ports to which the license and daemon are linked. I was using port 1800 for the Quartus license, so I used other ports for this one.

3. In the client OS, set up the SALT_LICENSE_SERVER environment variable as [licenseport]@server.

Thank you for the support! 

Regards.

[AR_A_Intel]

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