Setting up Floating License on Remote Server

[Altera_Forum]

Hi All, 

 I have a floating license that my company got and I'm trying to have it be accessible to myself and others in my office. The host server where we have to store the license file is in Texas. When I fill in the host name and port number of the host computer and use LMtools and LMGRD to configure the service I can get it running, but I don't know how I can configure my local machine to know where to look for this license file as my box has no idea what or where the server is. Has anyone else run into this and if so how can I set-up my license so that local computers in Colorado can use the floating license hosted in Texas?  Thanks!  Adam

[Altera_Forum]

Your license.dat file on your local PC is very simple, and just has "SERVER" and "USE_SERVER" lines. Tell Quartus on your PC to use that file. 

 For the hostname field of the "SERVER" line, you can either use a host name or an IP address.  The same license.dat can be installed on all of the client computers that want to use the shared floating license from the host.

[Altera_Forum]

When you configured the license.dat file, you should have specified a port on that machine and then started lmgrd. 

- In my case, the top line in my license.dat file looks like so: "SERVER tolkien 3085A98F2C22 1800" (without the quotes)  On remote machines, you specify <portnum>@<remote_machine>:<pornum>@<remote_machine> for as many floating license servers as you have.  In my case, I have 4 or 8 (I forget which) license tokens on port 1800 on a machine I call "tolkien". For the machines that I want to run jobs on, I either set the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable to "1800@tolkien" (again, without the quotes) or I enter 1800@tolkien.  Hope that answers your questions...it's the same for any FlexLM licensed tools.  Cheers!  slacker

[Altera_Forum]

Thank you for the replies, let me clarify a little.  

 My company purchased a floating license node to put on our local server (192 IP address) and we ran into problems with policy where we can't use this server to host license files. We have no other internal servers at our location. We purchased the software without entering a host id or host machine.   We generated the license file for floating license using the name and NIC ID of the computer in our remote location when we activated the license, no redundant servers were entered.  When we received the license the .dat file appeared as such at the beginning;  "SERVER <host_name> 002219335395 <port_number> VENDOR alterad <enter path> VENDOR mgcld <enter path> USE_SERVER"  No information was entered, so we edited the file with the relevant information and we stored the license on the remote server and installed the appropriate daemons;  "SERVER 230954-web1 002219335395 1800 VENDOR alterad c:\flexlm\alterad.exe VENDOR mgcld c:\flexlm\mgcld.exe USE_SERVER"  The host name of the server according to running ipconfig /all is 230954-web1 and we arbitrarily designated port 1800. We were able to get the service up and running on the remote machine.  On local machines we cannot read this license file as the local box doesn't have information about how to connect to the remote server.   So my question is,  How do we need to edit the license file and configure our local machines so that we can access the floating license in its remote location? Do we replace the host name with the IP address (it's a static address)? And if so do we need to modify the altera online license information with this new host name as well?   Do local machines need the lmgrd, lmtools, lmutil, installed as well? How do they need to be configured if so?  Any help would be much appreciated, and if there is a document or application note explaining this please let me know as I have not been able to find one yet!  Thanks

[Altera_Forum]

This is mostly all described in http://www.altera.com/literature/manual/quartus_install.pdf 

 1) Both the remote server and the local machines need to have license files. 2) The server needs to run the flexlm software (lmgrd, alterad etc.) 3) The local machines need to have Quartus told what license file to use.   The remote server license file sounds like what you have already completed, and maybe have working and don't need to touch.  The local license file you have not mentioned, and sounds like the piece you are missing. It is how you accomplish the task of telling Quartus where the license keys are. Create a simple two-line license.dat on your local machine:   SERVER 230954-web1 002219335395 1800 USE_SERVER   On the License Setup dialog box, if you still aren't seeing your licenses show up, go ahead and try to replace "230954-web1" with it's IP address and try again.  To answer some of your questions:   --- Quote Start ---   How do we need to edit the license file and configure our local machines so that we can access the floating license in its remote location? Do we replace the host name with the IP address (it's a static address)? And if so do we need to modify the altera online license information with this new host name as well?    --- Quote End ---   You do not need to modify the altera online license information. It sounds like you just need to finish configuring your local machines to correctly connect to the remote machine license server.    --- Quote Start ---    Do local machines need the lmgrd, lmtools, lmutil, installed as well? How do they need to be configured if so?   --- Quote End ---    They are already installed as part of Quartus, and no they do not need to be configured. Quartus itself needs to be configured on the Tools->License Setup... dialog box.