FME Form Floating License Server on Azure

Introduction

This article will walk you through how to create and configure an FME Form Floating License Server on Azure.
If you are looking to set up a floating license server on an Amazon AWS EC2 instance, see this article. 

Before You Start

Familiarize yourself with the Floating License Documentation, including the installation documentation for your desired OS.
 

Getting Started

Set up the virtual machine in Azure

Create a new instance.
The processing burden on the licensing server is negligible. You can choose a cheap instance that is capable of running Windows without issue.
 

Connect to the virtual machine

Download and Install Floating License Server for FME Form from safe.com/downloads.
 

Request and configure the license file

Follow the steps in the documentation to request and install the license file.

With a text editor, edit the safe.lic file to specify the server and vendor ports. For more details about specifying the ports, see our documentation.

After editing and saving the safe.lic file, restart or reread, the license file in LMTOOLS

Configure the firewall(s)

You need to ensure that inbound communications are open for the two specified ports on both the VM firewall and any Network Security Group(s) attached to your VM defined in the Azure Portal.



For the Network Security Group (NSG) attached to your instance, ensure ports that both the SERVER and VENDOR ports are open for inbound traffic.
For more information, you can read more about Network Security Groups here.
Ensure that the VM also allows inbound traffic for Flexera (lmgrd.exe) or explicitly allows inbound traffic on the SERVER and VENDOR ports.
 

Configure FME Form to the floating license server

In the FME Form Licensing Assistant, choose the option to ‘Connect to a floating license server’ and enter the IP address/hostname* and the VENDOR port in the format <IPAddress>:<port>



*This IP address or hostname must be resolvable from the machine that FME Form is installed on. The IP address must be a public IP address; if you use a private IP address it will only be resolvable from within the same virtual network.

If the FME Form Licensing Assistant hangs after pressing Continue, it is likely that FME Form cannot connect to the floating license server. You may need to troubleshoot network connectivity and ensure that the correct ports are open in any firewalls between the two computers.
 

Considerations

Floating Licenses are tied to a MAC address. With Azure Virtual Machines, the MAC address is tied to the Network Interface that your Virtual Machine uses. If this changes, you may find your license file is invalid and you will need to request a license file with the updated AMC address.

For further reading, please see Microsoft resources:

Can I configure a static MAC address for my VM?
Will the MAC address remain the same for my VM once it's created?
Understanding static MAC address licensing in Azure