Floating License Troubleshooting

Migrating a Floating License Server

Please see our article How to Migrate Floating License Servers for complete information on migrating a floating license server.

Before proceeding, confirm that you are licensing FME with a floating license and not a fixed license. If you are having trouble with a fixed license, please see the Fixed License Troubleshooting article.

Complete instructions for setting up your floating license server are found in the FME Installation and Licensing Guide. Please ensure you have followed these steps before trying further troubleshooting. The floating license server installer can be found on our downloads page

Please be aware that the floating license server does not have to be on the same computer as FME or on the same operating system as FME. Floating license servers can be run on a virtual machine as long as the VM's MAC address does not change.

Initial Investigation

1. Run the Troubleshooting Report

Before diving deeply into the cause of your floating license server issues, it is highly recommended that you run the FlexNetTroubleshoot.bat file (attached to this article) on your floating license server. This file will neatly collect much of the relevant information required to investigate the issue. Please refer to this guide for more information about the batch file's results.

2. Is the license file in the correct location?

If you have recently acquired a floating license, please ensure that it is placed in the Flexserver folder on the license server. The Flexserver folder is C:\Program Files\FlexServer.

3. Are you running the most recent version of the license manager?

It's always beneficial to keep the license manager up to date, and it's a very good first step if you are experiencing any floating licensing problems. The most recent version can be obtained from our downloads page. Please compare the release version on this page to the version you have installed to check whether you are running an up-to-date version of FlexLM.

4. Are your hostname and hostid still valid?

There are two places where you can verify this information. 

• Open FlexnetTroubleshoting.html file, under ‘safe.lic Comparison’ heading, confirm that the hostname and hostid of the machine align with the information in the license file. 
• Go to the machine where the floating license server is hosted. Open the log file from C:\Program Files\FlexServer\safe.log folder. Verify that the HostID is present in the list of all the HostIDs for the floating license server. In the example below, HostID in the license file is set to "0ed48b36a887" while the HostIDs for the server are "60c920524153 743c20524153 5a7c20524153." 
  
  

SOLUTION

Generate a new license file as documented below. 

• Request a new license by visiting https://fme.safe.com/activation/floating/ 
• Complete the form by providing HostName, HostID, and SERIAL NUMBER 
• The FME Form version will be indicated in the email containing the updated license file
• Restart the floating license server with the updated license file

5. Is your license expired (Subscription users only)? 

This error is encountered only by Enterprises with Subscription licenses. With the new subscription model, the license file will have an expiry date. Before troubleshooting further, please verify if your current subscription is valid. In our investigation, the floating license server generated an Error code similar to the one below. 

“FlexNet Licensing error:-7,10015”

6. Have you renamed the safe.lic file?

Everything looks good in the license file, and it's in the correct location, but the license server doesn’t recognize it. This could be an issue if the new safe.lic file has been renamed (e.g., safe_new.lic or newlicense.lic). FlexLM is looking for a file named safe.lic, and only safe.lic. It won’t recognize safe_new.lic, etc. The solution is to ensure the new license file is named safe.lic. If you would like to keep the old license file, please move it to a different folder.

7. Have you tried restarting the floating license server?

If you have recently obtained a new license file or have made some changes to the license server, it is always worth trying to restart the license server (a machine reboot) or at least restarting the license server service through LMTOOLS by clicking ‘Stop Server’ and then ‘Start Server’:

Note the ‘Force Server Shutdown’ checkbox. Please try checking this box if the initial ‘Stop Server’ attempt fails - it may be that there is a rogue lmgrd.exe process that is preventing the server from shutting down. Checking this box will ensure a total service stop.

8. After upgrading to the latest FME Form, the following error message appears: "The floating license does not support this version of FME."

Issue: 

The floating license server contains the version of FME associated with your Serial Number. It is possible that when you renewed your Annual Maintenance(AM), you did not generate a new license file.

SOLUTION: 

Generate a new license file as documented below. 

• Request a new license by visiting https://fme.safe.com/activation/floating/ 
• Complete the form by providing HostName, HostID, and SERIAL NUMBER.
• Download the license file; the FME Form version will be indicated in the email containing the updated license file.
• Restart the floating license server with the updated license file

NOTE: The version of FME Form generated is based on your Annual Maintenance(AM) entitlement. Ensure that you have updated your AM contract. 

Floating License Server Connection Issues

If you receive a diagnostic error in the Licensing Assistant indicating that the client machine cannot connect to the floating license server, additional investigation is required.

1. Have you installed license services for other programs on the same machine?

If the same machine acts as the license server for FME and another program (usually ArcGIS or Autodesk) is also installed, FME may not be able to license on that machine until specific ports are specified in the license file. 

SOLUTION:

• Specify ports in the license file by following the article: Specify Port Numbers Used by FlexLM
• Verify that the ports are open for communication (use TestNet-Connection from FME Form machine)
• If ports are not open, configure the firewall to open ports for communication.

2. Is a firewall blocking connections to/from the License Server?

If you have a firewall set up in their office, it may be the case that certain application traffic is not allowed through. You will see an error in the licensing assistant diagnostics along the lines of “Could not open standard port 27000,” and so on, up to 27009. 

You can verify this by performing a TNC test on the FME Form machine. 

To resolve this issue, please follow the steps in this article to specify port numbers in your license file on the floating license server. After updating the license file, please make sure that the 2 port numbers are added to your firewall exceptions list. 

3. Are there previous .dat files present on your client machine?

If you have updated your floating license, there may be lingering .dat files from when the client machine last connected to the previous floating license. A .dat file is a local license file created for the client machine when it first connects to the floating license server to prevent the Licensing Assistant from popping up every time you start FME. 

The resolution for this issue is to delete the .dat files from your machine and then run the licensing assistant again. The .dat files may be in the following locations (in order of likelihood):

• C:\ProgramData\Safe Software\FME\Licenses
• C:\Program Files\FME\licenses
• C:\Users\\Documents\FME\Licenses
• C:\apps\FME\licenses

FME on macOS stores the licenses in /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/FME/Licenses/

FME on Linux stores the licenses in ~/.fme/Licenses/

Note: The .dat files may be hidden on your machine, so be sure to show hidden files. 

Use TestNet-Connection to confirm ports are open for communication

Even if the server responds to a ping, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is communicating correctly. We recommend using TestNet-Connection (tnc) to test communication between client machines and the license server.

Step-by-step instructions to run TestNet-Connection 

• TestNet-Connection (TNC) commandlets are installed on the machine
• Ports used by the floating license server.  -- Open the log file from C:\Program Files\FlexServer\safe.log file to verify ports used by server and vendor daemons.  
• Open PowerShell(as administrator) on the machine where FME Form is installed.
• Now run the following command to extract the ports from the safe.log file.  

• tnc servername.domain.com -p 27000
  tnc servername.doamin.com -p 58654

If you are still facing an error connecting to the floating license server after the successful tnc test. It is possible that your organization have an enterprise-grade network and security software, which is blocking the communication. 

In such scenarios, please reach out to your Network/Security team and run a network trace to confirm communication is blocked. Microsoft utilities such as Telnet, TNC, and ping will not help; in such cases, tracert may yield better results. 

If TestNet-Connection(TNC) Fails