ArcGIS License Server Options File Tutorial? Video? Template?

[KiyokoAyukawa]

I apologise if I am in the wrong place. I'm not actually a user of ArcGIS, however I am the person responsible for administrating licenses for it. And I'm just not finding templates or very clear tutorials for how to get the ArcGIS License Server Administrator to do what I need it to do. For the record, I have never used ArcGIS, I don't really know what it does, and I probably don't need to.

Now, I have spent countless hours over several months reading all of the documentation available on the website. I have been in conversations in support tickets with Esri representatives, but it seems clear to me I need to get help in a plain speaking way from plain speaking people.

So I'm trying the forums. 

Given the Covid-19 concerns, we have users who are teleworking and may continue to telework for quite some time. They are in many cases using personal machines. We provide them with a public IP for ArcGIS Administrator that allows them to contact the License Server and access (check-out?) licenses when any of the ArcGIS applications are open. We also have license borrowing enabled, but I don't think anyone has ever used it. Right now, if you have the IP, you can get in. No questions asked. Obviously this is a problem if one of these users leaves the organisation.

Now the Esri reps have told me I can create an options file in order to create either a blacklist or a whitelist just by using a simple text file and provided the commands (which are also in the online documentation). Now, I am no coder, so whenever I have to do configuration files, I expect (or at least pray) there is a template from which I can work. I have not been able to find such a template. I haven't found any video tutorials of how to construct such a file and input into ArcGIS License Server Administrator.

I have done my due diligence. I have searched. I have researched. I have scoured. I have definitely "read the manual," but it's clear I don't understand or am not looking in the right way.

...help?

[George_Thompson]

Have you seen this blog; Options files – what are they? — CommunityHub 

[KiyokoAyukawa]

George,

No. This blog post never came up in any of my searches over a couple of months. While this isn't providing an options file template (like an actual txt file I can modify and test out), it at least gives a screencap of an options file template I can retype and test... I think. So this is significant progress and your response was helpful.

I don't understand why there isn't a GUI for generating these options files in 2020. It would make things much easier. 

Further question, when I look at the Machine IDs or when I look at the check-out screen in the License Server Administrator I see names for Username and Hostname, is this the same as Current User and Host Name, and if so, is this then also the same as the USER and HOST options for the options file? So, for instance, if I say I have a user named Bob Haskin (there's a space there), who is on on a computer named BobsComputer, then I want to EXCLUDEALL or INCLUDEALL USER Bob Haskin (BobHaskin?) HOST BobsComputer? And do that for each user I wish to exclude or include? Or do I need to include all names after USER and all hosts after HOST? We're not denying by feature. It's either on or off for all available features. 

[George_Thompson]

To be honest, I have not  used the Options file for the License Manager before. One thing to note is that the Esri LM is built on top of the FlexNet platform. Based on the underlying version they may not have a GUI available.

I will say that using ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise / ArcGIS Online for the license management makes some of these issues a little easier.