Is there a way to operate the License Manager tool from a machine (like my client) other than the server where the licenses are installed?

2192
3
11-22-2017 09:09 AM
RichardLesperance
New Contributor II

I have a license manager installed on a server in our network.  I am wondering if anyone knows if I can use the License Server Administrator tool from my client machine as opposed to having to log in remotely to the license server to see who's using the licenses.  

I used to have a clunky way of checking the licenses.  I had shared the BIN folder on that server and created a drive on my client to that share.  From a CMD window I could run the LMUTIL and get that information.

But it seems like there should be a more elegant way of doing that in this day and age.  Suggestions?  I'm not seeing anything obvious in the documentation.

Thanks

0 Kudos
3 Replies
V_StuartFoote
MVP Frequent Contributor

Nope, you have to remote (RDP, or other) into the server hosting the ArcGIS License Server Administrator GUI.

Esri's ArcGIS licensing GUI can not be run remotely as the license manager is still FlexNet Publisher lmgrd service based.

Esri does not support Flexera's web based GUI--lmadmin. Also, they no longer ship the lmtools GUI which Flexera has dropped (11.13 builds). So the only "supported" GUI is the in-house developed of ArcGIS LM that is done with a FlexNet SDK. Which supports reading and authorization from provisioning files and returning authorizations from FNP Trusted Storage.

In theory a FlexNet Publisher lmadmin instance can include the Esri FlexNet LM components--but you will have to fight with the Trusted Storage authorizations (and keep the Esri ArcGIS LM around anyhow). I have not bothered to test.

Third party programs like OpenLM post an agent to the server and keep track of the license activity from the FNP logs.

Otherwise... the FlexNet Publisher utilities--LMUTIL--still will correctly poll the server and generate status from a remote client. Need to copy the lmutil.exe from the license server to the client you want to work from.

Then run the command line:

lmutil.exe lmstat -a -c <port@FQDN>

Or, for convenience you can wrap it into a desktop shortcut, with a Target of

C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /S /K "lmutil.exe lmstat -a -c <port@FQDN>"

with the Start in folder pointing to location of the lmutil.exe copied from the server's ArcGIS LM install directory.

You can replace <port@FQDN> with the TCP port and the fully qualified domain name of the server. You can omit the TCP port but that is slower as it will poll the server one port at a time from 27000-27009, better to specify the port in use.  Likewise rather than FQDN you can query the IPv4 or IPv6 address of the server again saving a little time with no DNS lookup.

Stuart

RichardLesperance
New Contributor II

Thanks, Stuart.  I thought that might be the only answer.  I'll try that instead of sharing the bin folder this time.

Rich

0 Kudos
RebeccaStrauch__GISP
MVP Emeritus
...as opposed to having to log in remotely to the license server to see who's using the licenses.  

If that is the main reason, follow V Stuart Foote 's advice about putting the lmutil.exe in a local folder.  Then create some .bat files in the same folder for easy access.  For example, we have several license managers.  I created sevral small .bat files (chk_av.bat, chk_av2.bat, etc) using any text editor, with one one line...

 

lmutil lmstat -a -c @<my license server name>

As Stuart pointed out, this can also include a port number, or can also be an IP number.  Because we use the default port now (all within our firewall), I do not have to include that.  To run, open a cmd (old DOS) window to that folder, then run it there.  Is will list the   login_name, machine name, ...some other stuff ...and the stat time.  We use this all the time to track users, especially if the limited extensions are all tied up.  Note: if the license is "borrowed" vs just being checked out, the login name may not show, and in that case you would need to go to the remote machine to verify.

Another option to just see activity is to view the log files.  For example:

   \\<LM Machine>\c$\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\License10.5\bin\lmgrd9.log       

will show all the reboots, and checking in/out, etc.  A bit hard to read, and you hard to go from the bottom up for latest, but it has most information you would need.

   \\<LM Machine>\c$\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\License10.5\bin\ESRIAudit.log

will show all the "borrowed" activity.

<note:  c$ depicts the admin connection to the C drive, if you don't have another share setup>

0 Kudos