Beyond the Box

Unable to Obtain an Autodesk Product License

If you have ever been attempting to use an Autodesk product configured to use a network license and received one of the following types of messages “Failed to acquire a license.”, “A valid license could not be obtained by the network license manager” or similar, then the following is a list of the most common checks and possible solutions to this problem.

Note: When using a Vault client remember that the Vault server obtains the license from the Network License Server on behalf of the client. Therefore the following tasks that are client based will need to be performed on the Vault server.

Are the correct license server names/IP addresses and MAC addresses entered in the ‘license path’?

Verify that the correct license server details have been entered in the ‘license path’ in use (‘LICPATH.LIC’ or in the environment variable ‘ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE’). Also verify the format of the details entered:

• When using the environment variable server names/IP addresses should be prefixed with ‘@’ symbol (and port number if required) and separated by a semi-colon e.g.

@Server1;2700@Server2;C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013

• When using ‘LICPATH.LIC’ MAC addresses need to be exactly 12 hexadecimal digits long and not contain hyphens, semicolons etc. e.g.   

SERVER VLICSERVER 12A456B890C2 

USE_SERVER

Is the Network License Server contactable?

Perform a ping test of the license server name &/or IP address used in the ‘license path’ method chosen. If there is no response or a time-out or packet loss has occurred then there is a network configuration issue that needs to be resolved. 

Are the required ports opened for the Autodesk Network License Manager and does it have unrestricted access to these ports?

Turn off any firewalls between the license server and client to test whether there is a communication problem. If you are able to obtain a license turn the firewalls back on and verify that the following ports have been opened:

TCP Ports: 2080 (adskflex.exe), 27000 – 27009 (lmgrd.exe) 

You can use the ‘telnet’ command to test if the ports are opened by performing the following steps:

1. Open the command prompt.
2. Enter the telnet command, server name & port number. e.g. telnet vlicserver 2080
3. If the port is open you should then receive a blank screen with a flashing cursor and the connection was successful. Otherwise you will see a connection error message.
4. Type quit and hit enter to return to the command prompt.

On some versions of Windows you may need to enable the telnet client. This can be achieved by performing the following steps:

1. Open: Control Panel->Programs.
2. Open: Programs and Features.
3. Click: Turn Windows Features on or off.
4. Check: Telnet Client.
5. Click: OK.

It may also be helpful to refer to the following article for applications known to cause conflicts on these ports.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=8793968&linkID=9240617

 

Was a numeric error code included in the licensing error message?

Refer to the following article for a description of licensing error codes.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=9480482&linkID=9240617

 

 Has IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) been enabled on the Network License Server?

If IPv6 has been enabled there are a number of different options available, from disabling IPv6, using IPv4 address instead of the server name in the ‘license path’ or installing the IPv6 compatible version of the Autodesk Network License Manager software.

 Refer to the following article that describes each of the solutions available.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13107015&linkID=9261340

If accessing the license server via a VPN, dial-up or a ‘slow’ network connection has been identified as the cause of the issue...

The fix here is to increase the time the client will wait for a response from the Network License Server.

On the client machine create a new system environment variable called ‘FLEXLM_TIMEOUT’ and set it to ‘1000000’ microseconds (1 second) and adjust as required.

 

Check the Network License Server’s debug.log and current status.

Examine the debug.log file on the Network License Server to check for any messages that may explain the failure to obtain a license.

Use ‘LMTools.exe’ or the ‘lmstat’ command to perform an enquiry of the license server to verify the status and availability of licenses.

 

Enable client side logging for more details.

On the client machine create a new system environment variable called ‘FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS’ and set it to ‘3’. This will cause a more detailed message to be displayed in the licensing error dialog as well as logging the same message to a log file whenever the product fails to obtain a license.

The log file will be called ‘flex###.log’ where ### is the Autodesk product’s application process ID and will be located either in the user’s My Documents folder, the product’s Program Files folder or if the product was started from a command prompt, the current directory the command was issued from.

A new log file will be created whenever a FlexLM enabled product is started so remember to remove the environment variable once finished debugging the licensing issue.

 Conclusion

So that's the list of the commonly encountered problems. If none of the above solutions fixes the issue please contact your Autodesk Product Support provider.

Autodesk License Parser

The Autodesk License Parser is a great tool to help decipher and verify those often hard to read license files. It will parse the contents of the license file and produce a clear report showing all the vital information of your license file, including MAC addresses, serial numbers, seats available and License Expiry Dates.

Another key aspect of the parser is that it will also map Autodesk Product Codes to Autodesk Product Names (referred to as 'features' within the report). These are of great help when creating or modifying your options files.  No need to hunt through license files for required Product Codes anymore, simply copy the corresponding Product Codes from the report and use it with the Option settings within the options files as required.

Visit the Autodesk License Parser website here: www.licenseparser.com and select and submit your license file to generate a report similar to: