If your role includes administering ANSYS licenses, you should be aware that the look and feel of the ANSYS license manager has changed somewhat at version 16.0. The tasks that used to all be performed within the Server ANSLIC_ADMIN Utility have now been split pretty much between that tool and a new tool that runs within your browser called the ANSYS License Management Center.

The ANSYS License Management Center looks like this:

This video demonstrates how to install the ANSYS, Inc. License Manager on the Windows platform. If you are attempting to retrieve the hostid information for a FLEXID9 dongle, you will need to download and install the full ANSYS License Manager instead of using this process. After installing the license manager, refer to the section Using Dongles with the ANSYS License Manager in the ANSYS, Inc. Licensing Guide for details.

This new License Management Center window is opened on Windows via Start > All Programs > ANSYS, Inc. License Manager > ANSYS License Management Center, and on Linux via /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/start_lmcenter.

This utility is where you now install license files, start and start the license manager, and also gather diagnostic information if something goes wrong. You can also view the license .log files here as well as ANSYS licensing documentation.

Ansys Client License Manager

The ‘old’ Server ANSLIC_ADMIN Utility is now smaller and does less than it did in prior versions. This is what it looks like at version 16.0:

This window is still useful in that you can click on View Status/Diagnostic Options to get information you can’t get in the new License Management Center, primarily Display the License Status to see what licenses are in use and are available. This information is also available to clients via the Client ANSLIC_ADMIN Utility. You can start the ANSYS License Management Center from here too.

One capability you won’t find in either utility is the ability to Reread the License Manager settings. When you load a new license file, the License Management Center now automatically stops and starts the license manager so you shouldn’t have to do a reread after installing a new file, but just in case, it can still be done via the command line using these instructions:

On Windows, open a command prompt and move to:

C:Program FilesANSYS IncShared FilesLicensingwinx64

Then issue the command:

ansysli_server –k reread

The same command works on Linux from the /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/linx64 directory.

Another important change is the location of the license files after they have been installed. The new location is (on Windows):

C:Program FilesAnsys IncShared FilesLicensinglicense_files

This means there is a new sub-folder named license_files that contains the license file(s). File(s) is now plural since you can have both an ANSYS license file and an Ansoft license file in that folder, both running using the ANSYS License Management Center. There is a new license file naming convention as well:

ANSYS License file name: ansyslmd.lic

ANSOFT License file name: ansoftd.lic

The path on Linux is:

/ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/license_files

When you install an ANSOFT license file, the license manager now does some edits to change the daemon to the ANSYS daemon in addition to renaming the file and placing it in the new location.

One additional piece of information: The license manager reads any .lic files that are located in the license_files folder, so it’s probably a good idea to ensure that only ‘good’ versions of ansyslmd.lic and ansoftd.lic reside in that folder.

A major conclusion that can be drawn from all of this is that ANSYS license manager and Ansoft license manager license files can now be managed using a single licensing tool and single set of licensing software. We’ve been waiting for this for some time and it’s nice to see it’s here and working successfully.

Remember the good old days of having to peruse through hundreds and thousands of lines of text in multiple files to see ANSYS license usage information? Trying to hit Ctrl+F and search for license names. Well those days were only about a couple months ago and they are over…well for the most part.

With the ANSYS License Manager Release 18.0, we have some pretty nifty built in license reporting tools that help to extract information from the log files so the administrator can see anything from current license usage to peak usage and even any license denials that occur. Let’s take a look at how to do this:

First thing is to open up the License Management Center:

• In Windows you can find this by going to Start>Programs>ANSYS Inc License Manager>ANSYS License Management Center
• On Linux you can find this in the ansys directory /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/start_lmcenter

This will open up your License Manager in your default browser as shown below. For the reporting just take a look at the Reporting Section. We’ll cover each of these 4 options below.

License Management Center at Release 18.0

License Reporting Options

VIEW CURRENT LICENSE USAGE

As the title says, this is where you’ll go to see a breakdown of the current license usage. What is great is that you can see all the licenses that you have on the server, how many licenses of each are being used and who is using them (through the color of the bars). Please note that PADT has access to several ANSYS Licenses. Your list will only include the licenses available for use on your server.

Scrolling page that shows Current License Usage and Color Coded Usernames

You can also click on Show Tabular Data to see a table view that you can then export to excel if you wanted to do your own manipulation of the data.

Tabular Data of Current License Usage – easy to export

VIEW LICENSE USAGE HISTORY

In this section you will be able to not only isolate the license usage to a specific time period, you can also filter by license type as well. You can use the first drop down to define a time range, whether that is the previous 1 month, 1 year, all available or even your own custom time range

Isolate License Usage to Specific Time Period

Once you hit Generate you will be able to then isolate by license name as shown below. I’ve outlined some examples below as well. The axis on the left shows number of licenses used.

Ansys Flexlm License Manager

Filter Time History by License Name

1 month history of ANSYS Mechanical Enterprise

1 month history of ANSYS CFD

Custom Date Range history of ANSYS SpaceClaim Direct Modeler

VIEW PEAK LICENSE USAGE

This section will allow you to see what the peak usage of a particular license during a particular time period and filter it based on data range. First step is to isolate to a date range as before, for example 1 month. Then you can select which month you want to look at data for.

Uninstall License Manager Ansys

Selecting specific month to look at Peak License Usage

Then you can isolate the data to whether or not you want to look at an operational period of 24/7, Monday to Friday 24/5 or even Monday to Friday 9am-5pm. This way you can isolate license usage between every day of the week, working week or normal working hours in a week. Again, axis on left shows number of licenses.

Install License Manager Ansys

Isolating data to 24/7, Weekdays or Weekday Working Hours

Peak License Usage in March 2017 of ANSYS Mechanical Enterprise (24/7)

Peak License Usage in February 2017 of ANSYS CFD (Weekdays Only)

VIEW LICENSE DENIALS

Ansys Inc. License Manager Installation

If any of the users who are accessing the License Manager get license denials due to insufficient licenses or for any other reason, this will be displayed in this section. Since PADT rarely, if ever, gets License Denials, this section is blank for us. The procedure is identical to the above sections – it involves isolating the data to a time period and filtering the data to your interested quantities.

Isolate data with Time Period as other sections

Ansys License Manager Linux

Although these 4 options doesn’t include every conceivable filtering method, this should allow managers and administrators to filter through the license usage in many different ways without needing to manually go through all the log files. This is a very convenient and easy set of options to extract the information.

License Manager Ansys

Please let us know if you have any questions on this or anything else with ANSYS.