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How to Work with the License Manager

How to Host Multiple Licenses on One License Manager


The FlexNet® license manager reads all of your COMSOL licenses from a single license file. This means that you need to manually merge your licenses into a single license file in order to host them from the same license server machine. This article provides detailed instructions for how to combine two license files.

Note: The following demonstration uses two FNLs. However, the merging process is identical for any amount or combination of floating network, class kit, and COMSOL Server™ license files.

Example of Multiple License Files

Let's assume that you have:

  • An FNL, number 1234567, with two concurrent keys, each for both COMSOL Multiphysics® and the Structural Mechanics Module, which you received from your COMSOL representative.
  • An FNL, number 2234567, with five concurrent keys, each for both COMSOL Multiphysics® and the Chemical Reaction Engineering Module, which you received from your COMSOL representative.
  • A server with hostname licserver.company.com, hostid 123456789012, and opened ports 1718 and 1719.

The first license file, license1234567.dat, looks like:

The second license, license2234567.dat file, looks like this:

Merging These License Files

To merge these files:

  1. Make sure that:
    • Both of the licenses have been generated for the same hostid.
      • Each hostid can be found on the line beginning with SERVER.
    • All of the ISSUED dates are identical in both license files.
      • The ISSUED dates can be found on the lines beginning with INCREMENT.

If the two hostids and/or ISSUED dates are not identical, contact your local COMSOL sales representative so that the files can be reissued.

  1. Combine the two files by copying only the FEATURE and INCREMENT lines from the second license file and pasting them at the bottom of the first license file. Feel free to add comment lines starting with #.

The combined license file, license_combined.dat, looks like:

Using the New Combined License File

The license manager needs to be restarted. Then, it can read the new combined file.

Please consider that:

  • Detailed information about the license structure and the meanings of all of the lines in the license file can be found in our documentation.
  • Merging two license files does not mean that it will be possible to access a superset of products from the two licenses via a single COMSOL application (e.g., desktop UI, batch, simulation app, etc.). A COMSOL application can only use one license at a time.
  • Merging license files combines the available seats for shared products into one single pool. The total number of seats is the sum of the keys from all original INCREMENT lines, making the seats accessible to every user regardless of which license was used for their specific installation.
  • When installing the COMSOL® software, you can choose which of the included licenses you wish to use for the installation. By default, only the products specified in this license will be installed.
  • By default, when running a single COMSOL application, the license manager will only check out features from the license that was used during the installation.
  • For advanced control of license usage across the network, for instance, to restrict the number of seats used by a particular user group, you may want to use an options file. For details, see Part 2 of this course, "How to Administer Optimal COMSOL License Access".

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