How to release stuck, ghost, or abandoned license

Overview

There may be occasions where you need to manually release a license. Most frequently this is required if the license becomes stuck due to network connectivity issues or rare license server glitches. See "What happens when you lose connection to the license server?" for more information.

Different license states defined:

Reserved License - a license that is currently checked out by a client.
Released License - A license that is available to be checked out. When Ansys Lumerical CAD closes or successfully completed the simulation, it will check-in and release the license to the server.
Stuck License - a license that is permanently stuck in the 'checkout' state, due to a software glitch, even after the client has been disconnected for ~2-3hrs.
Ghost or Abandoned License - a license that was checked out by a client that has disconnected and then reconnected under a new session/client ID. When this occurs, the client does not resume the previous license and will check out a different license. Ghost/Abandoned license is checked IN/released after 3 minutes starting with the 2024 R2 release. This feature requires the 'lic_timeout' license feature on the Ansys license manager. Contact your Ansys account manager (AM) for this license.
- This situation can be caused by several things:
  - Reconnects from the same local network, a different network session with a new client ID.
  - Reconnects from different network adapter, e.g. Ethernet to WiFi.
  - Changing from the office network to a home network using a VPN.
  - Disconnect and reconnects from a VPN connection, establishing a new session/client ID.

The guidelines below show how to release a license that has been stuck or abandoned due to a network connection, application, or other issues.

Notes

Resolve the network connectivity issues first. Otherwise, abandoned or stuck licenses will always happen whenever the client machine loses connection to the license server.
This requires admin or root access on the license server running the Ansys License Manager.
Do the following methods in this article after ~15-20 minutes from when the client machine initially lost connection with the license server.

Solutions

Close the application

While fairly straight forward, the most basic way to release a license is to close the Lumerical CAD that is using it. Ensure that the client machine is connected to the license server during the process. Otherwise, the license will not be immediately checked back in by the license server.

Restart the Ansys license manager

The fastest way to release stuck or abandoned licenses is to restart the Ansys License Manager.

Important: For multi-user environments, if other users are running simulations during the restart process, the simulation might terminate and will have to be restarted.

Wait for the server to release the license

If the client machine has disconnected and the license is not stuck, the license will be released ~2-3 hours after it lost connection to the server. If the license is not automatically released, the license is stuck and will have to be manually released.

Releasing the license

Verify the license increments currently checked out via the LM utility.

Log into the license server hosting the Ansys license manager.

Open a terminal or command prompt and run the following:

Windows:

"C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\licensing\winx64\lmutil" lmstat -c 1055@localhost -a

Linux:

/ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmutil lmstat -c 1055@localhost -a

If you changed the license manager port (1055) use that port in the command below.
Take note of the license feature, user, hostname, and display information.

Release the stuck/abandoned license.

Use the 'feature', 'user', 'hostname', and 'display' information from the output of the LM utility to release the license.