How to release a stuck 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 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 ~2-2.5hrs.
• Abandoned License - a license that was checked out by a client that has disconnected and then reconnected under a new network session/client ID. When this occurs, the client does not resume the previous license and will check out a different license. (The previous checked out license will be released after ~2-2.5hrs. Otherwise it will be considered as 'stuck 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. This establishes a new network 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, stuck or abandoned licenses will always happen wheneve the client machine loses connection to the server while using the license. 
• 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 will terminate and will have to be restarted from the beginning. 

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 ~2-2.5  hours after it lost connection to the server. If the license is not automatically released, the license is stuck and will have to manually release the license as shown in the next methods.

Manually release the license from the license manager

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.

Remove the stuck/abandoned license.

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

    "C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\licensing\winx64\lmutil" lmremove -c 1055@localhost [feature] [user] [hostname] [display]

  • Linux:

    /ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmutil lmremove -c 1055@localhost [feature] [user] [hostname] [display]

• From the sample image, we remove the lum_fdtd_gui, license feature, in-use by user: lyapon host: vnrlyap on display: vnrlyap :

  "C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\licensing\winx64\lmutil" lmremove -c 1055@localhost lum_fdtd_gui lyap vnrlyap vnrlyap

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 will terminate and will have to be restarted from the beginning.