Symptoms

• You see one of the following error messages:
  • Can not get a requested license...
  • License is required for <feature>
  • License is required to <action>
• Your log file indicates a license checkout has failed
• One or more of the scans listed in the Scans tab of the GUI are disabled / grayed out

Causes

If you suspect a licensing problem, check your Analyzer log for error messages. Log messages for an active session can be found in the Log tab of the GUI and are automatically saved to ~/.insight/logs (unless configured otherwise.)

Licensing is managed by the 3rd party application FLEXnet Publisher which is bundled with the Analyzer. You can access the license management utilities by passing the appropriate command and it's arguments to the run-insight command. Example: run-insight lmstat.

There are can be various possible causes of licensing issues:

• You have not setup which licenses you wish to use
  

  Select License... in the Setup menu of the GUI and ensure the licenses you require are selected. Or, using the API, use the various runenv license <option> commands.

• All available license have been checked out by other users
  
• You do not have a valid license file or your license has expired
  

  Any of the above can be determined by querying the license server using lmstat -a if the license server is running. When running, you should see the instlm process on the host machine. Type the command ps -ax | grep instlm or ps -ef | grep instlm to verify that it is running.

• The license server is not running
  
• The hostname and or port in the license file has been changed or is incorrect
  
• The wrong license file is being used by the license server
  

  When the license manager is started with lmgrd it will display diagnostic information. If started automatically by the system, you can see if this information is saved to a logfile by examining the appropriate startup script or checking your system logs. Depending on your flavor of Linux, this may be found in /etc/rc*, /etc/init* or something similar. You can also try starting lmgrd manually, though you might have to stop it with lmdown first and have administrator priviledges.

  When the license server is started, the -c option to lmgrd should point to the license file. You can also check the license file to verify that each of the lines is correct. The SERVER line should contain the hostname and hostid of the machine on which the license server is running. The license will not work if the host id has been changed or if the license server is being run on a machine that does not match the hostid specified in the license file.

• The INSTLM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable is not properly set (when running a remote license server)
  

  When running the license server on a machine other than the one on which you are running the Analyzer, you must set the INSTLM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable to @host or port@host so the Analyzer can find and communicate with the license server. If the Analyzer is running on the same machine as the license server and using a default port, this variable is not necessary.

References

• Insight Analyzer Installation Guide - Provides details of licensing as it relates to Analyzer setup and usage
• Insight User's Manual - Describes how to use INSTLM_LICENSE_FILE and how to request licenses
• Insight API Reference - Syntax of the runenv license commands
• FlexNet Publisher License Administration Guide - How to setup your license server and use the various license server utilities including lmstat