Last Updated: September 21, 2022

These instructions describe how to install and configure the Flexera FlexNet license server 2020.07 for use with L3Harris Geospatial Solutions products. Instructions are included if you are migrating from version 2016.03 or 2017.08.

See the following:

System Requirements

Minimum hardware requirements:

  • Disk: 500 MB
  • RAM: 4 GB
  • CPU: 2 GHz - 2 Cores

Supported Platforms

Supported FlexNet License Server platforms:

Operating System

CPU Architecture

Tested with Operating System Versions

Linux

x86-64

CentOS 7.x

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.x

Ubuntu 16, 18

Root or Sudo Privileges

You need root or sudo privileges to perform the steps in this document.

Firewall Configuration

By default, the license server is configured to communicate on local TCP/IP port 7070. If a firewall is deployed on the license server, it will be necessary to configure the firewall to allow external listening connections by the license server computer on TCP port 7070. If needed, consult your local system or network administrator for assistance in configuring your server's firewall.

Correct System Time and Date

To allow proper communication, the system time and date of both the license server and the license client computer should be configured to accurately reflect the current time and date.

Install the License Server Service

If you are migrating from an older version of the license server service, perform the upgrade steps listed below in Upgrade the License Server from 2016.03 or 2017.08 to 2020.07 before you use install the new version of the license server service.

To install the license server service:

  1. Unpack and uncompress the files:

    • Web download: Uncompress the flexnetserverxxxx.xx-linux.tar.gz archive file that was downloaded to your computer, then unpack the file:

      gunzip filename.tar.gz
      tar -xf filename.tar

      Note: The License Server installer is a separate product download file. It is not included as part of other L3Harris Geospatial Solutions product downloads.

    • DVD: Insert the DVD. The DVD auto-mounts. Linux systems may auto-mount the installer DVD with incorrect permissions. If this happens, use the following commands:

      umount /dev/hdc
      mount -o ro -t udf /dev/hdc /media

      Note: Be sure to specify the correct directory for your system, for example: /dev/dvd instead of /dev/hdc.

  2. Start the installer with one of these commands:

    • Web download: ./install.sh
    • DVD: ./install-flexnetls-linux.sh
  3. Follow the prompts to install the software.
  4. The installer creates a no-login user account named flexnetls under the group name flexnetls. It installs a service named flexnetls-idl_lmgrd, which is configured to start automatically at boot time and run under the no-login user account flexnetls.
  5. Activate the licenses on the license server, described next.

Upgrade the License Server from 2016.03 or 2017.08 to 2020.07

If the Flexera FlexNet license server 2016.03 or 2017.08 is installed on the license server computer, perform these steps before you install the new version.

  1. Open a terminal window.

  2. Stop the license server service:

    • CentOS/Red Hat:/sbin/service flexnetls-idl_lmgrd stop
    • Ubuntu:service flexnetls-idl_lmgrd stop

  3. Navigate to the license server installation directory (INSTALL_DIR/flexnetls-x64_linux-xxxx.xx.x/server). For example:

    cd /usr/local/harris/flexnetls_2016.03.0/server

    -or-

    cd /usr/local/harris/flexnetls_2017.08.0/server

  4. Uninstall the license server service:

    ./flexnetls uninstall

  5. Delete the following folder:

    INSTALL_DIR/flexnetls_xxxx.xx.x

  6. Delete the following files:

    rm /etc/default/flexnetls-idl_lmgrd
  7. Install the new license server service, described previously.

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Activate License Server Licenses from the Command Line

Activating a license transfers the license rights from the Download and License Center to a node-locked (local) computer or license server. It also creates the features and quantities of licenses that enable the software to run. When you purchase L3Harris Geospatial Solutions products, you will receive an email with an activation code to use to activate your software license.

The following describes how to activate your licenses from the command line. If you plan to install IDL or ENVI on your license server, you can also perform these functions from the License Administrator Tool (installed with ENVI or IDL), described in Activate License Server Licenses from the License Administrator Tool.

This section describes how to activate licenses over the Internet. If you do not have Internet access, contact Technical Support to receive separate instructions to activate your licenses offline.

Use the activation codes provided in your product order email to activate the licenses. Clients will then create a connection to the license server to acquire those licenses when they launch their application. If a client attempts to launch the application before licenses are activated on the license server, or before the client has a connection to the license server, they will receive an error message.

The steps that follow describe how to use the command line to:

When activating, deactivating, or viewing license features using the URL, you must provide the full endpoint. For example, localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~. You can set an environment variable for the full endpoint using FLEXNETLS_BASEURL. For example, FLEXNETLS_BASEURL=http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~. If you set an environment variable, it eliminates the need to issue -server and its argument at the command line. For example, you can type flexnetlsadmin.sh -status instead of flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -status. Note that if the environment variable is set and you use specify -server <argument> at the command line, the command line argument will override the environment variable.

Activate Licenses

You can also activate the licenses from the command line:

  1. Go to the INSTALL_DIR/flexnetls-xxxx.xx.x/enterprise directory, for example:

    cd /usr/local/harris/flexnetls-xxxx.xx.x/enterprise

  2. Activate the licensing capabilities on the server with the following:

    ./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://server:port/api/1.0/instances/~ -activate -id xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx -count quantity

    Example:

    ./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -activate -id AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -count 3

    Where:

    • -server specifies the communication URL and port number of the license server, and localhost indicates the computer issuing the command.
    • -activate indicates to activate the id that will follow.
    • -id specifies the activation code provided in your product order email.
    • -count specifies the quantity of license feature counts to enable on the license server, up to the total that was purchased. If not specified, the default is 1.

    To view details on the activated licenses for the license server, see View Licenses and Feature Details for commands.

Deactivate Licenses

Specifying a -count of 0 deactivates the specified licenses on the license server. For example:

./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -activate -id AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -count 0

Connect a Client to a License Server

Create a plain text file on the client computer to reference the license server. Perform the following steps:

  1. Create a plain text file that contains a reference to the license server URL. Format the text as follows:

    http://[license-server-hostname-or-IP-address]:7070/fne/bin/capability

    For example:

    http://myserver.mycompany.com:7070/fne/bin/capability
  2. Save the file with the name o_licenseserverurl.txt.

  3. Copy the file to the license subdirectory located under your Harris installation directory. The file should have read privileges for all product users.

    Examples using the default locations:

    Windows client: C:\Program Files\Harris\license\o_licenseserverurl.txt

    Linux client: /usr/local/harris/license/o_licenseserverurl.txt

    Mac client: /Applications/harris/license/o_licenseserverurl.txt

    To view details on served licenses for the computer, see View Licenses and Feature Details for commands.

Remove a Client Connection to a License Server

To remove the client computer's connection to the license server, delete the o_licenseserverurl.txt from the license subdirectory located under your Harris installation directory.

The Activate Utility

For the steps in the next section, you will find the activate utility in the following directories:

  • Windows: INSTALL_DIR\IDLxx\license_utils\bin.x86_64 for IDL installations, or INSTALL_DIR\ENVIxx\IDLxx\license_utils\bin.x86_64 for ENVI installations.
  • Linux: INSTALL_DIR/idlxx/license_utils/bin.linux.x86_64 for IDL installations, or INSTALL_DIR/envixx/idlxx/license_utils/bin.linux.x86_64 for ENVI installations.
  • Mac: INSTALL_DIR/idlxx/license_utils/bin.darwin.x86_64 for IDL installations, or INSTALL_DIR/envixx/idlxx/license_utils/bin.darwin.x86_64 for ENVI installations.

Borrow Licenses from a License Server

Use the activate utility to borrow licenses from a license server for a period of time.

License borrowing is enabled by default. To disable (or re-enable) some or all license borrowing, the license server administrator should contact Technical Support, or their regional sales office or distributor.

To borrow licenses, open a command or terminal window on the client, change to the directory that contains the activate utility, and type the following at the command line:

Windows client: 

activate.exe -a activation-code -s serverName:serverPort -t seconds

Example:

  activate.exe -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -s LicenseServer:7070 -t 86400

Linux and Mac client: 

./activate -a activation-code -s serverName:serverPort -t seconds

Example:

  ./activate -a AAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD -s LicenseServer:7070 -t 86400

Where:

  • -a specifies the activation ID.
  • -s specifies a license server.
  • -t specifies the borrow interval, in seconds. The default is 86400 seconds (one day). The maximum number of days allowed is 60 (5184000 seconds). When this value expires, the features are automatically returned to the license server for use by another process.

To view additional options for the this command, type activate -h.

To view details on borrowed licenses for the computer, see View Licenses and Feature Details for commands.

Return Borrowed Licenses to a License Server

Use the activate utility to return borrowed licenses before their expiration date.

To return borrowed licenses, open a command or terminal window, change to the directory that contains the activate utility, and type the following at the command line:

Windows client: 

activate -r -s serverName:serverPort

Example: 

  activate -r -s LicenseServer:7070

Linux and Mac client: 

./activate -r -s serverName:serverPort

Example: 

  ./activate -r -s LicenseServer:7070

Where:

  • -r returns all borrowed licenses to a license server.
  • -s specifies a license server.

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Activate License Server Licenses from the License Administrator Tool

These instructions describe how to use the License Administrator Tool to activate your licenses on a license server.

The License Administrator Tool is available if you have a full version of IDL or ENVI installed on the license server. If IDL or ENVI are not installed on the license server, perform these functions from the command line, as described in Activate License Server Licenses from the Command Line.

This section describes how to activate licenses over the Internet. If you do not have Internet access, contact Technical Support to receive separate instructions to activate your licenses offline.

Use the activation codes provided in your product order email to activate the licenses. Clients will then create a connection to the license server to acquire those licenses when they launch their application. If a client attempts to launch the application before licenses are activated on the license server, or before the client has a connection to the license server, they will receive an error message.

The steps that follow describe how to use the License Administrator Tool to:

The License Administrator Tool

The steps that follow use the License Administrator Tool. If the tool is not already open, access it from a terminal window by launching the harrislicense command from one of the following installation directories:

  • IDL Installation: INSTALL_DIR/idlxx/bin/
  • ENVI Installation: INSTALL_DIR/envixx/idlxx/bin/

Sudo or root permissions are required.

Activate Licenses

To activate licenses on the license server:

  1. In the License Administrator Tool, click Activate License on this Server. The Server and Port fields populate with the information for the license server.
  2. Enter (or copy and paste) the activation codes from your product order email into the text box provided. The text box allows one activation code per line; press the Enter key after entering each code to start a new line.
  3. Enter the Quantity of licenses you are entitled to.
  4. Click Activate. A message appears when the codes are successfully activated. To view details on the activated licenses for the license server, click View Licenses. See View Licenses and Feature Details for more information.
  5. Click Close to exit the tool.

Deactivate Licenses

Licenses remain activated on a license server until you deactivate them. Deactivating a license returns it to the Download and License Center. Deactivated licenses can then be used on another license server. For example, if you receive a new computer and you want to install the license server service on it, first deactivate the licenses from the old license server. If you do not deactivate the licenses (and the old computer is no longer accessible to you), you will be unable to activate them on the new license server. If that occurs, Technical Support will need to deactivate the licenses for you.

To deactivate licenses on the server:

  1. In the License Administrator Tool, click Deactivate License on this Server. The Server and Port fields populate with the information for the license server.
  2. Use the check boxes to select the individual activation codes to deactivate, or enable the Select all check box to deactivate all activation codes.
  3. Click Deactivate.
  4. Click Close to exit the tool.

Connect a Client to a License Server

A client computer can connect to only one license server at a time; however, a client can use a combination of node-locked licenses activated locally on the computer and served licenses from a connected license server.

To connect a client to a license server:

  1. On the client, open the License Administrator Tool.
  2. In the License Administrator Tool, click Use License Server.
  3. In the Server field, enter the server name or IP address.
  4. In the Port field, enter the TCP/IP port number being used by the license server for communication with license clients. The default port is 7070.
  5. Click Connect. A message appears when the client successfully connects. To view details on served licenses for the computer, click View Licenses. See View Licenses and Feature Details for more information.
  6. Click Close to exit the tool.

Disconnect from a License Server

To disconnect a client computer from a license server:

  1. In the License Administrator Tool, click Use License Server. The Server and Port number fields populate with the information for the connected license server.
  2. Click Disconnect, then click Yes to confirm the request to disconnect. A message appears when the client successfully disconnects.
  3. Click Close to exit the tool.

Borrow Licenses from a License Server

Client computers can optionally borrow licenses from a license server. Borrowing licenses activates them locally to the client computer for a limited time. One example of borrowing is when you need to work in a remote region for one week and will be unable to connect to the license server to acquire licenses. In this case, you borrow the needed licenses for 7 days; then when the specified time has expired, the licenses will be automatically returned to the license server.

License borrowing is enabled by default. To disable (or re-enable) some or all license borrowing, the license server administrator should contact Technical Support, or their regional sales office or distributor. When borrowing licenses is enabled, only the licenses that are borrowable will be visible to you as you use the steps below.

To borrow licenses from a license server:

  1. In the License Administrator Tool, click Borrow Licenses from a Server.
  2. The Server and Port fields populate with values if there is a current license server connection. Enter or change the values if needed.
  3. Use the check boxes to select the licenses to borrow, or enable the Select all check box to select all licenses.
  4. Enter the Borrow time in days. The default is 7. The maximum number of days allowed is 60.
  5. Enter the Quantity of licenses to activate. The default is 1.
  6. Click Borrow from Server. A message appears when the licenses are successfully borrowed. To view details on borrowed licenses for the computer, click View Licenses. See View Licenses and Feature Details for more information.
  7. Click Close to exit the tool.

Return Borrowed Licenses to a License Server

Borrowed licenses are automatically returned to the license server at the end of the specified period, but you can return all of the licenses earlier.

To return licenses on a server:

  1. In the License Administrator Tool, click Borrow Licenses from a Server.
  2. The Server and Port fields populate with values if there is a current license server connection. Enter or change the values if needed.
  3. Click Return all Borrowed Licenses to Server. All borrowed licenses are returned to the server.
  4. Click Close to exit the tool.

View Licenses and Feature Details

Click View Licenses in the License Administrator Tool to view license details and features for the license server. License names, activation codes, and maintenance IDs available to the license server will be listed in a table. To refresh the data in the table, click the refresh icon.

To view feature details for the licenses, select one or more table rows and enable the Show feature details check box. Select all table rows to show all licenses. To filter the details further to show only in-use features, enable the Show in-use counts check box.

In the feature details Expiration column:

  • The expiration date is listed for licenses that have a termination date.
  • Permanent indicates the license does not have a termination date.

You can copy the details of all features to the clipboard, or save them to a .json file.

To view the license activity log for the computer, or to view device information for the computer, click View Log.

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Advanced License Server Administration Tasks

This section provides the following commands to administer the license server service:

Issue the flexnetlsadmin command from a command shell prompt. At the command prompt, first change directories to the INSTALL_DIR\flexnetls-x64_windows-xxxx.xx.x\enterprise directory of the License Server product installation. For example:

cd C:\Program Files\Harris\flexnetls-x64_windows-xxxx.xx.x\enterprise

View Licenses and Feature Details

To view details on licensed features, open a terminal window and change directories to INSTALL_DIR/flexnetls-x64_linux-xxxx.xx.x/enterprise. From a command line, use the following commands:

  • Confirm the service is running and listening on the port:

    ./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -status

  • Display a summary of license features/capabilities enabled on the license server running on the local host computer:

    ./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -features

  • Display a listing of license features/capabilities enabled on the specified license server:

    ./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://myserver.mycompany.com:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -licenses

  • Display a verbose listing of license features and capabilities enabled on the specified license server, using an IP address:

    ./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://123.456.789.10:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -licenses -verbose

Manage the License Server Service

  • Start the license server service:

    /sbin/service flexnetls-idl_lmgrd start

    Upon success, this command returns a result that the service is starting.

  • Stop the license server service:

    /sbin/service flexnetls-idl_lmgrd stop

  • Check the service status:

    /sbin/service flexnetls-idl_lmgrd status

  • Location of the service log files:

    /var/opt/flexnetls/idl_lmgrd/logs/

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Administrative Security Tasks

Administrative Security is a feature of the FlexNet license server that enables using authorization credentials to perform administrative tasks on the license server, such as activating or deactivating licenses, enabling and disabling administrative security, or changing the administrative password.

Administrative security tasks are not currently supported by the License Administrator Tool. These tasks must be performed using flexnetlsadmin command line utility.

By default, the administrative security feature is not enabled on the license server. To enable this feature, refer to the steps below. It is also recommended that you change the default password after you enable administrative security, as described below.

Issue the flexnetlsadmin command from a command shell prompt. At the command prompt, first change directories to the INSTALL_DIR/flexnetls-x64_linux-xxxx.xx.x/enterprise directory of the License Server product installation. For example:

cd /usr/local/harris/flexnetls-x64_linux-xxxx.xx.x/enterprise

When using the commands in the next sections, you can choose to enter the password string directly in the command or, for security reasons, use the -passwordConsoleInput switch instead. This avoids exposing the password as a command-line argument for others to see. With -passwordConsoleInput, the command line waits for you to input the administrator password with a blank prompt; when you enter the password, you do not need to escape special characters.

Enable Administrative Security for the First Time

By default, the administrative security feature is not enabled on the license server. To enable it, set the security.enabled and security.anonymous properties on the server, described below. The commands will use the default administrative security password (P@ssw0rd). After administrative security is enabled, change the default password, which is described in the next section.

Enable administrative security using the default password:

./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -authorize admin -passwordConsoleInput -config -set security.enabled=true

Enable anonymous (read only) access to the licenses and feature list. If this is not enabled, features cannot be viewed in the License Administrator Tool:

./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -authorize admin -passwordConsoleInput -config -set security.anonymous=true

Change the Administrative Security Password

When you enable administrative security, you should change the default administrator password.

The password is case-sensitive and must meet the following criteria:

  • At least 8 characters (with a maximum of 30 characters)

  • At least one digit

  • At least one upper-case character

  • At least one special character (for example, ^ * $ - + ? _ & = ! % { } / # @ and more)

  • No whitespaces

  • Escape special characters at the command line with the backslash "\" character

The following example shows how to change the default admin password P@ssw0rd to ABCxyz123#. Note that in the example below, the special characters are escaped with the "\" character because -passwordConsoleInput is not being used..

./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -authorize admin -P\@ssw0rd -users -edit admin ABCxyz123\#

Disable Administrative Security

./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -authorize admin -passwordConsoleInput -config -set security.enabled=false

Re-enable Administrative Security

./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -authorize admin -passwordConsoleInput -config -set security.enabled=true

Add an Administrator User

./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -authorize admin -passwordConsoleInput -users -create newadmin ROLE_ADMIN

Delete an Administrator User

./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -authorize admin -passwordConsoleInput -users -delete newadmin

List Administrator Users

./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -authorize admin -passwordConsoleInput -users

 

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Uninstall the License Server Service

  1. On the license server, open a terminal window.

  2. Navigate to the license server installation directory
    (INSTALL_DIR/flexnetls-x64_linux-xxxx.xx.x/enterprise). For example:

    cd /usr/local/harris/flexnetls_xxxx.xx.x/enterprise

  3. Deactivate all licenses that were activated on the license server, for example:

    ./flexnetlsadmin.sh -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ -activate
    -id xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx -count 0

    where in the example command:

    • -server http://localhost:7070/api/1.0/instances/~ specifies the communication URL and port number of the license server, and localhost indicates the computer issuing the command.
    • -id xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx specifies the Activation Code provided in your product order email.
    • -count 0 causes the activated licenses to be deactivated on the license server.

  4. Stop the service:

    /sbin/service flexnetls-idl_lmgrd stop

  5. Uninstall the license server service:

    cd /usr/local/harris/flexnetls_xxxx.xx.x/server
    ./flexnetls uninstall

  6. Delete the following folder:

    rm -R /opt/flexnetls/idl_lmgrd

  7. Delete the following files:

    rm /etc/default/flexnetls-idl_lmgrd

  8. Delete the following directory and its contents:

    rm -R /var/opt/flexnetls/idl_lmgrd

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Contact Us

If you need assistance, visit our website at https://www.l3harrisgeospatial.com/Company/Contact-Us to find worldwide contact information for technical support.

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