Licensing configuration can be challenging, there can be multiple workstations, servers, OS(s), types of licenses, etc. This is a quick guide that will help you with some of the most common issues of the most common type of license: on premise floating licenses, the licenses that run with a License Manager using flexlm.
Access the Ansys Customer Portal by registering with your customer number. Doing this will provide you with access to your latest as well as legacy software downloads. Your customer number is located on the license file if you received a floating license or your account representative at Rand Simulation can provide it to you.
Installing the License Manager (LM) is a separate, smaller installation which is found under the Tools section of the download page. Go here and scroll down to Tools, the download you want is the first selection on the left: ANSYS License Manager. The LM also installs along with a Structures, Fluids or Electronics Desktop install if you install the whole package, but the standalone LM install is available which is handy to have when you install the Licensing on a server rather than a single client machine.
If you run into issues during this installation, here are some common things to check that may help you resolve your issues:
- Extract the installation files first before installing (ANSYS suggests 7-Zip).
- When you install, run setup as Administrator (Right Click>More>Run as Administrator). Follow these steps even if the user already has administrator rights (reportedly due to a bug with the Microsoft OS).
- Firewall and Security software should be temporarily turned off during the install. Sometimes this is required depending on the type and settings of your firewall and security software behavior.
- Also, when loading license files into the LM, run the License Manager as Administrator; (Again, even if already an Administrator).
Tips:
- If the license file you have is new, it will require at least 2021R2 or 2022R1 License Manager versions. Only legacy license files can run with an older License Manager such as 2020R2, etc.
- If a new license was recently installed, the old license in some cases may have been modified where the hostID was replaced with its IP address. Any new license will also need this modification. In those cases, if the License Manager doesn’t automatically replace the hostID with the IP address when the new license file is read in, this modification may need to be completed manually. If so, replace the hostID with the IP address as shown on the previously installed license file or as shown in the License Manager under the menu pick License File Options>View Flexnet Licenses (before you attempted to load the newer license file).
- If installing a Temporary license, it must be dated/timed later than any already existing permanent licenses. It must also be installed after any existing permanent licenses are installed.
- Make sure there are firewall exceptions in place with Windows Defender and/or with security software to open the ports required. You may need your IT support to help for this process.
- License Manager is usually installed on a server for distributing the licenses to multiple client machines. In smaller operations, you might have the only client machine in which case you can run the License Manager from your machine and run Ansys locally from the same computer.
- If you need to move your license manager to run on another machine, access the Licensing Portal which allows changing the server by updating the license file with a new Host ID and Disk/Ethernet ID. You can run the capture utility found here on the new machine to get the new hostID and either Disk or Ethernet ID that you will need to create your new license file. You will need to have ASC credentials when logging in to make this change. The ASC, or Ansys Support Coordinator, is a designation given by your IT or Company Management and registered with Ansys. You can request changes for providing this role to others in an organization or for moving the responsibility by accessing the contacts here.
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