Monitoring the LM-X license manager with OpenLM

Scope

OpenLM supports license monitoring of a wide and ever-growing variety of license managers.

This document elaborates on the steps required to configure OpenLM to interface the LM-X license server, monitor license usage and obtain license statistics.

There are two options to query the LM-X License Server:

• The first option is to remotely query the license server from the OpenLM Server.
• The second option is to install the OpenLM Broker on the same machine as the LM-X license server, query the License Server locally, and propagate the information back to the OpenLM Server.

Option One: OpenLM Server direct method

Enabling the OpenLM server to work with LMX

In order to configure OpenLM to work with LM-X, follow these steps:

1. Access the OpenLM EasyAdmin User Interface
2. Navigate to Sart → Administration → License Manager Servers
3. Click on LM Tools
4. Select LM Type ‘LMX’ from the drop-down menu
5. Copy the lmxendutil.exe file to the path C:\Program Files\OpenLM\OpenLM Server\LM and enter the full path in the text box as shown below
6. Click SAVE

Introducing a new LM-X server

After configuring the OpenLM configuration tool to work with LMX as described above, introduce a new LM-X server under the LM Servers tab:

1. Click Add LM
2. Type in a descriptive text in the Display name text box
3. From the Type drop-down menu, select LMX
4. Submit appropriate Hostname and Port numbers. The LMX default port is 6200
5. Set the Time Zone to where the License Server physically resides
6. “Enable Triad Configuration”: OpenLM supports multiple server redundancy configurations for several types of license servers (e.g. FlexLM, DSLS, IBM LUM). At the time of writing this article, OpenLM does not yet support multiple server redundancy for LMX. Switch Off this option
7. Use Broker option:

• Switch Off (Default): The OpenLM Server actively queries the license manager. Keep this configuration when not employing the OpenLM Broker.
• Switch On: Usage information is obtained solely by the OpenLM Broker installation on the License manager machine.
• Click SAVE

OpenLM Server should be ready to query your LM-X license server and present the information over the EasyAdmin User Interface.

That’s it !

OpenLM Server should be ready to query your LM-X license server and present the information over the EasyAdmin User Interface.

Option Two: via the OpenLM Broker

The OpenLM Broker is optional, though highly recommended component, that should be installed and configured on the LMX license server machine. The OpenLM Broker queries the LMX license server locally and propagates the data to the OpenLM Server. It facilitates robust, buffered communication with the OpenLM Server to overcome temporary network failures and security issues. In addition to that, the OpenLM Broker queries the LMX license server for license request denials information, which is an important indication of license efficiency.

OpenLM Server configuration

Follow the same steps for configuring the OpenLM Server as listed above, with the following exception: Switch ON the “Use Broker” option.

OpenLM Broker configuration

1. Download and install the latest OpenLM Broker version.

2. Configure the OpenLM Broker to monitor the LM-X license server on the license manager’s port (e.g. 6200). These configurations must exactly match those of the OpenLM Server configuration (see above).

3. In the ‘status‘, ‘data_inquiry‘, and ‘denial‘ command line text boxes, fill in the full path to the ‘lmxendutil.exe’ file. You can use the Commands node to indicate a path and click Update to update all of them at once.

4. Click Apply then Restart Broker.

OpenLM Broker web UI

1. Navigate to your Broker Web UI instance → License Managers tab: http://localhost:5090/#/license-managers.
2. Select the LM Type – LMX and input the Port number. Click ADD.
3. The following screen appears:
   
4. Switch to the vendors tab and Input the vendor name (free text). Click Add Vendor, input the name then Click CONTINUE.
5. Click SAVE. The configuration is ready.

Verify the LMX configuration

Verify the OpenLM configuration to monitor the LM-X license server via the EasyAdmin User Interface

• Open the EasyAdmin web application (access http://<OpenLM Server hostname>:5015 in your browser)
• Verify that the configured license manager appears on the list. A green circle node indicates an active connection to a license server.

Please note that sometimes it may take up to 3 minutes for the status indicator to change if this is a new connection.