Thread: ArcGIS Desktop License Manager 10.1 prerelease

We have ArcGIS Desktop License Manager 10.1 prerelease installed and configured. We are seeing multiple licenses checked out by the same user from the same machine, which gobbles up more licenses than necessary. Is anyone else seeing this happen? See attached screen capture.

Joe,

I'd not looked closely at the LSAdmin "View License Usage" panel -- we still tend to run command line lmutil lmstat -a against our license server from a remote workstation.

So just now, from License Server Administrator 10.1 running locally on a workstation with ArcGIS Desktop 10.0, multiple instances of ArcGIS Desktop ArcInfo the LSAdmin "View License Usage" shows consumption of just one seat from the license pool. Also, when I look in the debug log, LSAdmin --> Diagnostics --> View, I do show a checkout for each instance. I think this is the correct behavior, that for a given workstation/user there should only be one seat consumed even if multiple instances are in use.

I will check against a production license server tomorrow and let you know if we see any double checkouts as in your post. If so, that will need to be fixed since it is not correct behavior.

Meanwhile, you might use lmutil.exe executable and run an lmstat against your pool and also look at the debug log as well--do the seat counts match up in both?

Stuart

Badri - Any guidance?

Stuart:

Thanks for the feedback. I have never used the license manager command line, but I do see the same items that you discuss by using the LM GUI.

Attached, you will find another example of what's going on, this time with the Debug Log Viewer as backup. Two licenses checked-out to the same user on the same machine. As you can see in the debug log, jeb0239 closed an ArcMap session at 15:02:36 and immediately opened a new ArcMap session at 15:02:53, was DENIED a license and then given a license. 38 minutes later, at 15:40:20, he opened another ArcMap session on his desktop resulting in a second license being checked-out.

Very strange...

Joe,

I just tested on two networked client machines, launching three ArcGIS Desktop 10.0 ArcInfo seats on each--as user gof509.

On the License Server, in LSAdmin all six checkouts show in the Debug Log View, but only two activations (one for each machine) are consumed. Similar when I run the lmutil.exe lmstat -a query across the network--only the two activations are consumed.

This is the behavior I would expect consistent with past FLEXnet Publisher experience.

So something is not correct with your installation, I've sent a note to Esri asking them to have a look because if something is affecting you it could actually be more common.

Stuart

Stuart:

The issue of double dipping into the license pool does not happen every time that a GIS staffer opens two ArcMap sessions on their desktop. That's what is so frustrating about this issue. It is unpredictable. I have attached a screen shot of results from me opening two ArcMap sessions and one ArcCatalog session on two different machines. Licenses were passed out as expected. I'm not sure when or what causes the two license check-out.

Joe

Joe,

I hope the License Management team at Esri will join in to the discussion because this is weird.

But I do notice that in your examples, only one system is showing the double check-out NRGMT004. Is it only isolated to that system, or has it been happening on others? And are the affected systems unique in some fashion (different subnet, VPN connections, remote location, etc.) something that could impact/delay token exchange with the license server?

Just a thought--probably worth checking.

Stuart

Stuart:

All GIS workstations are on the same network and domain. All are same make and model and on the same version and service pack of ArcGIS Desktop. As you can see from four more attachments with screen captures over weeks of observing, this issue has appeared for all GIS workstations at one time or another.

I did work with Esri Tech Support some months ago. They asked similar questions. Since this seems to be irreproducible, it is hard to pin down and I closed my tech support ticket. I'm heading to the Esri UC at the end of July, so I will take my documentation of this issue with me and look for help, there. Or, maybe the problem will go away with v10.1 Final.

Joe

Joe,

Well that answers that. Guess there could still be issues with Firewall in place on the license server and need to set exceptions to deal with any latency of the token exchanges to the clients.

If this were one of my license servers I'd probably take it down, clean out all things Esri and reinstall clean with verbose logging.

Bit of a nuisance, you'd have to notify users and you'd need to reclaim any borrowed licenses--to then be able to deauthorize your entire pool. Remember to save your service.txt and ARCGIS.opt files, if customized.

Complete the reinstall, and probably update the lmgrd.exe and lmutil.exe to v11.10.1 from the Flexera FLEXnet Publisher download site. Maybe grab the lmtools.exe Windows GUI as an alternative to LSAdmin, helpful if you have other FNP based license services to administer in addition to ArcGIS.

I'd also go ahead and set an ARCGIS_LICENSE_FILE environment variable on all the clients pointing directly to the lmgrd service port on the license server, but you can do that with GPO.

I'd think 45 minutes of down time in the evening would be plenty of time to perform the entire cleanup--you'd be certain then of your License Manager installation and if there were still problems you'd have full logs to present to Esri technical support.

Stuart