Specify license manager location non-graphically

This page explains how to specify the location, port number, and computer name or IP, of your license server without using the graphical Lumerical license configuration utility. This may be required for machines without a graphical interface or when setting system-wide license server configuration.

You can specify the hostname of your license in server two ways, with an environment variable or with a License.ini file.

Note: If both the License.ini file and the environment variable are set, the License.ini file takes precedence.

Setting an Environment Variable

• This method using the environment variable is supported starting with Lumerical 2021 R2.
• Configure the "License.ini" file as shown below, for prior releases, and accessing the Lumerical FlexNet license manager (legacy FlexLM).  

ANSYSLMD_LICENSE_FILE environment variable

Add the environment variable, ANSYSLMD_LICENSE_FILE with the corresponding port and license server hostname or IP address on the machine running Lumerical. See the following posts for more information on adding environment variables in: Windows and Linux.

Configuring the License.ini file

License.ini specifies the port and license server running your license manager. This file can be located in the user's home directory, or in a shared location that can apply to all users. If the License.ini exists in both locations, the user's local copy will take precedence.  

• Create the preference file directory if it does not exist. Folder and filenames are case-sensitive.
  • user's specific directory/folder

    sudo mkdir $HOME/.config/Lumerical/

  • default global directory/folder (sudo/root access required)

    sudo mkdir /opt/lumerical/[[verpath]]/Lumerical/

• Create the "License.ini" file in the "Lumerical" folder.

  sudo vi License.ini

• Specify the machine hosting the license manager and TCP port number used.
  The file should contain the following lines: (default ports shown)  

  [license]
  domain=2
  default=user
  ansysserver\host=1055@licenseserver
  flexserver\host=27011@licenseserver

Notes:

Replace the "domain" number with:

0 - for Ansys Enterprise license,

1 - for Lumerical Standard license, and

2 - for Ansys Standard license;

which corresponds to the Lumerical Launcher (GUI) license settings as shown below for the Lumerical 2021 R1 release.

Triad license server configuration

Note: Example shown uses port 1055 and server1, server2 and server3 as the hostnames of the triad license servers. Change the port and the hostname to the correct/actual port and hostnames used.  

Windows: Separate the ansys license servers information with a comma "," and inside quotes "". 

ansysserver\host="1055@server1,1055@server2,1055@server3"

Linux: Separate the ansys license servers information with a colon ":".

ansysserver\host=1055@server1:1055@server2:1055@server3 

See also

• Selecting the correct license manager option

Preference.ini files location

Lumerical product configuration is stored in a series of "preference".INI files. Other than the 'License.ini', it is not recommended to edit these '.ini' files unless instructed to do so by Lumerical Support.

• License.ini: Contains the license server information.
• Launcher.ini: Stores Launcher-specific (GUI) settings.
• Shared.ini: Shared settings for all solvers. Including recently opened files, scripts and application examples. 
• Login.ini: The login web token information when logging into the product to download application examples from within the application. 
• <product>.ini: Product-specific settings like display, solver and resource settings. Each product will have its own preference file: FDTD Solutions.ini, MODE Solutions.ini, Lumerical DEVICE.ini, INTERCONNECT.ini 

These files are found: 

Windows

• Local or user specific: 

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Lumerical\<filename>.ini

• System wide:

C:\Program Files\Lumerical\[[verpath]]\Lumerical\<filename>.ini

Linux

• Local or user specific:

~/.config/Lumerical/<filename>.ini

• System wide:

/opt/lumerical/[[verpath]]/Lumerical/<filename>.ini

macOS (deprecated)

• Local or user specific: 

/Users/<UserName>/.config/Lumerical/<Product>.ini

(no system wide settings on macOS) 

See also

How to obtain a floating license (GUI) 

Adding Lumerical environment variables on Windows

Adding Lumerical environment variables on Linux