Siemens UGS PLM Software is moving to a common licensing scheme for all products. The rollout will be taking place a few products at a time and as other products move to common licensing, customers will benefit from a single license daemon, a merged common UGS license file and more efficient license administration.
This strategy utilizes a new license daemon called ugslmd. NX 5 is one of the first UGS products to adopt this strategy and common daemon.
NOTE: In the past, new versions of NX Flex licensing software would support previous versions of NX, allowing all concurrent versions to operate under the same server software and license file.
With NX 5, this is no longer true. Customers who wish to retain earlier NX versions are required to run two license servers - one version for NX 4 and below and one for NX 5. The new common ugslmd daemon does not work with NX 4 or other products that utilize older daemons. However, you can run both older and new versions of NX because FLEXlm supports multiple vendor daemons and license files per server. You must run both the old and new daemons and their associated license files when:
The ugslmd daemon:
For example:
The NX license file is now generated on-line by means of a composite host ID. The composite host ID (CID) is a unique machine identifier used by UGS common licensing. It is obtained by running the UGS supplied utility called: ugs_composite.exe. This utility is provided as part of the media kit shipped with your software products that utilize common licensing OR can be downloaded from our website (with a valid webkey account) via this link. http://www.ugs.com/Support/LicenseManagement
**ugs_composite.exe cannot be run by double clicking on the executable. The user must open a command window and execute the file from there. This web tool is for initial CID registration only. To obtain your CID, this utility must be run on the license server or on all three servers in your redundant configuration. The utility will generate a CID code. Once you have the CID information you may enter them via this link: http://www.ugs.com/Support/LicenseManagement by selecting the "ENTER CID" button.
The user will then see a form with the following information:
Please enter the Composite Host ID (CID) information you obtained for your license server and enter below. If you have redundant servers, enter all three CIDs and then submit. You also have the option to enter your license server hostname so it will be automatically generated on your license file.
Composite HostID
The license server identifier located on the SERVER line of the license file will be changed from a single product hostID to a composite hostID (CID). The CID utilizes a combination of hardware and OS parameters to create a unique hardware identifier. The CID allows support for virtual machines as license servers. This capability is noted by the COMPOSITE keyword on the SERVER line as shown in this example from a license file:
SERVER cyli6013 COMPOSITE=89D32AAA27DB 28000
VENDOR ugslmd
To obtain the CID, run the ugs_composite utility which generates the CID. This utility is provided on the license server installation CD or is available for download from GTAC. Please note the following guidelines for obtaining the CID:
Node locked licenses will continue to use the standard host ID on the INCREMENT line. Composite hostIDs are only used on the SERVER line.
The CID is not required for NX 5 if you have a dongle as the host ID. However, dongles are being phased-out as noted below.
Registering the composite host ID
To obtain a permanent license file, you must register your composite host ID (CID) on your webkey account, or give it to your customer service representative. If your CID is registered prior to NX 5 shipment you will automatically receive a permanent license file. If your CID is not registered, you will receive a temporary license file that can be used while you obtain and register your CID. The registeration of the CID is only required once for the transition to common licensing. Once the CID is registered, and as long as your license servers do not change:
An additional benefit of registering your CID is that you can also register your license server's hostname which will then be automatically generated on the SERVER line of the license file.
Combined license files
A benefit of the common license strategy is that all UGS products that use the new common license daemon will have all their licenses combined into a single license file at each product shipment. This means that as more products adopt the strategy you will receive a new license file at each product shipment that combines all the previous licenses.
Dongle phase out in NX 6
Dongles as a license server host ID are currently only supported on the Windows 32-bit version of NX and use of this version is expected to decline. The common licensing plan will accelerate the phase-out of dongle support because a composite host ID, with its multiple license characteristics, is not compatible with a dongle. The dongle continues to be supported as a host ID in NX 5 for existing customers and a CID is not required.
NX6 will discontinue dongle support and the composite host id will be required.
Dongles will continue to be supported for individual license modules (node locked licenses).
New license environment variables
Several licensing related NX environment variables have been renamed to reflect the licensing changes.
| Pre-NX 5 | NX 5 | |
| Environment variable that defines the license server | UGII_LICENSE_FILE | UGS_LICENSE_SERVER |
| Environment variable that defines the bundle name | UGII_FLEX_BUNDLE | UGS_LICENSE_BUNDLE |
| Default port for the servers | 27000 | 28000 |
| Vendor daemon name | uglmd | ugslmd |
Common licensing for other UGS products
NX Nastran, I-deas and Teamcenter Visualization are incorporating common licensing at their next release. In addition, other products are planning to incorporate common licensing as their development schedules allow. When each product using the common licensing ships, the new license file for a given license server will incorporate all the product licenses. It is not necessary to combine the files. Just install the latest license file to enable all the products that use common licensing.
Installation
The common license daemon is independent of any specific UGS product and incorporates its own installation procedure. Product installations will not include any of the server licensing components. It is recommended that you install the latest licensing daemon and license file first so that license information, if utilized, is available for the product's installation.
Additional information
Please visit the GTAC support website at http://support.ugs.com/ and click Licensing for additional information on common licensing. This site also has links to download the CID Licensing caveats for Windows platforms
The License Option tool should only be used to borrow NX 5 licenses. The License Option tool does not filter out features that are of a lower version than NX 5 (v23.00) in the license, for example Teamcenter Visualization licenses. Attempting to borrow non-NX 5 licenses causes an error in the License Option tool.
If the License Option tool encounters an error when borrowing, the tool looses track of whether a license is borrowed or not and may display both an error message and an incorrect license state. To view the correct state, refresh the license display by exiting the old License Option tool session and launching a new session.
