Issue

How to identify and change the port number Alchemy Network License Manager (ANLM) distributes licenses through?

 

Reason

If you have more than one application distributing licenses via the lmgrd.exe license manager application which ANLM uses, you can have conflicts with the different applications talking through the same port number.

 

Solution

Identifying the ports that the ANLM server is currently running on

Open the ServerLicensesCat.log file in your public folder on your ANLM server PC:

C:\Users\Public\Alchemy Software\NLM

This log file includes information on which ports the licensing processes 'lmgrd.exe' and 'Alchemy.exe' are running. This is a the start of the file.

There are two ports used, one for lmgrd.exe (Circled in red below) and another one for Alchemy.exe (Circled in blue).

In the ServerLicensesCat.log file you will see the line:

(lmgrd) lmgrd tcp-port 27000

This is the port that lmgrd is currently running on.
This port is always between 27000 and 27009.

When Alchemy Catalyst is started it will recursively move up from 27000 until it finds a free port to run on.

In the ServerLicensesCat.log file you will also see the line:

(lmgrd) ALCHEMY using TCP-port 2911

2911 is the port that Alchemy.exe is currently running on (this port number will be different on your installation).

If you wish to specify the port for Alchemy.exe to run on, this can be done by modifying the *.lic file in the Alchemy Catalyst ANLM folder.

 

Specifying the ports that you want the ANLM server licensing processes to run on

You can change the port numbers in the license file (ServerLicensesCat.lic). This file is located in the public folder:

C:\Users\Public\Alchemy Software\NLM

In the screenshot below you can see where it is possible to specify a port for lmgrd.exe (circled in red) & Alchemy.exe (circled in blue) to run on. In this example we specified lmgrd.exe to run on port 27009 and alchemy.exe on port 1234.

It will run on this port as long as the port is not in use or restricted by another program.

The port for lmgrd.exe can be specified to run on port 27009 by adding the port number to the end of the original line.

Original: Server this_host 000e0c4a4c38

Updated: Server this_host 000e0c4a4c38 27009

The port for alchemy.exe can be specified to run on port 1234 by adding the port number to the end of the original line.

Original: VENDOR ALCHEMY

Updated: VENDOR ALCHEMY PORT=1234

Implement changes

In order for the changes to take effect it is necessary to restart the ANLM service.

 

Changes to the client.lic Catalyst license file

The client.lic file used by the Alchemy Catalyst client software should also be updated to reflect the defined port numbers in the ANLM license file.

Using the example above, the client.lic syntax should be updated like so:

SERVER servername HOSTNAME=servername 27009

VENDOR ALCHEMY PORT=1234

USE_SERVER

 

 

Related topics

 

Notes

If you update your license file you will loose your changes. It is advised to make a note of the changes in order to re-apply them to any updated license file you install on your ANLM server.

 

Products or Versions Affected

  • Alchemy Network License Manager 3.0 and greater

 

Last updated on 02/11/2020