Ansys License Manager connectivity failures and log correlation

Answer

To tell whether a client checkout failure is caused by the vendor daemon (ansyslmd) crashing or by a firewall/network block, examine the lmgrd debug log for specific patterns that appear at the same time as the client error.

Confirmed facts from FlexNet Publisher behavior

• A sudden exit of the vendor daemon is logged as “vendor daemon terminated” or “ansyslmd exited with status …”. This coincides with client errors –15, –96 or –97.
• If lmgrd cannot bind to its chosen port, it logs “Failed to bind to port ” or “Address already in use”. After that message the vendor daemon will either select a different dynamic port (shown as “ansyslmd listening on port ”) or fail to start.
• A hostid mismatch appears as “hostid of this system does not match the hostid in the license file” and prevents the vendor daemon from starting, leading to the same client error codes.

Steps to distinguish daemon failure from a firewall block

1. Enable debug logging on the license server (lmgrd -c -l -debug) and reproduce the failure.
2. Check the lmgrd log for entries within ±5 seconds of the client error timestamp.
3. If you see a vendor‑daemon exit message (“vendor daemon terminated”) with no preceding bind failure, the problem is server‑side (daemon crash or hostid mismatch).
4. If you see a bind‑failure message followed by the daemon selecting a different port, or no daemon start message at all, note the port that lmgrd reports it is listening on.
5. From the client, run lmutil lmstat -c -a. A successful query indicates the network path is open; a timeout points to a firewall or port block.
6. If lmstat succeeds but the client still cannot check out a license, compare the port used by lmstat with the port reported in the lmgrd log. A mismatch suggests a firewall rule blocking the daemon’s dynamic port.
7. Optionally, set a fixed port for ansyslmd in the license file (e.g., PORT=XXXXX@host) and restart the daemon. If the client then connects, the original failure was due to a dynamic‑port/firewall conflict.

What to ask for if the recommendation changes

If the lmgrd log shows neither a vendor‑daemon exit nor a bind‑failure message, you need to know whether the client is using the correct ANSYSLMD_LICENSE_FILE variable; confirming this will decide whether to focus on client configuration versus network.