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Troubleshooting NI Volume License Manager Issues

Primary Software: Other NI Software>>NI Volume License Manager
Primary Software Version: 2.0
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A

Problem:
I am using NI Volume License Manager (NI VLM) to manage my licenses. I have installed the software on the client machine and I have installed NI VLM on the server. Both products installed successfully, but the client software is not working correctly. What can I do to get my client software to work?

Solution:
There are a few settings that you can check and debugging steps for both the client and the server.

On the NI VLM server
  1. On the server computer which is running NI VLM, launch NI VLM (Start»Programs»National Instruments»NI Volume License Manager).
  2. Turn on the Debug Log which can be used for troubleshooting. You can turn on the debug log by going to Options»Preferences»Policies»Enable Debug Log.
  3. Ensure that a license file has been installed and the products in the license file appear in the tree on the left.
  4. You should have added permissions for the client computers or users to use the particular application software package (in VLM 1.0 computer names are case-sensitive).
  5. After making changes to permissions, make sure to press the Apply Changes button. Whenever the Apply Changes button is active, it means that there are changes which need to be applied to NI VLM.
  6. After changing the permissions and clicking the Apply Changes button, ensure that the license server is running.
  7. In NI VLM, when you click on License Server on the left, the right pane should show the status as Active
  8. You can also check your system processes for nilm.exe and lmgrd.exe which are the two license server processes.
  9. If your server still cannot start, ensure that there are no other FLEXlm servers running on the same port. National Instruments license files default to port 27000. For information on changing the port, see the Related Links section below.
  10. If any of these steps failed, you can check the Debug Log for any error message in addition to the error messages that NI VLM reports.

On the client computer
  1. On the client computer, ensure that the NI License Manager is pointing to NI VLM. You can check this by going to Start»Programs»National Instruments»NI License Manager. From NI License Manager, go to Options»Preferences. Ensure that the name of the server which is running NI VLM is entered in the Use Network License Server field.
  2. If your server is running on a port other than 27000, ensure that the port number is included as well in the format of .
  3. Once this is properly configured, you should be able to see the NI VLM server within NI License Manager.
  4. See if the client software correctly launches.
  5. If the client software is still not working, you can check the Debug Log on the server computer. This will tell you the actual computer name with the correct case. The Debug Log will also indicate if the client computer was able to contact NI VLM at all.
  6. If it contacted and failed, you can confirm the computer name and case are correct, there are licenses available to be checked out, and the version requested is equal to or lesser than the version in the license file.
  7. If there is no entry in the Debug Log, then you know that the client computer is not contacting NI VLM. Try pinging the server computer from the client computer to ensure that the two computers can communicate.
  8. If the client can ping the server, then you can try using telnet to connect to it. To use telnet, open a command prompt (Start Menu»Run..) and run "cmd". Then run telnet using the syntax: telnet <servername> <port>, for example, telnet ServerX 27000. When the telnet to the server is successful, a window will pop up with a cursor. The name of server will be in the title bar. If telnet is not successful, the error will be "Could not open connection to the host, on port : Connection failed".
  9. If the telnet connection does not work, make sure that both ports used by VLM are open. See "Can the NI Volume License Manager Run on a Configurable Port?" (linked below) for more information.

If you have completed the above steps and continue to see errors or unexpected behavior, please contact Technical Support. Include the results of the above tests as well as screenshots of NI VLM and NI License Manager, the license file, any error messages from the client and/or the server, the Debug Log, and nivlm.cfg (found in C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI Volume License Manager). It would also be helpful to know the version of the client software, NI License Manager, NI Volume License Manager, and the Operating System of both the client and the server computers.

Related Links:
KnowledgeBase 34ICSJ9O: Can the NI Volume License Manager Run on a Configurable Port?
KnowledgeBase 35DAKSQJ: How do I Use the National Instruments Volume License Manager's Debug Log?
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Report Date: 11/18/2004
Last Updated: 10/31/2007
Document ID: 3FH8RO6E

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