THIS INFORMATION ONLY PERTAINS TO SOFTWARE VERSIONS IDL 8.5, ENVI 5.3 AND PRIOR

After installing the license via the license wizard and starting the license manager service on a server machine, the following error message appears when attempting to launch an ENVI or IDL session:

% LICENSE MANAGER: The desired vendor daemon is down. Check the lmgrd log file, or try lmreread.
Feature: IDL
Vendor:Host: hostname
License path: C:\Program Files\Exelis\License\license.dat;
C:\Program Files\Exelis\License\*.lic
FLEXnet Licensing error: -97,121

Common methods for troubleshooting this error:

• Check to make sure that the license manager is running on the server machine and that it is serving the appropriate license for the software product you are trying to launch.
• Check to make sure that the client machines have been configured properly to check out floating licenses from the server machine.  This can be done by setting an LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable, or by placing a copy of the 'license.dat' file in the license directory on the client machine.  For more information on configuring client machines to check out floating licenses from a license server, please refer to Help Article 1674.
• Check to make sure that a firewall is not blocking the server machine from communicating with the client machines.  For more on configuring server-based licenses through a firewall, please refer to Help Article 1210.  NOTE: IF THE LICENSE MANAGER IS RUNNING AND THE CLIENT MACHINES HAVE BEEN CONFIGURED PROPERLY, A FIREWALL ISSUE IS THE MOST LIKELY CAUSE OF THIS ERROR.
• It may be that the Host ID that is built into the license file is incorrect.  For information on determining the Host ID of your machine, please refer to Help Article 5321.  Then verify that the Host ID returned by the machine matches the Host ID that is built into the license file.
• This error may also occur if the formatting of the license file has become corrupted.  Try having a fresh copy of the license file sent.  Depending on your license and maintenance setup, you may be able to log in to the web licensing portal and send yourself a fresh copy of the license.  If not, you will need to contact our technical support team at [email protected] to obtain a new copy of the license.

If the above does not explain or solve the problem, then try the following:

• Check the formatting of the license.dat file with Notepad.  ENVI and IDL's licensing algorithm assumes that the 'idl_lmgrd' executable is in the same directory as the 'lmgrd' executable.  For the vast majority of customers, this is the case.  For a small minority, particularly customers who use a single 'lmgrd' to run a lot of different software suppliers' "vendor daemons", the 'idl_lmgrd' will not be in the same directory as the 'lmgrd'.  These customers will need to manually add the 'idl_lmgrd' path to their DAEMON line of the license file.

WINDOWS OS

• Exit ENVI or IDL and open LMTools (Select Start > Programs > IDL x.x (ENVI x.x) > LMTools) and click the Config Services tab. Ensure that all of the paths are correct; including the specification of a log file (which will be created if it does not already exist).  Save the changes.
• Then under the Start/Stop/Reread tab, stop the license server, wait about 10-20 seconds, and start the license server again.  Under the 'Server Status' tab, click on the 'Perform Status Enquiry' button.  If there is an error in the status window, copy and paste the result into an email and send it to [email protected] (if you are current on maintenance).
   For additional information on the error, under the Config Services tab click on the 'View Log' button.  Examine the log for errors and also send to a copy of this file to Exelis Technical Support.

UNIX OS

• Exit ENVI or IDL.  Stop the license manager, then restart it, directing the output of the license manager to a file.  To stop the license manager, execute the 'lmdown' command from the IDL/bin directory (for example):

• Check to make sure that all the license manager processes have shut down with a command like:

• Or,

• If there are any license manager processes still running, use the kill command to stop them (do not use the -9 option for kill).  Restart the license manager with the following command:

• If there are any errors listed in the logfile, please send a copy of the logfile to [email protected] (if you are current on maintenance).

Note: If you are not current on maintenance, please use the Exelis VIS forum to post questions.

Reviewed kk 4/2/2015