8.8. Improving Licensing Performance

If you see sluggish performance with your licensing, you may need to ease the load on the Licensing Interconnect. Try the following suggestions to improve your company’s licensing performance.

8.8.1. Running a Standalone Licensing Interconnect

In addition to the Licensing Interconnect that must be running on your license server, you can also set up standalone Licensing Interconnects on other systems. There is no limit to the number of standalone Licensing Interconnects that can be running.

You might find it beneficial to set up standalone Licensing Interconnects if, for example, you have the license server at one geographic location (City A) and a group of users at a separate, geographically distant location (City B), especially if the user’s location in City B has a slower Ethernet connection. If you set up a standalone Licensing Interconnect in City B, all of the user’s licensing requests are to the local standalone Licensing Interconnect; the Licensing Interconnect is the only entity that needs to communicate with City A. This example minimizes the communication between City A and City B. If no standalone Licensing Interconnect is setup in City B, all users would need to communicate individually to the Licensing Interconnect in City A.

To implement this example:

On the license server in City A, no additional changes are needed.
On the system hosting the standalone Licensing Interconnect in City B, only the Licensing Interconnect will be running, not FlexNet. The Licensing Interconnect in City B will need to obtain the license file cache from the license server in City A. For this configuration, the Licensing Interconnect in City B should be started with the following command:
```
ansysli_server -noflex -cache_srv 2325@cityA
```
Alternatively, you can use an ansyslmd.ini file for the Licensing Interconnect in City B. It would look similar to this example:
```
ANSYSLI_NOFLEX=1
CACHE_SERVER=2325@cityA
```
For the client systems in City B, we recommend including the path to both City B and City A’s Licensing Interconnect, with the local Licensing Interconnect in City B being listed first. The ansyslmd.ini file on the client systems in City B would look like the following:
```
SERVER=1055@cityA
ANSYSLI_SERVERS=2325@cityB
ANSYSLI_SERVERS=2325@cityA
```
where cityA and cityB in the above example are hostnames.
If you prefer to use environment variables on the client side rather than the ansyslmd.ini file, use the ANSYSLMD_LICENSE_FILE environment variable for the FlexNet path and the ANSYSLI_SERVERS environment variable for the Licensing Interconnect path. For the ANSYSLI_SERVERS environment variable, join the two by delimiting the two servers with colons on UNIX/Linux and semicolons on Windows, with City B being listed first.
Client systems in City A would only point to the Licensing Interconnect in City A.

When it is time for an upgrade, remember to upgrade any standalone Licensing Interconnects when the primary Licensing Interconnect is upgraded.

8.8.2. Balancing the Load on a Triad

Because the Licensing Interconnects running on a triad work independently and are all active and able to accept client connections at any time, you can divide the load across the triad. To do so, split your user base (the client systems) into three groups and have each group point to the Licensing Interconnects in a different order.

No special changes are needed for your triad setup. All three systems run FlexNet and all three run the Licensing Interconnect. No different license server ansyslmd.ini file settings or command options to start the Licensing Interconnect are needed.

For example, the hostnames of the systems in your triad are apricot, coconut, and fig. Split your users into three groups:

Group 1 has apricot first in their path
Group 2has coconut first in their path
Group 3 has fig first in their path

The ansyslmd.ini file for each of the groups would look like the following:

First Group (all running from UNIX/Linux systems; note the colon delimiter):

SERVER=1055@apricot:1055@coconut:1055@fig
ANSYSLI_SERVERS=2325@apricot:2325@coconut:2325@fig

Second Group (all running from UNIX/Linux systems; note the colon delimiter):

SERVER=1055@apricot:1055@coconut:1055@fig
ANSYSLI_SERVERS=2325@coconut:2325@fig:2325@apricot

Third Group (all running from UNIX/Linux systems; note the colon delimiter):

SERVER=1055@apricot:1055@coconut:1055@fig
ANSYSLI_SERVERS=2325@fig:2325@apricot:2325@coconut

First Group (all running from Windows systems; note the semicolon delimiter):

SERVER=1055@apricot;1055@coconut;1055@fig
ANSYSLI_SERVERS=2325@apricot;2325@coconut;2325@fig

Note that for all users the path to FlexNet stayed the same; only the path to the Licensing Interconnect changed. If you prefer to use environment variables on the client side rather than the ansyslmd.ini file, use the ANSYSLMD_LICENSE_FILE environment variable for the FlexNet path and the ANSYSLI_SERVERS environment variable for the Licensing Interconnect path.

See Managing Triadsfor more information.