A network license allows a number of users on the same TCP/IP network to share access to product licenses. The Network License Manager (NLM), installed on one or more servers, controls the distribution of licenses to users.
When you start an Autodesk product, it requests a license from the license server through the network. If a license is available, NLM assigns a license to the computer, and the number of available licenses on the license server is reduced by one.
When you exit a product, the license returns to the NLM. If you run multiple sessions of an Autodesk product on an individual computer, only one license is used. When the last session is closed, the license is released.
The following three items manage the distribution and availability of licenses:
- License manager daemon (lmgrd or lmgrd.exe) handles the original contact with the application, and then passes the connection to the vendor daemon. By using this approach, a single lmgrd daemon can be used by multiple software vendors to provide license authentication. The lmgrd daemon starts and restarts the vendor daemons as needed.
- Autodesk vendor daemon (adskflex or adskflex.exe) tracks the Autodesk licenses that are checked out and the computers that are using them. Each software vendor has a unique vendor daemon to manage vendor-specific licensing. Note: If the adskflex vendor daemon terminates for any reason, all users lose their licenses until lmgrd restarts the vendor daemon or until the problem causing the termination is resolved.
- License file is a text file with a .lic extension that authorizes the use of the network license on specific server hardware. This file is provided by Autodesk.