HOW TO

Release a license that has stopped responding from a remote License Manager server

Last Published: October 20, 2023

Summary

Instructions provided describe how to remove a license that has stopped responding from a remote License Manager server.

Procedure

If a physical or remote login access to the License Manager server cannot be obtained, a user account with administrative rights on that machine can use the following steps to release a license that has stopped responding from a remote License Manager server.

  1. Install the ESRI License Manager on the local machine from My Esri.
Note:
Since this will not be an active license manager a hardware key and license file is not required. 
See: How To: Create a placeholder license file
  1. Disable the License Manager service from starting automatically. See: How To: Disable the License Manager service from starting automatically
  2. Navigate to the directory where License Manager is installed using the command line:
Windows 8.x License Manager:
C:\> cd Program Files\ESRI\License
Windows 9.0 License Manager:
C:\> cd Program Files\ESRI\License\arcgis9x
UNIX:
UNIX% cd $ARCHOME/sysgen
Note:
Hence forth, the Windows directory will be referred to as C:\Program Files\ESRI\License> and UNIX as UNIX%, regardless of version.
  1. Obtain the information for the required fields of the lmremove command by running the license manager status command for the remote server.
C:\Program Files\ESRI\License> lmutil lmstat -a -c 27005@server1
Example of the output from the lmutil lmstat command:
Feature usage info:

      Users of ARC/INFO:  (5 licenses available)

   JohnDoe client1 X:%#($1:0.0 (v8.01) (server1/27005 3180), start Wed 5/1/03 10:38
  1. Check the output returned from the lmstat command to select the license you would like to release. The proper syntax for the lmremove command is:
lmutil lmremove -h <feature> <host> <port@LM_Server> <handle>
or
lmutil lmremove <feature> <user> <host> <display>
Note:
The following information is an explanation of the syntax used in Step 6 and 7:
   Feature - ARC/INFO - This is the license that has stopped responding.
   User - JohnDoe - The username of the person who checked out the license.
   Host - client1 - The hostname of the machine on which the license was being used.
   Port - 27005 - The port the license manager daemon is using to communicate.
   LM_Server - server1 - The hostname of the License Manager server.
   Handle - 3180 - A unique identifier for the license session.
  1. Using the '-h <feature> <host> <port@LM_SERVER> <handle>' option:
%> lmutil lmremove -h ARC/INFO client1 27005@server1 3180
  • Using the 'lmutil lmremove <feature> <user> <host> <display>' option:
lmutil lmremove -c license.dat ARC/INFO JohnDoe client1 X:%#($1:0.0
  • It is possible the display information is encrypted. Such is the case here:
   JohnDoe client1 1_)e4(aHzr|~ (v8.01) (server1/27005 3180), start Wed 5/1/03 10:38

In such cases it is best to use the lmremove option '-h <feature> <host> <port@LM_Server> <handle>', unless the license manager is pre-ArcInfo 7.2.1 or pre-ArcView 3.1. When the display is encrypted, it may contain special characters, such as |, (,), ~, which will not be read for their text value. Use the double quotes when encountering such characters. For example:

lmutil lmremove -c license.dat ARC/INFO JohnDoe client1 "1_)e4(aHzr|~"

Article ID: 000006728

Software:
  • ArcMap 8 x

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