USB thumbdrives corrupt the structure of floating license files

Description

When using a USB thumbdrive to move a floating license file (.efl9) from one computer or server to another, for instance, when importing a license into the license manager on a machine in a closed network, the license file can be corrupted thus causing the ArcGIS License Manager service to fail.

Errors reported by License Manager Tools read as follows:

"Unable to start LM server."

"[Detecting lmgrd processes...]
Error getting status: No SERVER lines in license file
License path: C:\PROGRA~1\ESRI\License\arcgis9x\ARCINFO9.lic
FLEXlm error: -13,66"

Cause

The act of copying a text file to and from a USB thumbdrive removes the line and page break characters from the file, rendering it incorrectly formatted for use with the ArcGIS License Manager.

Note:
An example of this problem may be seen when opening the .efl9 floating license file using a text editor. If this corruption has occurred, the information in the floating license file appears as one long line, rather than each feature appearing on a separate line.

Solution or Workaround

1. Use another method to move the license file from one machine to another such as, e-mail, floppy disk or CD, or file transfer over the network.
2. Correct the format of the license file. To do this, open the file in a text editor and change the format to mimic the example below.
   
   

   Note:
   Do not change the text in the license file, rather, add the appropriate spacing and line breaks to re-create the original license file structure as per the example below.