License server installation guide

Ansys License Manager Version: 2026 R1

This guide describes how to generate a license file from an entitlement and next to install and configure a license server on Linux/UNIX and Windows machines. The license system, Ansys License Manager, is common to all Ansys products and is built on top of FlexNet Publisher. You can find authoritative guidance on installing and setting up a license server in the Ansys License Management Center documentation.

Warning

Ansys License Manager is not guaranteed to work on all possible Linux distributions.

Generate License File from Entitlement

Once you are entitled to use Ansys products, you can generate a license file from your entitlement on the Ansys License Portal. The license file is a text file that contains the information about your license, including the port number, the host name of the license server and what features you are entitled to. Summarized below are the steps to install and configure the Ansys License Manager as provided in Ansys Licensing landing page guide.

  • Sign in to the Ansys License Portal

  • Select your Customer Number

  • Add a new host ID entry for your license server by clicking ⊞

  • Enter the hostname of your license server machine

  • Add a host ID of the form you wish to use for your license server machine. The host ID can be either the physical MAC address or volume disk serial number

  • Generate the license file and save either to your machine or forward to your email address

You will need this license file to set up your license server using Ansys License Manager.

Install Ansys License Manager

You can download the Ansys License Manager Linux installer via either Ansys License Manager Solvnet download page or Ansys License Manager Ansys download center. Once downloaded, you can install the Ansys License Manager by launching the installer graphical interface or following these command line steps:

  • Extract the installation files from the downloaded archive

  • Run with elevated privileges such as sudo or Run as administrator

    Windows:

    ./setup.exe -LM

    Linux:

    ./INSTALL -LM

  • Follow the installation steps to completion

Now you may proceed to setting up the license server.

Note

If you wish to install the Ansys License Manager on a UNIX-like cluster setup using the command line tool, run ./INSTALL -silent -LM -install_dir <installation_path>. If -install_dir is omitted Ansys License Manager will be installed in the default location

Windows:

C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc

Linux:

/ansys_inc

This will install the license manager without any user interaction. Please visit Ansys License Management Center documentation for details.

Start License Server

After you have installed the Ansys License Manager, you can start the license server by launching the program’s graphical interface instructions or by following these steps via command line.

Warning

It is highly recommended to use the graphical interface to interact and monitor license servers on Windows.

  • Copy the license file you generated from your entitlement to a location on your license server machine. The default locations are:

    Windows:

    <installation_path>\Shared Files\licensing\license_files

    Linux:

    <installation_path>/shared_files/licensing/license_files

  • Start the license server

    Windows:

    <installation_path>\Shared Files\licensing\winx64\lmgrd.exe -c <installation_path>\Shared Files\licensing\license_files\<license_file> -z

    Linux:

    <installation_path>/shared_files/licensing/start_ansyslmd

Stop the license server by running <installation_path>/shared_files/licensing/stop_ansyslmd

Tip

Ansys License Manager ships with the standard FlexNet Publisher executables:

Windows:

<installation_path>\Shared Files\licensing\winx64\lmgrd.exe
<installation_path>\Shared Files\fnp\winx64\lmutil.exe

Linux:

<installation_path>/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmgrd
<installation_path>/shared_files/licensing/linx64/lmutil

lmgrd is the license server daemon that manages the license files and serves licenses to clients. lmutil is a command line utility that provides various utilities for license management and status checking.

If launching the server proceeded without errors, you can verify that the server is up and running using the command lmutil lmstat -a -c <port>@<hostname>. When you have verified that the license server is running correctly, you may return to the main installation guide: Installation Guide for Ansys Customers or continue with setting up automatic starting of the license server on Linux in the final section.

Linux only - Start the Ansys license server at startup

To avoid starting the license server manually every time you boot the machine, you might want to set it up to start automatically. On many platforms the Ansys License Manager installer already registers a service that starts the server at boot; refer to the Ansys License Management Center documentation for the recommended approach on your Linux distribution. If you need to configure this yourself, one option is to create a systemd service that starts the license server at boot time. The following contains examples which might not work in your case.

For the content of the service file you can get inspiration from this example:

[Unit]
Description=Ansys License Manager
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
Environment=ANSYSLMDSCRIPTS_DIR=/ansys_inc/shared_files/licensing

ExecStart=/bin/sh -c "${ANSYSLMDSCRIPTS_DIR}/start_ansyslmd"
ExecStop=/bin/sh -c "${ANSYSLMDSCRIPTS_DIR}/stop_ansyslmd"

Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=100

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

For more information about managing systemd services, see Red Hat documentation. These are the overall steps in order:

  • Create the service file and customize the paths to make sure they comply with your environment.

  • Put the service file in the correct folder.

  • Start the service and check that it is running properly.

  • Enable the service to start at boot.