Q100697: What has changed in the Foundry License Utility 9 and where can I download it?

  1. The Foundry SANDBOX
  2. License Help
  3. Getting Started & Installing Licenses

SUMMARY

This article details important changes made to the Foundry License Utility (FLU) 9 along with new features included in the RLM server 15.1 and links on where to download the installation file from.

Important changes and updates include:

 

 

 

MORE INFORMATION

Downloading the Foundry License Utility 9

We now have two installers, the Foundry License Utility which includes a graphical user interface and is recommended for most users and the Foundry License Tools which is for users using the command line interface on a headless machine.

You can download the Foundry License Utility 9 or Foundry License Tools from one of the following links:

Windows

macOS (x86_64) - Intel processors

macOS (Apple Silicon) - Apple "M Series" ARM based processors

NOTE: You may receive an alert when opening on macOS. To workaround this please hold the control key down and left click on the package, then click on open in the menu and open again in the alert window.


Linux

To install the Foundry License Tools or open the Appimage on Linux

  1. Open an terminal session and browse to the folder where you downloaded the file
  2. Type chmod +x flt-9.0.0.linux.x86_64.sh and press enter
  3. Type sudo ./flt-9.0.0.linux.x86_64.sh and press enter

NOTE: The install path for the FLT differs from FLU 8, please see the paths below:

Mac:
FLU 8: /Applications/TheFoundry/LicensingTools/bin
FLU 9: /Applications/FoundryLicenseUtility.app/Contents/bin

Windows:
FLU 8: C:\Program Files\The Foundry\LicensingTools<version>\bin
FLU 9: C:\Program Files\FLT 9.0.0-rc6\bin

Linux:
FLU 8: /usr/local/foundry/LicensingTools<version>/bin
FLU 9: /opt/foundry/licensing/9.0.0-rc6/bin

 

Foundry License Utility 9 RLM server control

The Foundry License Utility 9 is unable to manage or control RLM licence servers installed with previous versions of the FLU. To help with removal of old RLM server versions, we have included the "Uninstall Legacy Server" tab. It is recommended to make sure no older versions of the RLM server are installed using this tab before installing the new RLM server.

Legacy.jpg

 

Updating previously installed licenses

If you are installing the Foundry Licensing Utility 9 onto a server which you have Floating licenses installed from an older version of the FLU, you will need to manually update your license file otherwise the license server will not start correctly and result in an error in the FLU

To do so you will need to open your installed licenses in a basic text editor and make a change to the HOST and ISV lines, this can be done using these steps:

  1. Launch the FLU

  2. Navigate to Licenses -> View Installed -> click on a license categorized as "Server License"
    server license.PNG
  3. Click "License Install Location - click to open"
    license details.PNG

    This will open the folder your licenses were installed.

  4. Open each file called foundry_float found in this directory with a basic text editor such as Notepad

  5. Update the HOST and ISV lines from:

    HOST serverhostname aabbccddeeff 4101
    ISV foundry

    To:

    HOST serverhostname aabbccddeeff
    ISV foundry port=4101

  6. Restart your license server and check that the server is running in the FLU

 

Reprise RLM server password requirements

The RLM server 15.1 that is included with the Foundry License Utility 9 requires that the RLM server has a password set for the admin account. If this password is not set then the server will shutdown after 10 minutes. You will notice an error like the following in your log file if the password has not been set.

Your rlm.pw file contains usernames with empty passwords and/or the default admin account. If these passwords are not set in the next 10 minutes, rlm will exit.

You can set the password by browsing to the web server page through your web browser.

  1. To get to the web server page enter serverhostname:4102 in a web browser, making sure to change serverhostname to the hostname of your server.

  2. Once the page has loaded, you will be greeted with a login area at the top left of the page.

  3. Please enter admin as the Username.
    - On Windows, leave the password blank.
    - On Linux/macOS, enter admin as the password.

    Press the Login button.

  4. After you have logged in, you should see a side menu on the left hand side of the page.

  5. Click on the Change Password button which should allow you to change the case sensitive password for the admin user.

 

Adding additional users and passwords to the RLM server

If you would like to add users and assign passwords to each user, you can do so by editing the rlm.pw password file in a text editor and adding each user on their own line, making sure to leave the password blank for each user. The new line should have a username, password and permission included and should be broken up with columns: username:password:permissions .

For example, if you were to add a user with a blank password you would add

username::status or username::all

Once you have added all the desired users to the rlm.pw file:

  • go to the web server page mentioned above: serverhostname:4102 in a web browser 
  • log in with the new username, leaving the password blank  
  • click the Change Password button to assign a case sensitive password for that user

The following chart is a list of permissions that can be assigned to each user. Please note you should only control permissions through either the rlm.pw password file or the RLM options file, but not both.


This list can also be found in the Reprise Docs.


The rlm.pw password file can be found in the following locations:

Windows
C:\Program Files\FLT 9.0.0-rc6\bin

macOS
/Applications/TheFoundry/licensing/9.0.0-rc6/bin

Linux
/opt/foundry/licensing/9.0.0-rc6/bin

 

New user account and systemd on Linux

During the installation of the RLM server on Linux a new foundryrlm unprivileged user account will be added. The RLM server will be configured to run as this user.

In addition to the new user account, we have replaced the init.d service scripts, used to manage the RLM licence server with systemd equivalents. By default, they have been configured to start the RLM server automatically when starting up the computer.

In addition to the rlmutil commands, you can now use the following commands to control the RLM server via systemd.

 

Start the server

systemctl start foundry-rlm

Stop the server

systemctl stop foundry-rlm

View RLM server logs

journalctl foundry-rlm

 

Changes to the service discovery agent and Foundry ISV ports

The RLM Server functions use a hierarchical process model where multiple ISVs are managed by a service discovery agent. When using the RLM server included in the Foundry License Utility 8, after a client opens a Foundry product, their machine requests a license by first connecting to the service discovery agent. The service discovery agent then identifies the port of the Foundry ISV server which is normally a randomly assigned port that is assigned when the ISV server starts up and initiates a new TCP connection to this port, as shown in the following diagram:

b49d6520-8a69-4759-9d89-3b15d7f232f9.png


For the Foundry License Utility 9, the RLM Server was upgraded to 15.1. As part of this upgrade, the RLM Server has been reconfigured so that Foundry products no longer need to contact the service discovery agent and connect directly to the Foundry ISV, reducing the number of connections needed to acquire a license by 1 for each license request. To facilitate this change, the RLM service discovery agent now runs on port 5053 and Foundry's ISV server runs on port 4101 as shown in the following diagram:

0da6a93a-248b-47d3-bfd4-8000723ce0e0.png


The Foundry License Utility 9 license installer will also rewrite license files accordingly to remain backwards compatible with existing deployments. 

 

Ability to set HTTPS for your web server

RLM 15.1 now allows you to enable HTTPS for the web server page. Further information on how to enable this can be found in the Reprise Docs.

 

 

FURTHER READING 

If you are experiencing difficulties with the Foundry License Utility 9, please create a support ticket letting us know the exact issue you are encountering and any troubleshooting steps that you may have tried. For more information on how to open a support request, please refer to this article: Q100064: How to raise a support ticket

 

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