Installing License Statistics on Linux

The following steps are designed to get X-Formation's License Statistics up and running on Linux in 10 minutes or less, using a FLEXlm/FlexNet server as an example.

Important: When upgrading License Statistics to a new version:

1. Be sure to make a backup (see Backing up and restoring the database) and then copy the License Statistics configuration file (xflicstat.cfg), license file (license.lic), and third-party utilities (for example lmutil.exe) to a safe location.
2. Remove the current installation folder before installing the new version, because the License Statistics installation will not remove the currently installed version and will not install a new version into the same location as a previous version. 
3. If you are using an embedded database for License Statistics, you must replace xflicstat.cfg with your previous configuration file and restore your previous database before running the application for the first time.  

Step 1: Download and install License Statistics.

Download the License Statistics installation from the License Statistics download page.

• If you have purchased License Statistics: Enter your Activation Key to obtain the download. Your Activation Key was included in an email sent to you after purchasing/renewing License Statistics, along with instructions for downloading and installing License Statistics.
• If you are downloading the trial version of License Statistics: Fill out the request form as instructed on the License Statistics download page to obtain your download. 

After the download is complete, an installation script will be ready to run.

Note the following:

• You can install License Statistics on any machine, not necessarily the license server.
• The installation program works on most Linux distributions; however, if you have a problem running the installer, you can run license_statistics.sh from a command prompt.
  

Step 2: Activate the license.

If you are activating the License Statistics license during installation, you can activate your license over the internet, copy the existing license file, or choose a 30-day trial. Otherwise, activate your license online to obtain a license file. You can specify a location for the license file during installation, or by default, the license file will be copied to the license subdirectory of the License Statistics installation directory.

Step 3: Configure License Statistics for your site.

To configure license servers to be monitored by License Statistics, see Adding and editing license servers.

When you configure your license servers:

• Change the setting for the query interval time from 10 minutes to 1 minute to generate statistics every minute so you can quickly confirm that License Statistics is running normally, which you'll do in Step 6. (After you verify that License Statistics is running normally, you should change this setting to a larger value.)
• Specify the path to your lmutil utility if needed.
  

Step 4: Ensure you have the latest lmutil version.

You must use lmutil v9.2 or newer with License Statistics. (To check your lmutil version, run lmutil -v from a command line.) You can request a download of the newest lmutil version from http://www.globes.com/support/fnp_utilities_download.htm.

Step 5: Start the service.

 Use the init script to start the service.

Step 6: Test that License Statistics is running normally.

• A couple of minutes after starting the service, review the log file (License Statistics directory/log/xflicstat.log) and ensure it contains no ERROR or WARNING lines that indicate problems with parsing, monitoring servers, or adding or editing license servers. Output similar to the following indicates the service is running normally:

[2012-01-02 13:44:50] Ready for querying...
[2012-01-02 13:44:50] To view statistics please go to http://localhost:80

• Check results in your browser by going to http://localhost:80. The first time you access the License Statistics web interface, your login information is set to username = admin, password = admin.
• If you do not see any results, check whether the License Statistics web server port specified in the configuration file (which defaults to port 80) is not busy, because you may need to specify a different port as described in Configuring web server ports.