SolidWorks, owned by the French multinational software company Dassault Systèmes, is a popular 3D CAD software program used for product development, mechanical engineering, and manufacturing.

This article helps you set up SolidWorks license usage monitoring using License Statistics. License Statistics lets you gather data for both remote and imported data sources, as well as take advantage of advanced reporting features such as license borrowing, license reservations, and token licenses.

SolidWorks uses SolidNetWork License Server, which is based on Flexera’s FlexNet license server, to provide network licensing. Since License Statistics supports FlexNet license Therefore, in order to track usage of your SolidWorks licenses, you’ll need to add SolidWorks licenses to the servers that License Statistics is monitoring.

(Note that other Dassault Systèmes applications may be managed by a different license manager; for example, DraftSight and CATIA use Dassault Systèmes License Server (DSLS), which License Statistics also supports for monitoring.)

How to add a new SolidWorks (FlexNet) license server

Adding your SolidWorks license server is quick and easy using the license server setup wizard in the License Statistics UI. (If you aren’t familiar with adding and editing license servers, see License Statistics help for complete information.)

You’ll need to have License Statistics administrator privileges to add a new license server. Setup will take just a few simple steps, including:

1. Defining general information for the license server, including optional Anonymization of user/host data
2. Enabling remote monitoring, which lets you see usage information from the time the license server is added to License Statistics to be monitored
3. Enabling log file importing (optional)

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Enter the General license server information

First, you’ll define the general information to identify the server you want to monitor:

1. Open License Statistics, and go to Administration > License Servers.
2. Click Add to add a new license server.
3. The General tab of the License Server setup dialog lets you define the license server. At a minimum, enter the license server name, and select FLEXlm/FlexNet as the license server type.
4. Optionally, you can enter a description for the license manager, and under the Vendor section, add a name to display for the vendor in reports. (The Vendor Name entry will be automatically detected and visible after the first successful query or import.)
5. Under the Gathering section of the General tab, choose whether to enable Anonymization for users and/or hosts.Enabling Anonymization will make users and/or hosts anonymous in the database and reports (normally used to protect users for legal reasons, as is required in some countries).You can set this option only when adding the license server; you cannot edit this option after adding the server. However, if you don’t enable anonymization during the server setup, you can perform “on-demand” data anonymization of historical data as needed.

Step 2: Enable remote monitoring

After you have completed entering the information in the General tab of the Add License Server wizard, you can move on to enabling remote monitoring, which lets you see usage information from the time the license server is added to License Statistics to be monitored.

1. 1. From the General tab, click Next to go to the Remote Monitoring tab. (The Next button won’t be available until you’ve entered the required information in the General tab.)
   2. In the Remote Monitoring tab, toggle on “Enable Remote Monitoring” if needed (this option is toggled on by default).
   3. Under the General section of the Remote Monitoring tab:
      1. If needed, edit the path for the query tool needed to monitor the FlexNet server. This query tool is delivered by the application vendor.
      2. Select your desired query interval, which is the time in minutes between each license server query. You can choose between 1, 2, 5 (default),10, 15, or 20 minutes.
   4. Under the Connection section:
      1. Toggle on Redundant servers if desired. (If you toggle on redundant servers, you must enter the hostname and port information for three servers.)
      2. Enter the hostname for the SolidWorks server. (This is required, so you won’t be able to verify or save the server until you enter the hostname.)
      3. Change the port if needed. The default port for SolidWorks is 25734.
      4. Optionally, enter a password for access to protected resources.
   5. If you want to check that your connection to the SolidWorks server is working, click Verify at the bottom of the Remote Monitoring tab. Although recommended, this step isn’t required, because verification happens automatically when you save the license server.
   6. Verification may take a long time depending on the license manager’s response time, and the status will show that the server is being verified. The verification results will include the status (success or failure), the reason for the failure if verification failed, and the query tool output.

Step 3: Select a Server Agent

From the Remote Monitoring tab, click Next to move on to the Server Agent tab. (The Next button won’t be available until you’ve entered the required information in the Remote Monitoring tab.)

Server Agent is an optional feature that lets you start, stop and restart a license server directly from the Administration > License Servers page within the License Statistics UI. Using Server Agent adds license server management convenience and can save considerable time, especially if you’re managing many servers on different hosts and/or you have numerous requests from users to free up licenses that have become unavailable.

If you want to use Server Agent, select one from the list of available Agents. By default, no Server Agent is selected.

For complete information about Server Agent configuration and usage, see License Server Management in License Statistics documentation.

Step 4: Enable importing for the license server

From the Server Agent tab, click Next to move on to the Importing tab, where you can enable importing the log file using the License Statistics UI or API. (The Next button won’t be available until you’ve entered the required information in the Remote Monitoring tab.)

To enable importing:

1. Toggle on Enable Importing at the top of the Importing tab (this is the default setting). (You can also import license server data to the license server after you add it, as described in License Statistics help.)
2. After completing all settings as needed, click Save and Close to save the license server. (You can click Close at any time if you do not wish to save the server.)
3. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog to verify saving your new SolidWorks license server. (Note that the license server will remain disabled if you click No from this confirmation dialog.)
   

That’s it! Your SolidWorks license server monitoring setup is complete, and will start automatically according to the Gathering intervals you set. License Statistics will display the data for your SolidWorks license usage in its usual easy-to-read grids and reports.

Let us know what you think!

We hope this article was helpful in walking you through configuring License Statistics to track your FlexNet license server usage. You can learn more by visiting the License Statistics documentation, including frequently asked questions about FlexNet. As always, feel free to contact us at support@x-formation.com with your questions or comments.

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