If you are experiencing slow invocation times with one or more of your Mentor Graphics applications - here are some general tips and techniques, as well as application-specific options (for Expedition PCB and PADS Layout), that are available for use:

1. Check your licensing environment for any invalid or duplicate license server (port@host) references.
   

• If you find any, remove them.
  
• A quick and easy tool for editing your licensing environment is the Mentor License Utility:
  

Using the Mentor License Utility to query and edit the licensing environment (video)

Note: Before making any changes to the environment you can back-up your current settings via the 'File>Export Environment' menu-pick. To import previously saved settings navigate to 'File>Import Environment'.

2. Check your licensing environment for any license files containing un-edited lines starting with "SERVER put_server_name_here"

3.  If you have any non-Mentor Graphics (mgcld daemon) license files or port@host references in your environment

• Make sure all your Mentor Graphics (mgcld daemon) licenses and port@host references reside under the MGLS_LICENSE_FILE environment variable
  • If not, you can use the Mentor License Utility to move them
    

3b. If you have any non-Mentor Graphics (mgcld daemon) license files or port@host references set in the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable or registry entry

• Set the MGLS_LICENSE_SEARCH environment variable to a value of 1. When set, Mentor Graphics licensing will ignore the LM_LICENSE_FILE values (and other vendor licenses) if it finds that the MGLS_LICENSE_FILE is set.
  

How to set or edit an environment variable on Windows

4. Use any application-specific license options/dialogs to reduce the number of licenses that get checked during the invocation

• Two good example applications are Expedition PCB and PADS Layout, both of which check for many licenses on invocation in order to enable as many options as possible.
  
• 
  
  • Note: This information only applies to users pointing to a license server for licenses
    
  • The reason it's not necessary to take these measures with a local Mobile Compute (a.k.a. Nodelocked Uncounted) license file, is because the checkouts are much quicker (no network latency), so any additional checks shouldn't add any noticeable delays to the invocation.
    

Expedition PCB

• The default behavior is to check for all the options licenses in order to display the following dialog. In this example only the base licenses for Expedition Pinnacle, Ascent LX, and Ascent.
  

• If it is taking a long time for the above dialog to appear, there are two options available:
  

     A). Set the MGC_DISABLE_PRESPLASH_CHECKS environment variable to 1.

• The MGC_DISABLE_PRESPLASH_CHECKS variable changes the number of licenses the Expedition checks for on invocation. Instead of checking for every option license it only looks for a base license (for Pinnacle, Ascent LX, or Ascent).
  
• When the license selection dialog appears, all options are selectable regardless of whether or not a license exists and is available.
  
  • If you select an option that you don't have a license for (or it's not available) you will get a licensing warning after you click OK (and before Expedition comes up)
    
  • This option works well if you just want to select one of the first 4 radio buttons (for Pinnacle, Ascent LX, Ascent, or Xtreme Design Client), and checkout (and in) any option licenses via the 'Setup>Licensed Modules' menu-pick (on-demand licensing).
    

     B). Add one of the following switches to the Expedition PCB Start Menu shortcut target path:

     /pinnacle

     /ascentlx

     /ascent

• Right click on the Expedition PCB shortcut, and select "Properties".
  
• Add the switch to the end of the "Target" field (add a space in-between)
  
• Click Apply and OK.
  

• With any of these switches in place, Expedition will bypass the license selection dialog and go directly into the requested mode (for Pinnacle, Ascent LX, or Ascent), provided the licenses are available.
  
  • You can then checkout (and in) any option licenses via the 'Setup>Licensed Modules' menu-pick
    

PADS Layout

• By default PADS Layout checks for all available options as seen in the 'Help>Installed Options...' dialog.
  

• To change the behavior and have PADS Layout look for only those licenses that you have available, you can uncheck the 'Checkout all available options' and then uncheck the 'Not Available' options.
  
  • Note: If you add option licenses to your license server, PADS Layout will not pick these up (it's no longer looking for all available licenses). You would need to set the 'Checkout all available options' again, temporarily, to see what new options have become available.
    

We often see strange problems when the wrong characters are used to separate multiple license servers or license files in either the MGLS_LICENSE_FILE or LM_LICENSE_FILE variable.

The FlexNet standard is as follows:

Multiple independent servers and/or license files - colon ":" on Unix/Linux and semicolon ";" on Windows

For ex: MGLS_LICENSE_FILE=1717@server1;1717@server2;C:\MentorGraphics\License_Files\local_license.dat

This is a Windows example and the semicolons are used because a colon indicates a drive letter. Use colons on Unix/Linux.

A set of redundant servers - commas on both Windows and Linux

For ex: MGLS_LICENSE_FILE=1717@serverA,1717@serverB,1717@serverC:1717@local_server

Notice that the servers in the redundant cluster of serverA/serverB/serverC are separated by commas but the cluster as a whole is separated by a colon from the independent local_server. This would be a Unix/Linux example.

The 10.2 versions of both ModelSim and Questa SIM require license servers running FlexNet v11.10. Our current licensing release, MSL v2013_1 is built with FlexNet v11.10 and can be downloaded here:

Why upgrade to FlexNet v11.10? Download the latest licensing software.

The v11.10 license daemons can also be found in the ModelSim and Questa SIM application trees.

If you're getting an error running 10.2 that you weren't getting in the previous version, check that your license server is running the latest version of our licensing software.

When starting or troubleshooting a license server, it's handy to have a way to verify a license checkout without having to run an application. We have two utilities to help you do just that.

On Linux we use the mgls_ok utility. Most applications have the mgls_ok utility located within the application tree's bin directory. However, you may need to set the MGLS_HOME variable to the application tree or the mgls package within it. For a standalone licensing tree, set MGLS_HOME to the top level folder (e.g.: mgls_v9-7_2-3-0.ixl). You'll also need to copy the mgc.pkginfo file to the lib directory. You can download that here. Make sure your MGLS_LICENSE_FILE variable is set to your license file or license server (port@host).

Once you have the the MGLS_HOME and MGLS_LICENSE_FILE variables set and the mgc.pkginfo file copied, the command to check out a license feature is simple:

     $ $MGLS_HOME/bin/mgls_ok msimhdlsim

     Checking availability of "msimhdlsim".

     License granted through "msimhdlsim".

On Windows, we use the pcls_ok utility which provides a GUI. With the licensing software installed, you can access the pcls_ok utility from the Start Menu> All Programs> Mentor Graphics Licensing> pcls_ok. You can also navigate to C:\MentorGraphics\Licensing or possibly find pcls_ok in your applications start menu or tree. Here's an example of the pcls_ok interface:

The nice thing about the pcls_ok interface is it shows you the value of MGLS_LICENSE_FILE, which makes it easy to verify and know where you're attempting to get licenses from.

To check out a feature, just pick one from your license file and type or paste it into the Feature: field. Then, click Apply. A successful checkout will look like this:

If the checkout fails, A dialog will appear with an error message.

Setting up license servers, RSCM servers, DMS servers, etc..., they all require you to select an available port. Guessing just leads to frustration but fortunately, determining which ports are available is fairly simple. The netstat command works on both Windows and Linux and will show you which ports are in use and the processes that are using them. For example:

On Windows:

C:\>netstat -anu|more

Active Connections

  Proto  Local Address          Foreign Address        State           PID

  TCP    0.0.0.0:111            0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       2856

  TCP    0.0.0.0:135            0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       856

  TCP    0.0.0.0:445            0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       4

  TCP    0.0.0.0:902            0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       2968

  TCP    0.0.0.0:912            0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       2968

  TCP    0.0.0.0:1158           0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       17196

-- More  --

More specifically, you can check if a particular port is in use:

C:\>netstat -ano | find /i "1718"

TCP    0.0.0.0:1718           0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING       2528

On Linux:

$ netstat -tulpn | grep 1717

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:1717                0.0.0.0:*                   LISTEN      21066/lmgrd       

$

Note: You'll need to be root to run netstat effectively.

Once you have this port usage information, you can make decisions about which ports you want your server processes to use.

Feel free to share your tips and ideas on this topic in the comments.

Many of your licensing environments are simple enough for you to "set it and forget it". Some may be more complex, involving local license files and pointers to floating servers on the network. Changes may occur over time that require you to point to new license files/servers or reorder them to improve performance and editing your licensing variables on Windows can be difficult. Fortunately, we have two utilities that makes this much easier.

Using the Advanced Environment Editor for Licensing (video)

Using the Mentor License Utility to query and edit the licensing environment (video)

Have you ever wondered what each field in your license is for? The Anatomy of a License File doc explains what each field does and will give you a better understanding of how your license environment works.