Platform LSF Administration Guide Version 6.2

Chapter 8
Platform LSF Licensing
Administering Platform LSF
171
How LSF Permanent Licensing Works
This section is intended to give you a better understanding of how LSF licensing works
in a production environment with a permanent license. It does not contain information
required to install your license.
Platform LSF uses the FLEXlm license management product from GLOBEtrotter
Software to control its licenses. LSF licenses are controlled centrally through the LSF
master LIM.
LSF licensing mechanism
FLEXlm license server
Permanent LSF licenses are managed by the FLEXlm license server daemon (lmgrd).
The FLEXlm license server daemon runs on a license server host you choose (for
failover purposes, the daemon can run on multiple hosts).
The
lmgrd daemon starts the LSF vendor license daemon lsf_ld, which periodically
keeps track of how many LSF licenses are checked out and who has them. If
lsf_ld
stops running,
lmgrd immediately stops serving LSF licenses to all LSF hosts. Only one
lsf_ld can run on a host.
The LIM on the LSF master hosts contacts the license server host to get the necessary
LSF licenses. It then propagates licenses to all LSF server hosts and client hosts. Multiple
LSF clusters can get licenses from the same license server host.
LSF license checkout
Only the master LIM can check out licenses. No other part of LSF has any contact with
the FLEXlm license server daemon. Once LIM on the master host identifies itself as the
master, it reads the
LSF_CONFDIR/lsf.cluster.cluster_name file to get the host
information to calculate the total number of licenses needed. Most LSF software is
licensed per CPU, not per host or per cluster, so multi-processor hosts require multiple
LSF licenses.
After the cluster is properly licensed, the master LIM contacts the license server daemon
periodically to confirm the availability of checked out LSF licenses.
LIM distributes the licenses needed this way:
1 Calculate the total number of licenses needed for the master LIM.
2 Before slave LIMs contact the master, calculate the total number of licenses needed
for all LSF server hosts and check them out.
lmgrd
FLEXlm license server
lsf_ld
vendor
daemon2
vendor
daemon3
LSF
master
host
LSF
server
host
LSF
server
host
LSF
client
host