HPC/Application licenses

Introduction

Licenses for several high-profile commercial applications are hosted on servers within the Carbon HPC cluster. Applications consuming these licenses can run in the following modes and network locations:

1. On a machine outside the HPC cluster,
2. Interactively on Carbon's login nodes, either in a virtual desktop (VNC), or displaying on your own X11 display.
3. Non-interactively (as a batch job) on Carbon's compute node.

Read below about running on non-HPC computers (case 1).

To run on HPC-internal computers (cases 2 and 3), no network considerations arise for license access, though they do for remote graphics.

License servers

• If a user's computer is located physically at CNM or connected over VPN:

Enter the following short host names (having no domain part) into the license configuration dialog of an application or in its configuration files:

clicense1
clicense2
clicense3

• If the computer uses SSH tunneling:
  • Ensure that tunneling to clicense1 is configured and is active
  • Enter localhost as license server.

Server redundancy cannot be leveraged over ssh since, typically, the same default port numbers are used on all license servers, which cannot be tunneled simultaneously.

For port numbers, see application-specific documentation.

Eligible remote computers

For both installing and running licensed applications, the target computer must meet all of the following requirements:

• be Argonne-owned,
• have the application pre-installed, or hold a download of the application's online or offline installer,
• be able to reach the Carbon license servers (components of the Carbon HPC cluster) over the network by short host name.

Thus, the computer's networking connections must be:

• wired, in building 440/441 at Argonne, or
• the Argonne-auth WiFi network in the same building, or
• a VPN connection that has been opened by the user account of a CNM staff member, which includes regular employees, postdocs, and students, since only such an HR status will place the user in the correct firewall perimeter,

or the computer must:

• have an SSH connection open to mega that has been configured to forward (tunnel) Carbon's license server network ports.

To look up (resolve) the IP addresses of the license servers from their short host names, the target computer's network profile settings must include the following DNS domains:

• cnm.anl.gov
• nst.anl.gov

That is implicitly the case for SSH-tunneled connections, but for all other connection types the domains usually must be specifically added (once) in the computer's network configuration.

Eligible user and administrator accounts

For installing a licensed application on a non-HPC computer, the active user account must:

• have the ability to install applications on the target computer (already be local administrator, as opposed to ability to become so).

For running some installers, and for all applications, the active user account must:

• belong to a Service Desk member, or to an end user who is an Argonne employee (as opposed to a CNM Facility User), and
• have been authorized to access the application license.

If not already done, request license access for the specific account name and application name, and await confirmation.

The user accounts for running installers vs. applications need not be the same. Some installers require and verify license access before proceeding. Access requests are made under the user account running the installer, so administrator accounts must be authorized by account name in the same manner as regular user accounts.

Available license tokens

A license must be available (not be in use) to run the application, and, where applicable, to run the installer.

Troubleshooting

When a license error occurs, one or more of the above requirements may not be met.

Review the following:

• Carefully read the error message. This is the first and best step to narrow down potential causes of a failure to obtain a license.
• Is the target computer in a suitable network location and connection state?
• Is the application configured with short host names for the license servers?
• Does the configuration of the active network profile include the correct DNS search domains?
• Has license access been granted to the active user account?
• Is failure to obtain a license token persistent, i.e., have you retried at a later time?

Applications

Find applications-specific details at:

• HPC/Applications/comsol
• HPC/Applications/lumerical