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.

The current page describes network requirements for situation 1 only. The others require no networking considerations for license access, though they do for remote graphics.

License servers

Carbon's license servers are:

clicense1
clicense2
clicense3

Enter these specific short host names (having no domain part) in licensing configuration dialogs or configuration files. Learn more below.

Eligible remote computers

For both installing and for 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 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 admin, as opposed to become local admin).

Further, to run the application, and for some applications even its installers, the active user account must:

• belong to a Service Desk member or 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, send the specific account name and application name requested to Michael Sternberg, and await confirmation.

The user accounts used for installation vs. running an application need not and often are not the same, though some installers require and verify license access. This is done under the user account that runs the installer, meaning that administrator accounts must be authorized by name.

Available license tokens

A license must be available to run the application, and for some applications, even to run the installer.

Applications

Find applications-specific details at:

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

Troubleshooting

Failure to obtain a license may be attributable to any one of the items above.

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's in a suitable network location and 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 for the active user account?
• Is failure to obtain a license token persistent, i.e., have you retried at a later time?