The Options File¶
Limiting License Checkout Time¶
The options file is a text file that allows the license administrator to control various operating parameters of FLEXnet Licensing. This file is most often used for the purposes of preventing licenses getting stuck in the license server. This can happen when a Worker instance ends unexpectedly or otherwise doesn’t return its license. This ends up causing an Error “-4, Licensed number of users already reached” due to machines using too many licenses. The Options file can be used for a variety of purposes, but ours will simply use the Timeout feature.
To create an options file, we need to follow a few steps.
Use the example text below to create a text file using any text editor, and name it thinkbox.opt.
Save the options file in the same directory as the license file.
An example of the contents of the Options file is:
TIMEOUT deadline 1200
Once you have this file saved, restart the license server and your server will use the same timeout range that your Deadline Workers are coded to use.
You can change this to be any licensed application from Thinkbox by just switching the FEATURE ‘deadline’ out for the name after FEATURE in your license file. For example frost, krakatoa-max, or xmesh-saver, or use TIMEOUTALL to make all thinkbox features in the license expire in the allotted time.
Reserving Licenses¶
If you need specific machines to have a particular license available at all times, you would use the Options file to set the reservation. Depending on the number of machines this includes, usually the best option is just to set a reserve line for each machine you need to reserve for. The line in the case of a Deadline license, and a machine whose name was bestrender01, you would write the line as follows:
RESERVE 1 deadline HOST bestrender01
This would make sure that there was always a Deadline license available for bestrender01.
