# FlexNet licensing **Related Information:** - [License server setup](https://lhc.advantest.com/books/license-server-setup) - [Client configuration and license management](https://lhc.advantest.com/books/client-configuration-and-license-management) - [FNP License Renewal](https://lhc.advantest.com/books/fnp-license-renewal) # FlexNet licensing For Pin Scale hardware all SmarTest and V93000 test card features are controlled by FlexNet licensing. This third-party license management software allows for efficient use of licenses as it makes software licenses available anywhere on a network. ### **Floating licenses** A floating license is a license which can be used by any application enabled for FlexNet licensing in the network. The concept of floating licenses allows the sharing of licenses. ### **Example** - The license server has 100 licenses of a specific feature. - Test system 1 needs 50 licenses and test system 2 also needs 50 licenses. Both test systems will get the licenses from the license server. - Test system 3 also tries to get 30 licenses, but it will not get any licenses because all licenses are consumed by test systems 1 and 2. If test system 1 or test system 2 returns the licenses test system 3 can get its requested licenses. - If you do not need the license features all the time on all systems, you can use a fewer number of licenses. - This floating licensing allows for efficient use of fewer licenses by sharing them on the network. - A floating-license server enables the sharing of licenses among all test systems to which it has a network connection, one use at a time per license. Floating licenses require at least one designated license server, although you can use more than one computer as license server. For more information contact your Advantest sales representative. ### **Node-locked licenses** A node-locked license can only be used on the single test system to which it has been locked. ### **Combined licenses** Other SmarTest software applications use both floating and node-locked licenses. ### **Special licensing considerations** - Scalable hardware features such as speed and memory are available. Contact your Advantest sales representative for updates about available features. - Some basic capabilities are always available, even without a license file. For license server details, see [License server setup](https://lhc.advantest.com/books/license-server-setup/page/license-server-setup "This section covers licensing requirements and considerations you will want to examine before installing your licenses."). # License clients and license servers Understanding the concept of "**license client**" and "**license server**" is essential for a correct setup.
- The "[license client](https://lhc.advantest.com/books/client-configuration-and-license-management "License configuration and license management on a license client provide you with the tools and utilities to help you to administer licenses and troubleshoot licensing problems on your test systems.")" is the **SmarTest software**. - The "[license server](https://lhc.advantest.com/books/license-server-setup "This section covers licensing requirements and considerations you will want to examine before installing your licenses.")" is first of all a **third-party licensing software,** like the FLEXlm software, which controls the licenses. Sometimes also the hardware, where the license server runs, is referred to as "license server".
The **license server** software can **either run on the system controller** together with the SmarTest software, or on a **separate server hardware.**

Note: If you plan to use a local license server, for example to run SmarTest in offline mode, you must install the FLEXlm license package on the System Controller and use it as local license server host. For the offline usage of SmarTest, add an offline license file to the folder **/opt/flexlm/license.**

### Supported license server configurations Advantest supports three types of license server configurations: - Local license server - Central license server - Three-license-server redundancy configuration
### Local license server In a local license server configuration the license server runs on the system controller together with the SmarTest software; i.e. both run on the same machine.
### Central license server In a central license server configuration the SmarTest software runs on the system controller. The central license server runs on a dedicated machine.
### Three-license-server redundancy configuration In a redundancy configuration with three license servers, each of the three license servers runs on its own dedicated machine and can serve the same set of licenses. The three-license-server redundancy configuration ensures the reliability of the license issuing: One of the three license servers acts as master and serves the licenses. If for example the master license servers fails, one of the remaining two license servers will become the new master and serves the licenses. For issuing licenses at least two of the three dedicated license servers must run.