Setting Up a SOLIDWORKS Floating License Server Service on a Client Workstation

At times, the SOLIDWORKS floating license service must be placed on a machine that is also running the SOLIDWORKS modeling software. In such cases, the order of installations becomes important to ensure the license service functions normally for all clients (including the server/client itself) once finished.

Brand New Installations 

For a machine that has not yet had SOLIDWORKS or the license service installed the order of operations would be as follows: 

1. Install SOLIDWORKS Modeling software:
Install the SOLIDWORKS modeling client software. During Installation the program will ask to point to the license server to verify that floating licenses are available. In this step, the client (that will soon become the license server but is not yet set up for that) would be pointed to “25734@localhost”. This points the machine to itself for a floating license. As the server-side license service is not yet set up a warning will appear stating that the server cannot be reached. The warning should be dismissed and the installation allowed to proceed.

2. Install SOLIDWORKS License Server Service:
Once the SOLIDWORKS modeling client is installed with the client pointing to itself for a license the SOLIDWORKS license service itself would then be installed per these instructions.

Once this process is complete the client/server should then be able to pick up a floating license from itself as well as have other clients point to it to also pick up floating licenses. 

Other Clients can obtain licenses but the Client/Server cannot obtain a license from itself. What went wrong?

Commonly both pieces of software are installed and the client has not been made to point to itself.  This is a fairly common issue having to do with the installation order of the software and can be fixed in just a few minutes by doing the following process: 

1.  Uninstall the SolidNetWork License Manager from your machine (via the Windows Control Panel under ‘Programs and Features’).
2. Open the Windows Registry Editor (via the Windows Start menu by running a search for “regedit.exe” then executing this utility) and modify the following key:
   

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\FLEXlm License Manager\SW_D_LICENSE_FILE 

   …such that its value reads “25734@localhost”

3. With the registry change in place, reinstall the SolidNetWork License Manager onto this machine.
4. Open the SolidNetWork License Manager and, using the ‘Modify’ button on the ‘Server Administration’ tab, reactivate the SolidNetWork License Manager so it picks up the floating license pool again.

Once this process is complete the client also acting as the floating license server should then be able to full a floating license from itself. 

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