Managing the License Server

Starting and Stopping

The license server can be stopped and started a number of ways, depending on the needs of your site. The most typical methods are described above: via the Services panel on Windows, the Preferences tab of Renderman.app on OS X, or, on all platforms via the provided scripts:

./startPixarLicenseServer.sh

and:

./stopPixarLicenseServer.tcl

Please note that each of these scripts can be edited to accommodate your site's configuration.

In addition, the license server can be started via the command line. Assuming one is in the install directory (see above), the appropriate command is:

./PixarLicenseServer

There are several optional arguments:

• -x filename (to specify an license file other than pixar.license)
• -v (verbose logging, use -v:1 to -v:5 to control verbosity)
• -log logfile (to direct log output to a file, rather than stdout. Note that on Linux, the named logfile will be closed and then reopened upon receipt of SIGHUP, which allows the license server to interoperate correctly with the Linux logrotate facility.)
• -delay n (where n is the number of seconds to delay new check-outs after restarting the service, allowing pre-existing license sessions, e.g. running apps, a chance to re-register with the new server, thereby properly accounting for existing seats-in-use)
• -livewire 0 (by default, the license server uses the existence of a live connection to each client application as an indicator of client health. If the socket closes, the server will immediately reclaim those seats and make them available to new clients. Use -livewire 0 to instead allow client connections, including periodic heartbeats, to be transient connections. This can help reduce the number of simultaneous open file descriptors and network sessions on the server host and switches, especially at large sites. The transient mode is slower to return seats to the pool if a client dies without actively returning them. The default -livewire 1 behavior was introduced with PixarLicenseServer 6.0 and subsequent client applications.)

Accessing the License Server

Access to the license server is provided via TCP socket connections using a simple ASCII protocol, with convenient, human-readable access via HTTP or telnet.

To access the license server via HTTP, enter the server location in a browser window, with the port specification, e.g. "http://licenseserver.my.domain:9010" — which will generate a snapshot of the current status, comme ça:

PixarLicenseServer v5.0.2 x4 p13580 (Oct 4 2007 02:09:22)
now:   Mar 26 17:27:54   uptime: 6.3 hours
hostinfo:   licenseserver   hostid=0d4ys54s6ey   uid=mwazowski
licenses:   cumulative   out=267   in=261
License Status:
    0 / 23   v1.000  RenderMan_for_Maya-2.0      22-may-2008
    0 / 23   v1.000  RenderManForMaya-Rendering  22-may-2008
    0 / *    v1.000  RPS-13.0                    22-may-2008

To access the license server via telnet, from the command line enter:

telnet licenseserver 9010

You should receive a connection greeting similar to:

PixarLicenseServer v5.0.2 x4 p13580 (Oct 4 2007 02:09:22)

after which the server will listen for commands, from the list below.

License Server Commands

When connected to the license server via a socket (e.g. telnet), there are several commands available to manage and query the server. Typing the help command in your telnet session will give you a list of these commands:

• help
• exit or quit or ^D
• status [-a]
• available <featurename>
• clients [<featurename>]
• reclaim <clientID>
• statistics reset
• reload
• shutdown

exit or quit or ^D

Ends your telnet session without affecting the license server.

status [-a]

status provides a current snapshot of license activity, identical to the HTTP snapshot described above. Using the -a flag includes optional information, as below:

% status -a
now:   Apr 03 11:17:43    uptime: 26.2 hours
hostinfo:   licenseserver   hostid=0d4ys54s6ey   uid=mwazowski
licenses:   cumulative   out=296   in=287
statsperiod:   2529.77 secs
connections:   total=5   peak=7   rate=0.00/s
events:   total=3124   c-peak=4   rate=1.23/s
replies:   total=101   avrate=0.04 (1 / 1)
latency:   cur=0   max=3.6816
License Status:
    4 / 23     v1.000 RenderMan_for_Maya-2.0      22-may-2008
    3 / 23     v1.000 RenderManForMaya-Rendering  22-may-2008
    0 / *      v1.000 RPS-13.0                    22-may-2008

available <featurename>

available provides a list of all features and the quantity of each currently unused. This command can be augmented with a feature name, e.g.:

% available RATalfserver
5 / 23

clients [<featurename>]

clients provides a list of users and the license features they have checked out:

% clients
clients *:
 mwazowski@rmanclient1,13255      (59:58c2)
    4    RenderManForMaya-Rendering   1.000   03-Apr-11:42 (27s)
    1    RenderMan_for_Maya-2.0       1.000   03-Apr-11:41 (4.2h)
 sphillips@rmanclient2,3236       (4e0e:1ee6)
    8    RenderManForMaya-Rendering   1.000   03-Apr-11:42 (7m)
    2    RenderMan_for_Maya-2.0       1.000   03-Apr-11:41 (2.3h)
  bpine@rmanclient3,18280         (63e4:2a99)
    4    RenderManForMaya-Rendering   1.000   03-Apr-11:42 (11s)
    1    RenderMan_for_Maya-2.0       1.000   03-Apr-11:41 (17m)

Again, the command can be augmented with a feature name:

% clients RenderManForMaya-Rendering
clients RenderManForMaya-Rendering:
   1  mwazowski@rmanclient1,257   (39f4:6d6f)  14.000  26-Mar-12:53 (31s)
   2  sphillips@rmanclient2,3236  (4e0e:1ee6)  14.000  26-Mar-14:32 (7m)
   1  bpine@rmanclient3,18280     (63e4:2a99)  14.000 27-Mar-12:15 (15s)

Note that the leading number reported for each feature by the clients command is the number of "license threads" requested by each client, not the number of full seats checked-out. Actual seats consumed is a function license sharing on a particular host, currently 4 threads per seat; so in the examples above we can see that mwazowski@rmanclient1 is doing a render that is using 4 threads and thus 1 seat, while sphillips@rmanclient2 is doing a render that's using 8 threads, consuming 2 seats.

reclaim <clientID>

reclaim can be used in the event that a seat does not get checked back in when it should have. This command should be used carefully, as a running renderer will attempt to re-obtain its seats if it still needs them, and fail if it cannot. The clientID is the colon-separated hex string in the first set of parantheses seen above, e.g. 4e0e:1ee6.

statistics reset

statistics reset sets certain counters to zero, which affects values reported by status -a: statsperiod, connections, events c-peak and rate, replies, and latency.

reload

When you receive a new, updated license file from Pixar, save a copy of your old license and then replace pixar.license with the new one. Then use the reload command to cause the running license server to read in the new license without losing any state information. Client applications that are holding seats will continue to run and will receive updated feature information, like expiration dates.

shutdown

This will shut down the license server and terminate any license features that are checked out. Any existing client applications will make several attempts to reacquire new seats and will then exit if a new server is not started.