[Beowulf] Re: Multiple FlexLM lmgrd services on a single Linux machine?

[Huw Lynes]

On Thu, 2010-07-01 at 06:10 -0400, Bob Drzyzgula wrote:
> One could also, clearly, set up multiple KVM- or Xen-based
> virutual machine images on which to run lmgrd. But one
> might then ask why one would want to do this, given
> that part of the point of mulitple lmgrds is to provide
> phyisical server redundancy, unless as Mark appears to
> be thinking, you simply believe you need one lmgrd for
> each vendor...
> 

While it is possible to run licenses from multiple vendors under a
single LMGRD I would advise against it on the basis that 99.9% of
vendors don't understand how flexlm works.

The worst case I've seen of this is PGI where we have to run two
separate virtual machines for the windows and linux licenses. The way
they set up their license files makes them impossible to merge. And to
add insult to injury the vendor daemon has paths to lock files
hard-coded so you can't run two PGI license servers on the same box.

It's possible that there is some magic environment variable that would
fix the lock-file issue.

On this issue of VMs to run license servers; the reason we do it is to
provide physical server redundancy since the VMs reside in an ESX HA
cluster.

Cheers,
Huw

-- 
Huw Lynes                       | Advanced Research Computing
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