Using the options file

The options file allows the license administrator to control user access to licenses on the license manager. Users are identified by their user name, host name, display, or IP address.

For concurrent use licenses, the license administrator can do the following:

If you have enterprise single use licenses, the license administrator can allow or deny authorization of specific licenses.

Lines in the options file are limited to 4,000 characters. The backslash (\) character can be used as a continuation character in option file lines.

You can include comments in your options file by starting each comment line with a pound sign (#). Everything in an options file is case sensitive. Be sure that user names and feature names, for example, are entered correctly.

To create and use an options file

  1. Open Notepad or another text editor.
  2. Create your options based on the control you require. See the individual topics for the syntax for the various options supported.
  3. Save the file as ARCGIS.opt in the ArcGIS License Manager installation location. The default location is C:\program files\ArcGIS\License10.0\bin.
  4. Open the service.txt file from the installation location in a text editor.
  5. Add the path to the ARCGIS.opt file in the VENDOR line after ARCGIS. For example:

VENDOR ARCGIS options="C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\License10.0\bin\ARCGIS.opt"

Launch ArcGIS License Server Administrator from Start > Programs > ArcGIS > License Manager > License Server Administrator.

Click Start/Stop License Service in the table of contents and click the Restart button to pick up the options file. To check if the options have been applied, click Diagnostics and click View to view the debug log.

Obtaining the feature names from the License Server Administrator

Feature names have to be used in the options file when referring to products or extensions. The exact feature name to use in the options file can be obtained from the License Server Administrator:

  1. Open the License Server Administrator.
  2. Select Availability from the table of contents.
  3. Double click the product or extension you want to use in the options file.
  4. Use the Internal Feature Name value found at the bottom of the window. Example: for ArcInfo, the Internal Feature Name is ARC/INFO.

Supported options

This is a list of supported options that can be used with the ARCGIS vendor daemon. For detailed usage information, click the option.

DEBUGLOG

Write debug log information for this vendor daemon to the specified file.

EXCLUDE

Deny a user access to a feature.

EXCLUDE_ENTITLEMENT

Deny a user the ability to activate single use licenses held on the license server.

EXCLUDEALL

Deny a user access to all features served by the ARCGIS daemon.

GROUP

Define a group of users for use with any options.

GROUPCASEINSENSITIVE

Sets the option to treat user names and host names as case sensitive or not.

HOST_GROUP

Define a group of hosts for use with any options.

INCLUDE

Allow a user to use a feature.

INCLUDE_ENTITLEMENT

Allow a user to activate single use licenses held on the license server.

INCLUDEALL

Allow a user access to all features served by the ARCGIS daemon.

MAX

Limit usage for a particular feature/group—prioritize usage among users.

NOLOG

Turn off logging of certain items in the debug log file.

RESERVE

Reserve licenses for a user or group of users/hosts.

TIMEOUT and TIMEOUTALL

Returns a hung license to the pool of available concurrent use licenses

Specifying license restrictions using type

Some option keywords restrict who may use licenses or where licenses may be used. These options take a type argument that specifies what the restriction is based on.

When using the option keywords EXCLUDE, EXCLUDE_ENTITLEMENT, EXCLUDEALL, INCLUDE, INCLUDE_ENTITLEMENT, INCLUDEALL, MAX, and RESERVE, the following values can be used for type:

When using the option keywords EXCLUDE, EXCLUDEALL, INCLUDE, INCLUDEALL, MAX, and RESERVE, the following values can be used for type:

On Windows (without Terminal Server), HOST and DISPLAY are both set to the system name. For licenses that allow checkouts from Terminal Server (TS_OK keyword in the feature line), USER, HOST, and DISPLAY can be different from one another.

The types listed above take a single member. For example:

EXCLUDE coolsoft USER joe

To specify a list of users or hosts, first define the list using the GROUP or HOST_GROUP option lines, then use the GROUP or HOST_GROUP type to specify the group name. For example:

GROUP stars joe barbara susan

EXCLUDE coolsoft GROUP stars


Published 6/9/2010