FlexLM License Troubleshooting

Despite my claims to the contrary; I don't know everything. No, really!

A new thing I learned this week is the environment variable FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS.

If someone is having problems opening up a product because of network licensing, this little gem helps you get to the bottom of it fast. I wish I had known this years ago!

On the machine having the issue, add FLEXLM_DIAGNOSTICS to the system environment variable and set it to 3 (most informative setting).
 

This variable can be set to 1, 2, or 3 depending on how verbose ("chatty") you want FlexLM to be.

1 gives you:

• License error number 
• Where FlexLM is trying to get license information (license.lic file, environment variable or some other weird thing)
• A dialog box only appears if there was a problem

2 means

• License error number 
• Where FlexLM is trying to get license information
• Checkout information that would explain if you were having issues checking out a license
• A dialog box only appears if there was a problem

3 gives you

• License error number (if applicable)
• Where FlexLM is trying to get license information
• Checkout information that would explain if you were having issues checking out a license
• Information about what server granted the license and by which method 
• A dialog box pops up even if there was no issue (this would be super-helpful if comparing someone's computer that works to another one where it doesn't)

I learned this by chatting with my colleagues over at  the UpandReady blog. Then I dug through some Flexera documentation to find what each setting does.

Now you know at least as much as me.