While fairly straight forward, the most basic way to release a reserved license is to close the client software that is reserving it.  However, the client must be connected to the license server when this is done, otherwise, the license will not be immediately checked back in.  This said, simply closing the software, does not always work and you may need to try other options. 

Assuming the client who initially reserved the license has disconnected and the license is not stuck, it will be automatically released, by default, ~2 - 2.5hrs two hours after the client was initially disconnected.  If the license is still reserved after 2.5hrs in this scenario, the license is stuck and you will need to use another method.

The fastest solution to release all reserved, stuck or abandoned licenses is to restart the Ansys License Manager

1. Verify the license increments currently checked out via FlexLM
   1. On the license server, open a command prompt
   2. Change directory to the folder with the licensing utilities:
      cd C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\Licensing\winx64
   3. Use lmstat to query the license serverfor currently checked out increments:
      lmutil.exe lmstat -a -c 1055@localhost
   4. The output will display all license increments on the server and any user checkouts of those license increments.
2. Remove the stuck increment
   1. Use the lmremove command to remove the stuck increment:
      lmutil.exe lmremove [-c license_file_list] feature user user_host display

Example:

Our user, Nick, uses Ansys 2020 R2 on his office computer, DESKTOP-PC.  Ansys has crashed, and the licenses are still checked out on the license server.

When our license server administrator runs the lmstat command, they receive the following output from the command, indicating that Nick has the "ansys" license increment checked out while the software is not running:

C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\licensing\winx64>lmutil.exe lmstat -a -c 1055@localhost
 
Users of ansys:  (Total of 1 license issued;  Total of 1 license in use)
 
  "ansys" v9999.9999, vendor: ansyslmd, expiry: 28-feb-2022
  floating license
 
    Nick DESKTOP-PC DESKTOP-PC 5796 (v2021.0512) (WinDev2108Eval/1055 101), start Tue 10/12 8:43

In order to remove the stuck "ansys" increment, the license administrator would need to run the lmremove command

lmutil.exe lmremove [-c license_file_list] feature user user_host display

Where:

• [-c license_file_list] indicates the license server/file to use, in this case port 1055 on our local server - 1055@localhost
• feature is the license increment to remove, in this case "ansys"
• user is the username of the affected user, in this case Nick
• user_host is the workstation of the affected user, in this case DESKTOP-PC (the first instance in the output)
• display is the display where the user is working, typically the same as the workstation name, in this case DESKTOP-PC (the second instance in the output)

For this user's scenario, the administrator would run the following command to remove the license increment:

lmutil.exe lmremove -c 1055@localhost ansys Nick DESKTOP-PC DESKTOP-PC

The lmremove command does not return an output, so the administrator would need to run lmstat again to confirm the increment has been removed.

1. Verify the increments checked out in the Ansys Licensing Interconnect
   1. On the license server, open a command prompt
   2. Change directory to the folder with the licensing utilities:
      cd C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\Licensing\winx64
   3. Run the licensing interconnect usage command:
      ansysli_util.exe -liusage
   4. The output will display all license increments currently checked out in the licensing interconnect.
2. Remove the stuck increment
   1. Run the licensing interconnect remove command:
      ansysli_util.exe -liremove <[user]@[host][:pid]>
      where <[user]@[host][:pid]> corresponds to the information output by the -liusage command
   2. The ansysli_util.exe -liremove will return an output listing the increments removed

Example:

Our user, Nick, uses Ansys 2020 R2 on his office computer, DESKTOP-PC.  Ansys has crashed, and the licenses are still checked out on the license server.

When our license server administrator runs the -liusage command, they receive the following output from the command, indicating that Nick has the "ansys" license increment checked out while the software is not running:

C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\Licensing\winx64>ansysli_util.exe -liusage
 
 
USER@HOST:PID            TIMESTAMP                NAME            USED    VERSION                APP        SERVER
Nick@DESKTOP-PC:6172    2021/10/12 10:05:29        MECH_STRUCT        1        20.2 (2020.0507)    MECH
Nick@DESKTOP-PC:6172    2021/10/12 10:05:29        ansys            1        20.2 (2020.0507)    MECH    1055@172.29.64.81
USER@HOST:PID            TIMESTAMP                NAME            USED    VERSION                APP        SERVER

To remove the "ansys" license increment, the administrator would remove all checkouts related to the user, their workstation, and the Process ID (PID) using the -liremove command:

C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\Licensing\winx64>ansysli_util.exe -liremove Nick@DESKTOP-PC:6172

After running the command, the administrator output will indicate all the increments removed:

C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\Shared Files\Licensing\winx64>ansysli_util.exe -liremove Nick@DESKTOP-PC:6172
The following jobs have been removed:
 
 
USER@HOST:PID            TIMESTAMP                NAME            USED    VERSION                APP        SERVER
Nick@DESKTOP-PC:6172    2021/10/12 10:05:29        MECH_STRUCT        1        20.2 (2020.0507)    MECH
Nick@DESKTOP-PC:6172    2021/10/12 10:05:29        ansys            1        20.2 (2020.0507)    MECH    1055@172.29.64.81
USER@HOST:PID            TIMESTAMP                NAME            USED    VERSION                APP        SERVER