Description

Historically, Ansys has relied on three main processes and ports to communicate with clients - FlexLM, Vendor Daemon and Licensing Interconnect. Starting in version 2021 R1, Ansys simplified how the license server communicates with client software versions 2021 R1 and later and now relies on only two of these processes/ports (with one rare exception listed below) - FlexLM and the Vendor Daemon.  They did this by moving most of the functionality of the licensing interconnect to the client.  While Ansys stopped relying on the ANSYS Licensing Interconnect on the server, you still need to make sure this process/port is open on your server firewall‍ if your clients are running 2020 R2 or prior and for some detailed reasons listed below and we still strongly recommend configuring your server for all three.

Additionally, in the past, the Vendor Daemon was only utilized by Electronics products and to retrieve license status.  This meant if you were using Structures or Fluids products and the Vendor Daemon wasn't configured properly, the software would still work. With this change, all Ansys products now rely on the Vendor Daemon process so this behavior no longer applies and you must configure your firewall rules ‍accordingly on your license server.

• FlexLM Process - Port:1055 (lmgrd.exe process) (required for all versions)
• Vendor Daemon Process - Port: Dynamic ‍by default, but can be set to a static port‍ if needed (ansyslmd.exe process) (required for all versions)
• Ansys Licensing Interconnect Process (Required for Client Versions 2020 R2 and Prior, but recommended for all versions) - Port:2325 (ansysli_server.exe process)

What does this mean for you and your users?  

1. As always, please remember to always run the latest version of the license manager to insure proper checkout functionality and combability.  Also newer versions are always backward compatible with older licenses and client software (back to ~16.0), so this should rarely be a concern. 
2. We still recommend setting up your license server to work with all versions of Ansys and allowing the three applications/ports mentioned through your firewall.  For more information on adding firewall exceptions, please see our article -  Add Firewall Exceptions for Ansys License Manager‍.
3. The old Client ANSLIC_Admin Utility where users specify a license server‍, collect logs‍, view license status‍ and more, got a face lift and is now called Ansys Client License Setting application. 
4. The new Ansys Client License Settings application now allows the user to actually test real time communication with the license server which is helpful to verify connectivity when troubleshooting.  Performing this test verifies that the client can communicate over port 1055 with the license server and validates that the port is open.  If it can't reach the license server or if the license manager service is not running, this test will fail.  However, this test does not test connectivity with the required Vendor Daemon process so results can be misleading - to fully test license manager connectivity, see -  HOW TO - Verify/Test License Manager Connectivity‍