LM-X License Manager Archives - Software License Management

LM-X License Manager Case Study - EDALab

LM-X License Manager – Customer Case Study: EDALab

February 20, 2023| Gabrijel Zelic| in category LM-X License Manager No comments yet

Client: EDALab s.r.l.
Problem: Different licenses types for one product
Solution: LM-X License Manager

Problem

EDALab s.r.l., located in Verona, Italy, originated in 2007 as a spin-off of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Verona. EDALab addresses issues of technological innovation in the field of networked embedded systems, with activities ranging from analysis and feasibility studies to full project management. They provide services such as Embedded Software Development, modeling and conversion of hardware description languages, OS customization, and more.

EDALab built the HIFSuite tool (http://hifsuite.edalab.it/index.php) over several years. Without other comparable tools on the market, HIFSuite was used for many projects, mainly for research purposes. When the product matured and was ready for release on the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) market, EDALab was faced with the need to distribute the software under a variety of licensing policies to suit their customers (time-limited, functionality limited, and other policies).

How EDALab Approached the Problem

EDALab evaluated LM-X License Manager along with other top license managers, including FlexNet, Easy Licenser and Reprise License Manager.

The combination of LM-X License Manager’s competitive pricing and excellent customer support put LM-X ahead of the competition. EDALab’s Cofounder, Senior System Administrator/Architect and Purchase Manager, Stefano Cailotto, praised, “During the evaluation phase, the support team was very kind and responsive, which helped us to decide on using X-Formation to provide our license management solution.”

What It’s Like Now

LM-X satisfied EDALab’s requirements for both ease of use and customized licensing configurations. LM-X proved easy to integrate with the HIFSuite tool, with no need to issue new requests as other licensing products required. Thanks to its extensive customizability, LM-X gave EDALab the power to improve their licensing by letting them write their own custom hostid check function, which they based on both the host uuid and the Mac address.

EDALab is one of the many success stories that highlights LM-X’s flexibility and X-Formation’s dedicated partnership with our customers that helps them succeed with implementing the license management solutions they need.

Learn More

X-Formation – Year in Review – 2022

December 27, 2022| Gabrijel Zelic| in category Company, License Statistics, LM-X License Manager No comments yet

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” — Henry Ford

At this time of year, our thoughts often turn to what we’ve accomplished, and what is to come.

As we look at our past year here at X-Formation, we’re proud of all we’ve achieved together, within our hard-working team and along with you, our customers. We are grateful for all of the suggestions and feedback that you’ve given over the past year to help us make our products the best they can be.

As the new year approaches, we look forward to continuing this collaboration and being part of what helps your business to succeed in 2023 and beyond.

Here, we recount some of the highlights from our accomplishments in 2022.

License Statistics Achievements

Our License Statistics team has been digging in during the past year, improving overall user experience and implementing new features based on customer feedback, to ensure you’re able to effectively and efficiently track your organization’s license usage.

Improved UX

Sometimes, it’s the little things that count the most. We strive to make License Statistics easy for anyone to use, and we’re constantly looking for ways to make our user interface more intuitive and ensure that gathered statistics data is readily accessible and understandable. For example, redesigned chart tooltips now include more information, such as duration of license usage, and are formatted using a labeled list that’s easier to read.

Turning attention to detail, we’ve made layout improvements that make it easier to see information about features, users and hosts, and ensured consistency of labels and content in report grids, information panels, and LDAP Schema Settings to help make License Statistics even simpler to use and understand.

More details in reports

Our comprehensive license usage tracking reports now deliver even more data about current and historical usage, helping you uncover details about available licenses, how many licenses are in use or have been borrowed, utilization percentages, total licenses used, denials, and more. In addition to expanding on reported usage data, we’ve added more information to User properties, such as complete LDAP data, that can easily be shown or hidden in report details.

Improvements for License Statistics Administration

For License Statistics administrators, we’ve added more information to license server usage and license detail grids, and added the ability to invalidate (clear) report cache, customize the LDAP Users Import interval, and receive warnings when host resources are below minimum requirements. New connection settings for Remote Monitoring let you restrict the Hostname field entry to hostname or domain, and allow you to force an HTTPS connection.

We’ve also enhanced error reporting, with improved import validation that accounts for errors that occur when importing usage and denials. The level of events tracked in the log is now customizable, so you can track all events, just warnings and errors, or limit the log to error reporting. Furthermore, we’ve made the report easier to use by improving sorting and filtering, and adding the ability to delete all grid contents at once.

In addition, to make your life a little easier, you can now reset the administrator password to the default password with the click of a button using License Statistics Manager.

License Statistics Agent enhancements

Those who use License Statistics Agents will be happy to know that we now support backward compatibility for License Statistics Agent, up to five minor versions older than the License Statistics version. The Agents grid has been improved with additions to data and the ability to disconnect all agents at one time. We also expanded email notifications by adding a new alert for outdated License Statistics Agents, so you can stay on top of your licensing needs.

Expanded support for license managers and the latest platforms

Always broadening our ability to serve our user community’s diverse needs, we’ve added support for Altium Infrastructure Server (AIS/PLS) and GHS license managers (both support remote monitoring and imports), and expanded support for Dassault license manager to allow for monitoring authorization items.

Keeping up with the latest platforms, we now include support for:

Windows 11
Windows Server 2022
Debian 11
Ubuntu 22.04

In addition to these more notable new features and enhancements, we’ve made loads of smaller enhancements and fixes that ensure the stability and quality you’ve come to expect from License Statistics.

LM-X Achievements

With all of the strides made with License Statistics over the past year taking the spotlight, let’s not forget about LM-X License Manager! Our developers have also been striving to make sure that LM-X delivers unbeatable security for your applications while ensuring ease of use for your end-users.

Take a look at just a few of the highlights from the past year’s development work on LM-X.

Expanded support

LM-X now supports:

Visual Studio 2022
UTF-8 on Windows
Raspberry Pi

Miscellaneous enhancements

Over the past year, we’ve made enhancements to LM-X that include:

Adding a warning to the license server log when an unlimited license will be reserved
Making improvements to license server networking
Reducing SDK compilation time
Resolving an issue with using secure store between different LM-X versions
Fixing an issue with the license server allocating too much memory for network buffers
Improving stability for systems that are not POSIX-compliant

We celebrate you!

Without you, our customers, we would not be where we are today. Despite challenging economic times, we have been blessed to celebrate a long working relationship with many of you for 5, 10, or even more years. On behalf of our entire team—many of whom have also been with us for over a decade—I wholeheartedly wish you and your families the best, as we look forward to shared successes in the coming year.

Happy holidays to all, and a prosperous New Year!

Henrik Goldman
X-Formation Founder and CEO

Learn More

LM-X License Manager Case Study - SimVis GmbH

LM-X License Manager – Customer Case Study: SimVis

August 22, 2022| Gabrijel Zelic| in category LM-X License Manager No comments yet

Client: SimVis GmbH
Problem: Limited licensing solutions
Solution: LM-X License Manager

Problem

SimVis GmbH, founded in 2008 and located in Vienna, Austria, is one of the first spin-offs of VRVis. A stand-alone desktop application, SimVis has been used extensively to facilitate the analysis of automotive flow simulation data, and is also used to evaluate medical, meteorological, climatic, and oil industry data.

SimVis started out licensing their stand-alone desktop application, using their own in-house solution. As their customer base grew, they quickly found that their in-house solution was not going to be adequate for many of its customers.

Mr. Wolfgang Freiler of SimVis explained, “At SimVis, we were facing the limits of our existing in-house licensing solution, since customers were increasingly asking for more flexible licensing models, such as floating licenses.”

How SimVis Approached the Problem

SimVis set out on a quest to find a solution that would work for their team and their customers’ growing needs. After comparing various solutions, LM-X License Manager came out on top.

“We conducted an evaluation of the existing license management solutions on the market and finally decided to switch to X-Formation’s LM-X License Manager,” described Freiler.

One of their highest points of praise for LM-X was its straightforward implementation. “During the evaluation period, we were surprised at how easy it was to integrate LM-X License Manager into our software,” Mr. Freiler said.

Not only was LM-X easy to work with, but they were impressed with the helpfulness, expertise, and response time of X-Formation’s support team. “When we were stuck, the helpful support team provided us with a solution very quickly,” praised Freiler.

What It’s Like Now

SimVis was able to get up and running quickly with new licensing options that not only better met their existing customers’ needs, but opened up new opportunities for sales to customers who demand more flexible license models. With LM-X, SimVis got a license management solution with extensive features, flexibility, and ease of use that they had been searching for.

For SimVis and so many other successful customers, LM-X has proven to be an optimal licensing solution for cross-platform software products. The positive feedback we get from both new and long-time users consistently reinforces that even the most demanding of our customers are happy with the solution LM-X provides.

Learn More

LM-X Licence Manager Case Study - TLP Innovations

LM-X License Manager – Customer Case Study: TPL Innovations

March 18, 2022| Gabrijel Zelic| in category LM-X License Manager No comments yet

Client: TLP Innovations
Problem: How to support geographically dispersed customers
Solution: LM-X License Manager

Problem

TLP Innovations produces Train Load Predictor, a feature-rich software product that has been used extensively to analyze the Australian rail networks of Brisbane and Melbourne, as well as Sydney and Adelaide.

As they began marketing Train Load Predictor across the world, TLP Innovations realized they would need a licensing solution that could support geographically dispersed customers while minimizing their own manual overhead. They also needed a licensing solution that was appropriate for their current level of development, but would be capable of evolving with them as they began adding new features to Train Load Predictor and their company and client base grew.

How TLP Innovations Approached the Problem

Impressed by how capably LM-X License Manager could meet both their current needs as well as their anticipated future needs, TLP Innovations chose LM-X as their license management solution.

Matt Pattison, Consultant, Systemwide, said, “In addition to meeting our needs for today, LM-X meets our needs for tomorrow. It’s a stable platform, it’s very secure and we can steadily automate the license management process to a great extent, making our software as convenient as possible for the most important people, our users.”

Pattison praised the ease of working with LM-X, saying that the software “works without hassles, it’s well documented, and the support site is excellent.”

TLP Innovations appreciated that LM-X was capable of offering different solutions for different customers’ needs, while keeping license management simple.

“One feature we’ve found particularly useful is the ability to provide multiple license levels that unlock different software features, so we can support multiple editions of our software from one installer/source tree,” said Pattison.

TLP Innovations even found that LM-X was an affordable choice. “We took advantage of the Small Business Subscription offer, which made the price very competitive.” Pattison explained.

What It’s Like Now

TLP Innovations got everything they were looking for with LM-X License Manager’s advanced capabilities, and were impressed with X-Formation’s professional support and services as well. “We’ve been very happy with X-Formation and LM-X,” said Pattison. “The software is well documented, works as advertised, is regularly updated with new features, and the staff is friendly and helpful.”

With flexible options for geographically dispersed licensing, ease-of-use, and the ability to keep up with TLP Innovation’s rapid growth, along with outstanding customer care, LM-X was exactly the licensing solution that TLP Innovations and their customers needed.

Learn More

X-Formation – Year in Review

December 22, 2021| Gabrijel Zelic| in category Company, License Statistics, LM-X License Manager No comments yet

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” — Joshua J. Marine

It’s been an amazing year, full of challenges and successes. Here at X-Formation, our team has been working hard to improve and expand on the capabilities of License Statistics and LM-X License Manager, devoted to helping your business prosper with effective, cost-saving license management solutions.

Now that the year is coming to a close, we’d like to thank you, our customers, for your continued cooperation. We cannot do this without you. All the improvements and new features we’ve delivered during 2021 are based on your invaluable feedback.

Let’s reflect on what we’ve accomplished together over the past year, as we set our sights on making the coming year even better.

License Statistics Achievements

License Statistics users have seen many major new features over the past year, with some of the most significant among them Custom Application Monitoring, streamlined reports, and support for two additional license managers.

Read on to find out more about these capabilities and how they can help you to stay on top of your license management.

Custom Application Monitoring

Many of our customers have been seeing immediate benefits from employing Custom Application Monitoring to track license usage for their end-user applications, even when the application has no license server or log file. We implemented this feature in response to your needs to expand your license tracking abilities and make informed decisions when budgeting for desktop applications.

This new feature leverages License Statistics Agent to gather usage information—such as the time and duration of usage, number of instances used and by which users and hosts—for any user that starts a configured application on any end-user host. The agents then pass the data along to License Statistics for presentation in its usual reports.

With Custom Application Monitoring, you can learn everything you need to know about the usage of any end-user application, helping you stay on top of all your license management needs.

Simplified, streamlined reports

Less is more, with streamlined statistics reporting that both reduces the number of reports and more clearly divides realtime and historical statistics.

With this new structure, you can more quickly drill down to answer specific questions, such as who is consuming licenses in realtime; which users have been denied access to licenses and when; and how one feature’s license usage compares to others.

This all adds up to time savings and enhanced understanding of your license management needs, so you can zero in on how to best optimize your licenses to increase productivity and reduce costs throughout your organization.

Additional support for license managers

With the addition of support for two new license managers, bringing the number of supported license managers to nearly 30 different types, we’re broadening our ability to serve our user community’s diverse needs. Our newly supported license manager types include:

Zoo License Manager, with support for remote and imported data sources; feature versioning; and license borrowing (imported data only)
CodeMeter Network License Server (remote data sources only)

Once again, we’ve been listening to what you need and responding with all of these valuable new developments, along with the multitude of other fixes and enhancements made to License Statistics in the past year.

But wait—there’s more!

LM-X Achievements

X-Formation’s developers were also bustling during this past year to make sure that LM-X License Manager is reliable and packed with all the features you need to license your software with flexibility and confidence. Among the LM-X team’s most significant accomplishments are the addition of a new “upgrade” license type, support for Linux ARM, and a plethora of stability and performance improvements.

You can find out more about these LM-X advancements below.

Upgrade licenses

Our new “upgrade” license type supplants the “additive” license type, as a much-improved solution. Upgrade licenses let you add licenses for software features that your customers buy after the initial purchase of a license, without changing the original license.

Upgrade licenses increase the license count of exclusive licenses by a particular number of licenses, while simultaneously being completely transparent to the client. This approach allows for greater flexibility in handling license add-ons than were possible with additive licenses, because additive licenses are seen as a separate license pool of the same feature.

We hope you’ll find life a little easier when it comes to license upgrades for your customers, thanks to this new feature.

Support for Linux on ARM

Many customers have asked for support for the Linux ARM 64-bit platform, and we’ve delivered. Linux ARM has been gaining in popularity for high-performance computing (HPC) due to the platform’s exceptionally low energy consumption while maintaining high processing power.

Stability and performance improvements

Over the past year, we’ve made huge leaps in stability and performance. You’ll find that the license server is able to serve many more clients under even greater loads, and LMX_GetLicenseInfo handling performance has been particularly improved.

We do it all for you!

With all the hustle and bustle of bringing 2021 to a close and ushering in 2022, we are filled with gratitude for all of our customers. You bring purpose and satisfaction to every day, knowing that our work is helping to make your business thrive.

With the pandemic continuing to bring challenges into both our business and personal lives, our sincere wish is that you enjoy gathering with your loved ones over the holidays while staying safe and healthy, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration with you in the coming new year.

Happy holidays, and a happy and prosperous New Year!

Henrik Goldman
X-Formation Founder and CEO

Learn More

LM-X License Manager Case Study - Schindler GmbH

LM-X License Manager – Customer Case Study: Schindler GmbH

October 18, 2021| Gabrijel Zelic| in category LM-X License Manager No comments yet

Client: Schindler GmbH
Problem: Lack of flexibility of licensing schemes
Solution: LM-X License Manager

Problem

A software vendor based out of Germany, Schindler GmbH is the developer of S-Anywhere, a highly regarded software platform that includes modules for maintenance and repair management, facility management, tool management and inventory recording, as well as RFID technology for planning, recording and evaluating inspection rounds.

Like many software providers, Schindler GmbH needed a flexible licensing solution that could support many different licensing models, particularly network and node-locked licensing.

Schindler GmbH tried using HASP HL dongles from Thales, but this solution fell short of serving their customers’ needs. As Markus Schindler, IT Engineer, explained, “IT guidelines of our customers often prohibit the use of hardware dongles,” because many of their customers use outsourced or virtual servers.

How Schindler GmbH Approached the Problem

Schindler GmbH realized that they needed a different licensing solution that was able to accommodate their customers’ needs. “We searched for an alternative, and X-Formation’s LM-X License Manager offered the flexibility we were looking for,” said Schindler. LM-X provided Schindler GmbH with the licensing solution that not only had all the features they needed to achieve their desired results, but made software license management easy.

What It’s Like Now

Not only is LM-X a superior licensing solution with robust, bundled features that solve nearly any licensing needs—X-Formation provides exemplary customer service as well.

Schindler praised, ”Documentation and support was very good, and X-Formation pays attention to customers’ needs.” Schindler concluded,“LM-X is flexible and offers all the license types we need. Furthermore, if we have any questions, the X-Formation support team helps quickly.”

With quality software and fast, professional support in addition to providing flexible options for dongle-free licensing, LM-X was exactly the licensing solution that Schindler GmbH and their customers needed.

Learn More

LM-X License Manager Case Study - Enventive Engineering Inc

Customer Case Study: Enventive Engineering, Inc.

July 30, 2021| Gabrijel Zelic| in category LM-X License Manager No comments yet

Enventive Engineering, Inc. finds the full-featured, low-cost license management software its customers need with LM-X License Manager.

Client: Enventive Engineering, Inc.
Problem: Lack of critical features in its existing license management software.
Solution: LM-X License Manager

Problem

Enventive Engineering, Inc., helps mechanical product industries benefit from the most recent advances in variational computation by making complex tech simple to use. Companies use Enventive tolerance analysis software to accelerate and simplify their product development process workflow to foster innovations and build the mechanical products of the dynamic data and AI century.

At first, Enventive used an economical license manager for its software products, which worked well enough until customers insisted they needed floating licenses to best support their team-based approach to using the software. The old license manager could not support floating licenses, nor could it support the need for annual licenses with a customizable renewal date. Enventive’s customers wanted the ability to purchase new licenses on different dates while maintaining a single renewal date for all licenses.

Enventive realized that it needed a truly full-featured and flexible license management system. However, the license solution it was considering was not only expensive, but the product vendor was well known for devoting little time and attention to the needs of small businesses. It was crucial that Enventive provide its customers with the licensing options they needed. It also wanted a flexible solution that would grow with it, and a vendor that would be responsive to its needs.

How Enventive Approached It

After extensive research, Enventive found one licensing product that outshone the others: X-Formation’s LM-X License Manager. LM-X offered the features the company needed, with greater flexibility and a lower cost than comparable products.

Enventive was delighted with the results of its evaluation. Ralph Gifford, President and CEO of Enventive Engineering, said, “With LM-X, not only did we get all the features we needed, we got a responsiveness to requests for other features that was unbelievable. All we needed to do was mention that we’d like to see a particular feature, and the next thing we knew, X-Formation was handing us a new version of LM-X with the very features we’d asked for.”

While LM-X provided customizable renewal dates and a choice of node-locked and floating licenses, Enventive was particularly impressed with two other key features: Borrowed Licenses and Grace Licenses (both used to make licenses available when users are disconnected from the network). “It’s of the utmost importance that your licensing solution works for your customers,” Mr. Gifford explained. “Our customers see that we have the ability to offer these licensing options, and they are really impressed.”

What It’s Like Now

The LM-X License Manager helped Enventive supply its customers with the licensing options they needed at a lower cost than it would have paid for any other comparable solution. For Enventive and its customers, LM-X License Manager proved to be the best license management solution thanks to its extensive feature set, flexibility, pricing, and product support.

Learn More

Case Study: Impararia appreciates LM-X’s unique approach to software protection and superior level of support provided by X-Formation

June 29, 2016| Dawid Tadel| in category LM-X License Manager Comments Off

About Impararia

Impararia remains at the forefront of BIM & PLM industries as a key PLM system integrator active in a variety of industries, including aerospace and construction. They deliver innovative software that integrates CAD and PLM to help companies release their products faster and leverage costs.

The Business Challenge and the LM-X Solution

Before using LM-X License Manager , they hadn’t been using any license management solution. They chose X-Formation’s software license manager after benchmarking it against other tools available on the market and immediately paid attention to the superior level of technical support they received from X-Formation as well as the cost of the LM-X solution.

The biggest challenge Impararia was facing was trying to find a way of protecting their software before selling it. LM-X License Manager helped them secure their software thanks to its robust features that ensure uninterrupted access to the software for end users even when one of the license servers goes down or when a connection to the network is not possible.

Summary

LM-X’s full features and flexibility are an effective combination that assured satisfaction for both Impararia and their end users.

For Impararia, LM-X License Manager proved to be a great license management solution, with better flexibility, features, price and support.

Learn More

Case Study: RTDynamics finds LM-X License Manager more attractive than their proprietary licensing solution

March 21, 2016| Dawid Tadel| in category LM-X License Manager Comments Off

About RTDynamics

RTDynamics, a Germany-based software company, specializes in building desktop software applications for Windows and Linux.

Their products can be used in military, civil training and engineering simulations. For over 10 years defense and aerospace companies have been using solutions developed by RTDynamics to build pilot training, engineering, air combat and radar simulation applications.

The Business Challenge and the LM-X Solution

Before switching to LM-X License Manager , RTDynamics had been using its proprietary license management solution. They decided to switch to LM-X, though, because X-Formation’s software license manager turned out to have all the features they needed and enabled them to manage floating licenses, which they hadn’t been able to use before. On top of that, TCO (the total cost of ownership) over a five-year period, i.e. the estimation of the expenses associated with purchasing and using LM-X, was much better than in case of other license managers.

Summary

Thanks to the extensive features and flexibility of LM-X, RTDynamics was able to start using floating licenses which they use in their organization. Overall, their experience with LM-X was very positive and satisfactory.

Interested in evaluating the latest version of LM-X License Manager? Submit your request for evaluation today . Already using LM-X? Download the latest version of the vendor LM-X SDK and see what’s new.

Remember to contact us with any questions or problems you may have: we’re only a.

Learn More

A new version of LM-X License Manager out today!

October 7, 2015| Dawid Tadel| in category LM-X License Manager Comments Off

We’re proud to announce that we have just rolled out LM-X v4.8.1, a new minor upgrade of our software license manager. Some highlights of the release include:

extending the range of valid values for HOLD and MIN_CHECKOUT directives from 1 to 86400 seconds (24 hours) to 1 to 31536000 seconds (1 year).
eliminating a problem with a log file not being created when installing LM-X in a directory different than /home.
fixing an issue which resulted in LM-X being started as a root user instead of a regular user indicated during the installation.

On top of that, we have fixed other bug fixes, so please read release notes for all details.

Interested in evaluating the latest version of LM-X License Manager? Submit your request for evaluation today. Already using LM-X? Download the latest version of the vendor LM-X SDK and see what’s new.

As with all of our product improvements, the improvements and fixes in this release were made in direct response to customer feedback. We do our best to listen to you and incorporate as many of your suggestions and requests as possible. This interactive process is ongoing, so please continue sharing your comments to help us make LM-X License Manager even better for you in the future.

Learn More