NI Volume License Manager helps you manage and administer your NI software licenses. NI Volume License Manager is included at no cost for any customer who has a Volume License Agreement (VLA) with five or more development seats of software for the same product. This also includes Enterprise Agreements. For further description of NI Volume License Manager, see Volume License Program for Software.
The computer that hosts NI VLM is referred to as the license server, and the end-user's computers are referred to as the client computers. The license server hosts the NI VLM, which is operated by the company's license administrator; the client computers contact the license server to check for permission from NI VLM before launching the software.
The communication with a Volume License Server is done using TCP/IP packets and requires a network connection to the license server. Sometimes in the setup process, clients have trouble connecting to or obtaining a license from the Volume License Server. When this issue is encountered, it can be troublesome to find out where in the communication chain the problem lies. There are a handful of tests that can be run to help diagnose the problem. These tests, as well as the interpretation of the results, are included in the linked documents below. NI recommends you complete these tests in this order.
- Establish that the two machines (client and server) can communicate using a ping test .
- Ensure that the ports used by Volume License Server are not blocked and are open on both machine-specific and domain firewalls .
- Check NI License Manager (NILM) and Volume License Manager (VLM) configuration and connectivity.
- Request licensing and look through the LMGRD log to identify where server/client communication is occurring