License Manager Guide

Using the Options file

The options file allows the license administrator to control user access to licenses on the license manager. Currently, only concurrent use licenses support use of the options file; ArcGIS Pro and Premium App named user licenses via an on-premises Portal for ArcGIS are not supported.

Users are identified by their user name, host name, display, or IP address.

For concurrent use licenses, the license administrator can do the following:

  • Allow or deny the use of specific licenses
  • Allow or deny license borrowing
  • Reserve licenses

If you have enterprise single use licenses, the license administrator can allow or deny authorization of specific licenses.

Lines in the options file are limited to 4,000 characters. The backslash (\) character can be used as a continuation character in option file lines.

You can include comments in your options file by starting each comment line with a pound sign (#). Everything in an options file is case sensitive. Be sure that user names and feature names, for example, are entered correctly.

To create and use an options file

  1. Open Notepad or another text editor.
  2. Create your options based on the control you require. See the individual topics for the syntax for the various options supported.
  3. Save the file as ARCGIS.opt in the ArcGIS License Manager installation location. The default location is C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\LicenseManager\bin. For versions prior to 2021.0, the default location is C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\LicenseManager\bin (32-bit machine) or C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\LicenseManager\bin (64-bit machine).
  4. Launch ArcGIS License Server Administrator from Start > Programs > ArcGIS > License Server Administrator.
  5. Click Start/Stop License Service in the table of contents and click the Re-Read Licenses button to pick up the options file. To check whether the options have been applied, click Diagnostics and click View to view the debug log.

Obtaining the feature names from License Server Administrator

Internal feature names have to be used in the options file when referring to products or extensions. A list of most of the internal feature names can be found in the Feature names for ArcGIS Option file topic. You may also use the License Server Administrator to locate the internal feature names:

  1. Open License Server Administrator.
  2. Choose Availability from the table of contents.
  3. Double-click the product or extension you want to use in the options file.
  4. Use the Internal Feature Name value found at the bottom of the window. For example, for ArcGIS Desktop Advanced, the internal feature name is ARC/INFO.

An example options file

# This example will reserve an ArcGIS for Desktop Basic License to user John

RESERVE 1 VIEWER USER John

Supported options

This is a list of supported options that can be used with the ARCGIS vendor daemon. For detailed usage information, click the option.

ACTIVATION_EXPIRY_DAYS

Limit borrow to the number of days for a specific Entitlement ID (authorization number)

DEBUGLOG

Write debug log information for this vendor daemon to the specified file.

EXCLUDE

Deny a user access to a feature.

EXCLUDE_ENTITLEMENT

Deny a user the ability to activate single use licenses held on the license server.

EXCLUDEALL

Deny a user access to all features served by the ARCGIS daemon.

GROUP

Define a group of users for use with any options.

GROUPCASEINSENSITIVE

Set the option to treat user names and host names as case sensitive or not.

HOST_GROUP

Define a group of hosts for use with any options.

INCLUDE

Allow a user to use a feature.

INCLUDE_ENTITLEMENT

Allow a user to activate single use licenses held on the license server.

INCLUDEALL

Allow a user access to all features served by the ARCGIS daemon.

MAX

Limit usage for a particular feature/group—prioritize usage among users.

NOLOG

Turn off logging of certain items in the debug log file.

RESERVE

Reserve licenses for a user or group of users/hosts.

Specifying license restrictions using type

Some option keywords restrict who may use licenses or where licenses may be used. These options take a type argument that specifies what the restriction is based on.

When using the option keywords EXCLUDE, EXCLUDE_ENTITLEMENT, EXCLUDEALL, INCLUDE, INCLUDE_ENTITLEMENT, INCLUDEALL, MAX, and RESERVE, the following values can be used for type:

  • USER—User name of the user executing the Flex-enabled application. User names are case sensitive and cannot contain spaces.
  • HOST—System host name or IP address where the application is executing. Host names are case sensitive. The IP address can contain wildcard characters.

When using the option keywords EXCLUDE, EXCLUDEALL, INCLUDE, INCLUDEALL, MAX, and RESERVE, the following values can be used for type:

  • DISPLAY—Name of where the application is displayed. On UNIX, DISPLAY is /dev/tty xx (which is always /dev/tty when an application is run in the background) or the X-Display name. On Windows, it is the system name or, in the case of a Terminal Server environment, the Terminal Server client name. Display names are case sensitive.
  • INTERNET—IP address of the system where the application is executing. Wildcard characters can be used in the IP address.

On Windows (without Terminal Server), HOST and DISPLAY are both set to the system name. For licenses that allow checkouts from Terminal Server (TS_OK keyword in the feature line), USER, HOST, and DISPLAY can be different from one another.

The types listed above take a single member. For example:

EXCLUDE coolsoft USER joe

To specify a list of users or hosts, first define the list using the GROUP or HOST_GROUP option lines, then use the GROUP or HOST_GROUP type to specify the group name. For example:

GROUP stars joe barbara susan

EXCLUDE coolsoft GROUP stars