Scheduling automated FLEXnet license usage reporting

Abaqus provides a utility that automatically generates both summary and daily FLEXnet license usage reports according to a monthly or quarterly schedule. The utility creates a script containing commands to generate the reports, then it installs a scheduled task (on Windows platforms) or a crontab entry (on Linux platforms) to execute the script on a monthly or quarterly basis. The debug log file can be located on a server that is remote from the computer on which automated license usage reporting is scheduled. If desired, you can instruct the utility to automatically e-mail the reports to a specified address as soon as they are generated.

You should create a new directory dedicated to license usage reporting and run the scheduled license usage reporting utility from within this directory. The script for report generation (usage_report.bat or usage_report.sh), a utility configuration file (schLicRpt.cfg), and the generated reports are all saved to the directory in which you run the utility. Generated reports use the following file naming convention:

abaqus_usagen_siteID_date.csv

where siteID is the customer number that SIMULIA assigned to your site, and the date is written numerically in yymmdd format. The type of usage report is indicated by n: 1 indicates a summary usage report, and 2 indicates a daily usage report. For example, abaqus_usage2_01ABCD_080515.csv is the file name for a daily usage report created at site 01ABCD on May 15, 2008.

To run the utility, use the following command:

abaqus schLicRpt

The utility will prompt you for the required information, including the location of the debug log file, the frequency of report generation, and, if you choose to e-mail the reports, the fully qualified domain name of your SMTP server and the e-mail address to which reports are sent. If you run the utility again from the same directory, default settings will be provided during the configuration process based on the contents of the saved configuration file. You can, therefore, make minor modifications to the reporting configuration settings without reentering all of the required information.

You must have access to the schTasks.exe utility (on Windows) or crontab utility (on Linux) to run the scheduled license reporting utility. For best performance, it is recommended that you execute the utility on the Abaqus license server host computer, which is possible only if Abaqus products have been installed on this computer. The utility should be executed only on one computer within your site. Otherwise, you will generate duplicate usage reports and may degrade the performance of the license server when the reports are generated.

Use the following procedures to remove automatically generated reports from your system:

Linux platforms

To list current crontab entries, run the following command:

crontab -l

To edit the current crontab entries, run the following command:

crontab -e

To remove all of the current crontab entries, run the following command:

crontab -r

For more details on crontab, type man crontab from any prompt to view the crontab man page for your system.

Windows platforms

To list current scheduled tasks, run the following command:

schTasks /query

To remove the automated Abaqus license usage report, run the following command:

schTasks /delete /tn abaqus_usage_report