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LicensingIssues
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[edit] General License Server Information
First go to the LICENSING HELP/TROUBLESHOOTING page. Follow the links and web forms. These may be a bit out of date but its a good first thing to try.
If you have a licensing issue with regards to a bought license, you should contact support. If you're running HoudiniApprentice, you can try the official Side Effects web forum. First do a search on the forums to see if someone has already encountered your problem. If not, then you could try asking for help.
In either case, make sure that you supply information like which operating system and version, what type of internet connection, and if you have a network card. If you're running a whole site, then providing your netmask is also useful. Also provide licensing diagnostic information from the Houdini LicenseAdministrator. On Windows, run the LicenseAdministrator and then from the top View menu, choose Diagnostic Information... On Unix operating systems, the LicenseAdministrator can be started from the shell via the hkey program.
For Apprentice users, sometimes the license server may be down when renewing your 30 day license. Usually, someone can easily confirm that for you on the forum mentioned above. You can try manually getting a Houdini License http://license.sidefx.com/get_nc_license.php
[edit] Windows
Under Windows, the keys are stored in the subdirectory C:\Windows\keys. It's probably a good idea to back up that directory. The licensing applications are stored in C:\Windows\System32. The files there are: hserver.exe, hserver.ini, sesinetd.exe, and sesinetd.ini (if it exists). hserver.exe and sesinetd.exe are overwritten with the latest versions of Houdini installed.
[edit] How Houdini Chooses a License Server
[edit] Some Basics
Houdini uses a proprietary SESI mechanism rather than FLEXlm etc to manage licenses. Here are some basics (for Linux):
(1) /$HH/sbin/sesinetd.options is the options file that tells SESI where to store its log files.
(2) $HH/sbin/sesictrl is used to query the installed licenses and see expiration dates, subnets and usage. Here are some useful flags for that tool:
-i Long List licenses -s Short list of licenses -n Generate server key
(3) The server code can be seen by running "$HH/sbin/sesictrl -n". That server code is needed when downloading license keys from http://license.sidefx.com/
(4) For the record, "serverhost=<hostname>" gets written in ~/.sesi_licenses.pref if there is no hserver process running on your system and you run "setenv SESI_LMHOST <hostname>" before trying to launch Houdini. If there is no hserver process running and ${SESI_LMHOST} is not set, then "serverhost=<local hostname>" gets written in ~/.sesi_licenses.pref.
[edit] Choosing a license server
The Houdini license server is picked by Houdini (at launch time) using the following rules:
1. If there is no hserver process running, no ~/.sesi_licenses.pref file and ${SESI_LMHOST} is not set, then Houdini looks for a SESI license server on your local host. At that point, an hserver process is spawned (and configured to use your local system as the SESI license server) and "serverhost=<host>" is written to ~/.sesi_licenses.pref, where <host> is your local host.
2. If there is an hserver process running, then it does not matter what is in ~/.sesi_licenses.pref or what ${SESI_LMHOST} is set to. Houdini will look for a SESI license server on the system that hserver is configured for. If there is no ~/.sesi_licenses.pref file, then it is written and setup to use the same SESI license server that hserver is configured for.
3. If there is no hserver process running, but ~/.sesi_licenses.pref contains "serverhost=<host1>" and ${SESI_LMHOST} is set to "<host2>", then the ${SESI_LMHOST} setting takes precedence and Houdini will look for a SESI license server on <host2>. At that point, an hserver process is spawned and it is configured to use <host2> as the SESI license server.
4. If there is no hserver process running and no ~/.sesi_licenses.pref file, then Houdini looks for a SESI license server on the system specificed by ${SESI_LMHOST}. At that point, an hserver process is spawned and configured to use that server and the ~/.sesi_licenses.pref file is written and setup to use that server.
5. If there is no hserver process running and ${SESI_LMHOST} is not set, then Houdini looks for a SESI license server on the system specificed in ~/.sesi_licenses.pref. At that point, an hserver process is spawned and configured to use that server.
To summarize, Houdini will always try to use the SESI license server on the host that hserver is configured for, assuming that process is running. If that hserver process is not running locally, then Houdini will look for the ${SESI_LMHOST} environment variable. If that is set, then Houdini will try to use the SESI license server on that system and it will also write that hostname into ~/.sesi_licenses.pref (assuming that file doesn't already exist) and spawn an hserver process to use that system. If there is no hserver process running and ${SESI_LMHOST} is not set, then Houdini will look for the ~/.sesi_licenses.pref file. If that file contains "serverhost=<host>", then Houdini will try to use the SESI license server on that system and it will spawn an hserver process to use that system. If there is no hserver process running, ${SESI_LMHOST} is not set and there is no ~/.sesi_licenses.pref file, then Houdini will try to use the SESI license server on the local host. It will also spawn an hserver process to use that system and write that local hostname into ~/.sesi_licenses.pref.
