Know-How: Set Up a Floating License (Step-by‑Step Walkthrough)

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Disclaimer: This article is provided as-is for educational purposes only, without warranty of any kind. Use the information at your own risk. Always verify implementations in your specific environment and consult official Altera documentation for production deployments.

Introduction

This guide explains how to set up a floating license for Altera® FPGA tools.
The instructions and screenshots are based mainly on the Windows* operating system, but the same concepts apply to Linux systems.

Overview: What You Need Before Starting

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

1. A valid floating license file (.dat) - For the examples below, this file will be referred to as float.dat.
2. Access to the license server machine
3. The license server’s hostname and NIC ID / Host ID
   
   

Steps

Step 1: Generate the Floating License File (SSLC)

   i. Log in to the Self Service Licensing Center (SSLC).
   ii. Select your product entitlement, for example:
        - Quartus Prime
        - Questa
   iii. Choose one of the following:
        - An existing computer with FLOAT license type
        - Or select + New Computer, in the Create Computer, choose FLOAT license type, and enter the
           license server NIC ID / Host ID

   4. Generate and download the license file (.dat).

Step 2: Edit License File

   i. Open the downloaded license file and update it based on the instructions provided in the User Guide
      Section 6.4.4.1: Setting Up a License File in the License Server:
      Altera Documentation and Resources Center

Helpful Tips 1:
----------------------------------------------------- START -----------------------------------------------------
To find the license server hostname
   - Open a Command Prompt and run:
     hostname
   - Install only the latest license daemons. Remove all older versions, and keep only the most recent ones.
      Required daemons:

• FlexNet License Daemon for FPGA software (64‑bit)
  Includes: alterad (Altera daemon), lmgrd, lmtools, lmutil (These are used later in Step 3.)
  
• FlexNet License Daemon for Siemens ModelSim / Questa FPGA software (64‑bit)
  Includes: saltd (Siemens Advanced Licensing Toolkit Daemon)

• Download link:
  Flexlm License Daemons for FPGA Software | Altera

*If you’re running a floating license server for Siemens licenses, you need to manually change the VENDOR daemon line in the license file from mgcld to saltd. It is optionally to put user-defined port numbers for the alterad and saltd daemons unless you have specific port numbers that allow firewall access. In this case, I left it empty.
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   ii. At the end of Step 2, your license should looks similar like below (Windows):

Important to note: Use “” if there is space in the path.

Step 3. Launching the Licensing Server

The requisites to configure a new license server are:

• System administration (Administrator) privileges.
• A valid license.dat floating license file.
• (Linux only) To run the FLEXlm lmgrd license server manager, make sure that the /usr/tmp directory exists.

There are two methods to launch the license server:

a) Using the Command Line Interface (CLI)

i) Open a Command Prompt (Windows) or Terminal (Linux).
ii) Change to the directory where the lmgrd executable is located. 
iii) Start the license server by running command:

lmgrd -c <license.dat>
Example: lmgrd -c float.dat

This command starts the license server using the specified license file.
You will see a few windows pop up showing that the daemons are running.

Helpful Tips 2:

----------------------------------------------------- START -----------------------------------------------------To make things easier - skipping the a) ii) step, you can add the path directory that contains lmgrd to your system’s Path environment variable. Once it’s added, you can run the lmgrd command directly from any directory  in the Command Prompt.

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iv) To verify the license status. Run:

lmutil lmstat –c <license.dat>
Example: lmutil lmstat –c float.dat

How to Read the above info:

v) Stop the license server:

lmutil lmdown -c <license.dat>
Example: lmutil lmdown –c float.dat

Helpful Tips 3:
----------------------------------------------------- START -----------------------------------------------------

• The above command just display the overall status of the license. You can add -a option in the command to report out the verbose list of available licenses and its total numbers of seat, example:
  lmutil lmstat –a –c <license.dat>
  Example: lmutil lmstat –a –c float.dat
  

• To check a specific feature:
  lmutil lmstat –c <license.dat> -f <feature name>

  Example to check the Questa Altera FPGA Edition license: 
  lmutil lmstat –c float.dat -f intelqsim

• View command options:
  lmutil lmstat -help

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b) Using the Graphic User Interface (GUI)

1. Right‑click lmtools and select Run as Administrator.
2. In the Service / License File tab, select Configuration Using Services.
3. Switch to the Config Services tab and configure the required fields below:

4. Click Save Service.
5. Go to the Start / Stop / Reread tab and click Start Server to launch the service.
6. Click Stop Server to shut it down.

Helpful Tips 4:
----------------------------------------------------- START -----------------------------------------------------

• The GUI performs the same actions as the command line, but is easier to visualize.
• For debugging, the CLI provides more detailed output.
•  If something fails, always check:
    - Server Status
    - Debug Log
• Diagnose license or feature issues using CLI:
    - lmutil lmdiag -c <license.dat> <feature_name>

• If using GUI, you can run diagnostics from the Server Diags tab.

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Conclusion

This guide provides a complete walkthrough for setting up a floating license server for Altera FPGA tools.
Following these steps should help ensure a reliable and functional license environment.