Autodesk 2015 Products Require Network License Manager Version 11.12

Autodesk has been rolling out the new 2015 software, but this year is a little different – especially if you have network licenses of the software. In past years you would need to request a new license file, place it on your license server, configure LMtools to look to the new license and restart the service, and users would be able to pull licenses for the latest release. Although it is a best practice to upgrade the version of the license manager with each release, not many people do it. When you do upgrade, it’s typically because there is an issue and is part of the troubleshooting process. In fact, here at Ideate, Inc. I only upgrade our license servers every 2-3 years.

But like I said, this year is different. Autodesk now requires the latest version of the Network License Manager, 11.12, for its 2015 products.

I’m not sure why this change was made, but we think it might have something to do with them using Flexera to build their network licenses. Flexera is a 3rd party license developer, and is actually the same licensing service we use for our Ideate Software applications.

For this year you’ll need to request a new license file and update your license server(s) to version 11.12. Take note of “server(s).” If you have a distributed license server system all license managers will need to be upgraded. Same goes for a redundant license server system.

A quick word on upgrading the server. In support I hear a lot of network admins saying they don’t want to upgrade/reinstall the license manager during business hours so users don’t lose a license. The license manager only communicates back and forth with users’ software to check to see if they have a valid license about every 15 minutes. This is called the heartbeat. This means you have a 15 minute window to do the upgrade. When I upgraded our license manager here it took me no more than 2 minutes. 

License Manager version 11.12 can be found on your Autodesk media, download or physical under the “Tools and Utilities” section of the installer, or it can be downloaded here.

I hope this post has helped. Have fun with the new release! 

Be sure to check for additional information found by our Ideate Technical Team in the new Autodesk 2015 releases for Revit MEP, Revit Structure, Revit Architecture, AutoCAD and more: ideateinc.com/2015

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Derek Wielkopolski
Ideate Technical Support Manager/Application Specialist
Derek holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Roger Williams University, Rhode Island. He is experienced working within the AEC industry from concept design through construction administration for both small and large scale projects. As Ideate’s Support Manager he ensures a timely and quality response to support requests and questions. Follow Derek on Twitter: @dwielk

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