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What is GOLD's "FlexNet Licence Manager" and how does it work?

Solution

Note: GOLD 5.4 and later uses CSD software suite based licensing, and does not require a flexnet license server to be run. The following information therefore only applies to GOLD 5.3 and earlier.

FlexNet is a third party licence management tool that is used to regulate the use of GOLD (version 5.2 and above, previous versions use FlexLM) and to ensure that usage remains within the terms of the relevant GOLD licence agreement.

The FlexNet licence manager software is a client/server application whereby GOLD clients must "check out" a valid licence from the specified FlexNet licence server before a GOLD run can begin. GOLD licences are platform-specific such that there must be a GOLD licence available for the specific platform which is being used to run GOLD.

The machine that will be used to run the licence server must be specified prior to purchasing the licence, since the licence server is "node locked" to a specific machine. However, the GOLD client licences are "floating" and can be allocated to any client machine for which a platform licence has been purchased, until the total number of available licences have been checked out. At this point, further licence requests will be denied by the licence server.