New NX Customer Licensing and Installation

A review of the process for a new customer to prepare and install an NX license file and license server.

In this instance, a two-step process involves a temporary licensing authorization and installation, followed by a permanent license installation. This article addresses a floating license configuration for one or more users.

Temporary Licensing

Upon the completion of the sale, the proper paperwork, and internal processing within Siemens, an authorization allows the generation of a temporary, 7-day license file. This can be provided to the customer by either Siemens or the Siemens partner responsible for the software sale. This license file is an open, floating type license which can be used to run NX on any “certified” computer. This can be up to, but not exceeding, the number of licenses purchased by the customer. This applies to computers generally that have the processor speed, memory, and graphics capability, that Siemens specifies for the NX version to be run.

In all circumstances, we recommend computers meet or exceed the certification requirements. This would include pads, pods, and tablets as well! There are many job titles where these can be ideal. Such titles include: service, field, or support engineers and technicians, industrial sales, quality control inspectors, etc.

Once received, the license file is edited and installed by the customer, as instructed by the “readme” file. You can download this file from the Siemens or Swoosh website or as directed by one of their support experts. A license manager is necessary to install and run the licensing. You can download the license manager installation here.

Loading the License Manager

Here are the steps for loading the license manager. When configured properly, it will allow the customer to run the NX software on any computer. However, the computers must be connected to the same network. This temporary license is for up to 7 days.

Step 1: Move the license server installation and the attached license file to the machine you would like to use as your license server

Step 2: Use Notepad or Wordpad to edit the SERVER line in the license file. You’ll want to change “YourHostname” to the actual name of your license server.  (SERVER YourHostname ANY 28000)

You can find the hostname by right-clicking the start menu and selecting “System”:

In this case above, WINDOWS-37USA00 is the server “host name”.

Step 3: After that, run the license server install.

Step 4: Client setup – Go to the System Properties on the client machine(s) and select Environment Variables:

The SPLM_LICENSE_SEVER system environment variable Should point to your license server (host name):

Example: “28000@windows-37uda00”  where “windows-37uda00” is the license server name.

Moving to a Permanent License File

The temporary license file expires seven days after issue. As a result, you will need to provide your [new] license server name and associated Composite Host ID (CID) before that so Siemens can generate a permanent license file for you.  You can download the CID utility here. Run it on your new license server and send the results to your Siemens partner or, if not applicable, Siemens.

Don’t forget that a computer firewall settings must be off in order to access certain data and application routines necessary for connection and running of the software. You can control these on the user’s computer operating system (OS), usually in the Control Panel settings.

Now that you’ve installed an NX license file and server, read our article How to Upgrade an Existing NX License Server to keep it up-to-date.

Summary

Hopefully this article has emphasized the principle steps in helping brand-new customers getting NX up and running quickly.

This is the last blog article that I will be writing for Swoosh before I retire today.  I hope that my previous blogs have been beneficial to you all in some way and I wish you all the best in NX and beyond! Stick with Swoosh – you’ll get the best!

-Garrett L. Koch

July 12, 2019