FlexLM vs FNMS

[boulaca]

Dear All,

May I ask you for your opinion regarding this decision below?

My organization is using FlexLM to control concurrent access for some specific applications. Therefore, since we just procured FNMS release 2020 R1, some colleagues are pushing to decommission FlexLM and to use FNMS instead, but some others want to keep both of them for unknown reasons.

Consequently, I would like to keep only one tool for our asset license management, but before I go further decommissioning FlexLM, I want to be sure that FNMS includes all features offered by FlexLM, as controlling Floating licenses, etc.

Thank you in advance for your return.

[ChrisG · Accepted solution]

FlexLM and FlexNet Manager Suite (FNMS) are different products which meet different sorts of needs.

FlexNet Manager Suite will help with things like:

• Keeping track of software assets (licenses) of various types that your organization has for a wide range of software across your server, end user computing and cloud environments
• Identifying situations where licenses have been over-purchased or under-purchased, and helping to identify optimization opportunities
• Tracking software assets to give you confidence of being in a good position to respond to vendor audits

FlexLM (now known as "FlexNet Publisher") is a technology that software publishers can use in the software they develop to manage and control concurrent user access to their products. If your organization develops software, you may be using FlexNet Publisher for that purpose. Or if your organization uses software that contains FlexNet Publisher technology, you may be using a "flexlm" command line tool that performs various administration operations on license servers such as starting and stopping license servers, checking server status, accessing concurrent usage logs, or updating license details.

The functionality that FlexNet Publisher (and the flexlm command line tool) provides is separate and different from FlexNet Manager Suite - you can't replace either solution with the other.

[ChrisG · Accepted solution]

FlexLM and FlexNet Manager Suite (FNMS) are different products which meet different sorts of needs.

FlexNet Manager Suite will help with things like:

• Keeping track of software assets (licenses) of various types that your organization has for a wide range of software across your server, end user computing and cloud environments
• Identifying situations where licenses have been over-purchased or under-purchased, and helping to identify optimization opportunities
• Tracking software assets to give you confidence of being in a good position to respond to vendor audits

FlexLM (now known as "FlexNet Publisher") is a technology that software publishers can use in the software they develop to manage and control concurrent user access to their products. If your organization develops software, you may be using FlexNet Publisher for that purpose. Or if your organization uses software that contains FlexNet Publisher technology, you may be using a "flexlm" command line tool that performs various administration operations on license servers such as starting and stopping license servers, checking server status, accessing concurrent usage logs, or updating license details.

The functionality that FlexNet Publisher (and the flexlm command line tool) provides is separate and different from FlexNet Manager Suite - you can't replace either solution with the other.

[boulaca · Accepted solution]

Hi  ChrisG, 

Thank you for your quick answer.  it helps me to have a good idea, and to decide for next step.

Have a nice day,

Ali