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rhagen
Level 2

MacPro, Thunderbolt and FlexLM

Hi - I was wondering if anyone else has had the problem with using FlexLM-licensed products such as Maya, MochaPro, Deadline, etc on a MacPro running OS 10.10 with the network interface being accessed over Thunderbolt?

Here's the issue:
Small Formfactor "New" MacPro with a Sonnet PCI-Express Chassis expander connected via Thunderbolt. We have a 10GbE card in there (we also tried one with a 1GbE card inside to see if it was the 10GbE card). When we connect the MacPro to the Sonnet via thunderbolt, then connect the network to the Sonnet, all FlexLM-licensed products immediately fail. Unplugging the network from the Sonnet and putting it into the MacPro results in Maya, Mocha, etc working... however, we then lose the 10GbE functionality since the MacPro only has 1GbE internal.

We resorted to having to put in some Nodelocked Maya, that works as a workaround. However, we want to retain the functionality of our floating license servers... in fact some products don't offer a node-locked alternative.

Any hints or tips? Is there an upgrade to the FlexLM license server that I should use? I'm using 11.12
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(1) Reply
raffie
Level 6

Hi rhagen,
This is a known issue with Flexnet licensing. It is fixed in 11.12.1.2. However, this is a client side fix, so updating the server probably won't help.
The problem occurs when the machine has more than 10 en devices (which Mac Pros easily hit). Reducing the number of devices fixes this. We normally see this when two monitors are connected via Thunderbolt so unplugging one of the monitors fixes this. Depending on how the application is coded, plugging the monitor in after the application starts may still work.

One of my customers suggested running this command to get around the problem:
sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleThunderboltIP.kext

We've had success with this, but haven't fully tested it, so use at your own risk.
It sounds like your issue may not be with monitors, and in fact you probably need that extension to do what you are doing (connecting two computers). Maybe these workarounds can help you find one for your case.
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