FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack

4 (11.13.1.4)
Release Notes
March 2016

Overview....................................................................................................................................................... 2

Resolved Issues in FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) ................................................. 2

Resolved Issues from FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 3 (11.13.1.3) ............................................ 2

Resolved Issues from FlexNet Publisher 2015 Security Update 1 (11.13.1.2) ...................................... 5

Resolved Issues from FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 1 (11.13.1.1) ............................................ 6
General Issues .............................................................................................................................................................6
lmadmin Issues ...........................................................................................................................................................8
Virtualization detection updates for 11.13.1.1 .......................................................................................................8

Known Issues in FlexNet Publisher 2015 (11.13.1.2, 11.13.1.3, and 11.13.1.4).................................... 9

Supported Platforms................................................................................................................................. 10
Platform Notes ........................................................................................................................................................ 10

Legal Information...................................................................................................................................... 11

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 1
Overview
This service pack FlexNet Publisher Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) is intended to correct only the problems
that are described in the release notes and only applies to the supported platforms indicated below. See
Supported Platforms section below for more details.

Resolved Issues in FlexNet Publisher

2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4)
Visual Studio 2015 support
FlexNet Publisher applications can now be compiled and linked with Visual Studio 2015. This requires
compiling and linking a new kit-supplied source file, lm_redir_std.c. The kit-supplied kit makefile and
makefile.act demonstrate this.(FNP-13964)

FLEXLM_TIMEOUT environment variable changes.

FLEXLM_TIMEOUT is a Windows-only environment variable, which sets the timeout value (in
microseconds) a FlexEnabled client application uses when attempting to connect to a license server.
Previously, the default value was 100000 (0.1 seconds). Now, the default value is 3000000 (3 seconds),
with minimum value 200000 (0.2 seconds) and maximum 20000000 (20 seconds).

This change resolves an issue where timeout errors could inappropriately occur because of network
latency between the client and the server (FNP-13879). Note that the time to report a failure when
attempting to connect to an invalid host from a Windows client is also governed by the
FLEXLM_TIMEOUT value. (FNP-13879).

Resolved Issues from FlexNet

Publisher 2015 Service Pack 3 (11.13.1.3)
lmgrd instability under high volume of connections
In the event that lmgrd encountered a connection with a file descriptor number greater than the
maximum that can be accommodated in an fd_set buffer, an lmgrd core dump previously occurred.
The LM_SERVER_HIGHEST_FD environment variable can be set by the license administrator
(on the server) to limit the maximum file descriptor number that can be assigned to a lmgrd
connection. From 11.13.1.3, LM_SERVER_HIGHEST_FD defaults to the maximum supported file
descriptor number - 1024 on Linux, 4096 on Windows. Windows has a higher maximum because file
descriptor numbers are allocated to Windows sockets in multiples of 4.

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 2
 Now, when a client connects using a file descriptor > LM_SERVER_HIGHEST_FD, it will receive an error
such as -16 (LM_CANTREAD) or -95 (LM_NOT_THIS_HOST) and the message “Warning: Maximum
connections to the server has reached. Please disconnect some clients from the
server“ will be written to the server log (FNP-11100).

In some cases, the lmgrd process may be overwhelmed by client connections before the file descriptor
allocation is exceeded: symptoms of this occurring are when clients receive -15 (LM_CANTCONNECT)
errors and an accumulation of sockets on the server in ESTABLISHED or CLOSE_WAIT states while
client volume is high. This is an indication that the server hardware resources are not handling the client
load: in such cases one option to reduce load on the server is to decrease the LM_SERVER_HIGHEST_FD
value (FNP-13992).

Minimizing Microsoft Attack Surface Analyser errors with customized

lmadmin installations on Windows
A new lmadmin command line parameter cacheDir is introduced to define the destination directory for
cache files (FNP-11412). This is intended to be used with the pre-existing configDir, logDir, and uploadDir
parameters so that custom Windows lmadmin installers can specify these runtime folders in a
ProgramData location. These runtime folders are by default created as subfolders of the location where
lmadmin.exe is installed. Since applications are typically installed in a Windows Program Files location, this
can lead to User-modify privilege being enabled on ProgramFiles subfolders (lmadmin runs with LocalUser
privilege when running as a service), which is a security issue detected by Microsoft Attack Surface
Analyser. By moving these runtime folders to a ProgramData location, Windows best-practice is followed,
which removes Microsoft Attack Surface Analyser errors such as “The folder 'C:\Program Files
(x86)\lmadmin' contains folders with ACLs that allow tampering by multiple non-administrator accounts”
(FNP-9695).

Inappropriate “Updating DACL Failed” lmtools message

A license server serving trusted storage features requires start permission for the FlexNet Licensing
Service, which lmtools attempts to introduce by modifying the FlexNet Licensing Service permissions
when installing the license server as a service. The “Updating DACL Failed” message can occur if the
FlexNet Licensing Service is not present when this attempt is made.

Previously, this message was inappropriately displayed when the license server does not use trusted
storage. Now, an attempt to update FlexNet Licensing Service permissions is made only if the new
“Trusted Storage in Use” checkbox is checked (FNP-11526).

SHA256 now used in certificate signatures on Windows

Windows binaries (including lmadmin.exe) signed with the Flexera Software LLC certificate now use a
SHA256 digest, previously SHA1(FNP-11621).

Simplified example backoffice for xml activation licensing models

Responsegen.exe (which loads responsegen.dll, a component used in Flexera-supplied backoffices) has
previously been supplied as an example test utility, but without source code.

Now, a simplified ResponseGenApi.c example is provided in the.\examples\activation\responsegen folder.

This example demonstrates the APIs exposed by responsegen.dll to process xml transaction requests from
activation utilities such as appcomptranutil (FNP-11362).

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 3
 Delay when starting license server as a service
Previously, when using lmtools or installs to install lmgrd as a service, or lmadmin -installService, an
inappropriate dependency on the WMI Performance adapter service (wmiApSrv) was created. This
dependency occasionally resulted in startup delays of the license server service. The wmiApSrv
dependency has now been removed (FNP-11535).

Checkout performance and NAT-translation improvements for FlexNet

Publisher clients
From FlexNet Publisher 11.12.0, FlexNet Publisher clients have by default resolved their own hostname
against a DNS server to both IPv4 and IPv6 address, and send these IP addresses to the license server as
part of the checkout request. This behavior can be disabled by setting the environment variable
FNP_IP_ENV=1 on the client system, whereupon the client's IP address will instead be obtained from the
socket connection at the license server. There are two scenarios where FNP_IP_ENV=1 is desirable:

• If the license server wishes to use a NAT-translated IP address for the client

• if the resolution of a client's hostname (by the client) is slow, this can block checkout performance.
This can occur in some network configurations, for example in '.local' domains.

As a result of customer feedback, FlexNet Publisher clients now have ' FNP_IP_ENV=1' behavior by default
(FNP-11609). Setting FNP_IP_ENV=0 will cause clients to resolve their own hostname against a DNS server
to both IPv4 and IPv6 address.

Producers are unlikely to have to advise their customers to set FNP_IP_ENV=0, provided only one IP
variation is consistently used across client and server configurations, such as in the options file. The
default IP variation (refer FNP_IP_PRIORITY) is IPv4.

Java exception on using native hostids

Previously, In a Java application when the client with a native hostid tries to get the feature details of the
uncounted licenses the application exits with an exception, this issue is now resolved and no exception is
seen when you try to get the feature details of uncounted licenses (FNP-11350).

Client side Memory leak

This leak occurred on subsequent calls of LM_A_LICENSE_DEFAULT to provide the server path (FNP-
11336).

Java client hangs indefinitely

When a license file has multiple feature lines the getFeatureDetails API used to hang indefinitely due to
not identifying the correct number of feature lines (FNP-11099).

Preptool failure on OS X
When using WxWidgets on OS X, a “Negative extent overlap encountered” preptool failure could occur
when prepping the producer's application. This has now been resolved (FNP-11476).

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 4
 LM_A_INTERNET_OVERRIDE issue
Earlier, when the attribute LM_A_INTERNET_OVERRIDE was set in client application, the client was able to
checkout an extra license. Now LM_A_INTERNET_OVERRIDE restricts the user from performing an extra
checkout (FNP-10714).

Overdraft usage-reporting updates

In 11.13.1.1, an overdraft usage reporting white paper and Windows-based example archives were made
available for the first time. The overdraft usage reporting example is based on the new vendor daemon
callbacks for OVERDRAFT licenses, as described in the 11.13.1.1 release notes.

In 11.13.1.3 some improvements in the supplied makefile (makefile.ou) are delivered in fnpoverdraftusage-
i86_n3-11.13.1.3.zip and fnpoverdraftusage-x64_n6-11.13.1.3.zip example archives. These improvements
mean the updated example archives must be used with the 11.13.1.3 FlexNet Publisher kits, which have
matching changes in the kit-provided makefiles (FNP-11361). The overdraft usage reporting white paper
(FNP_WP Overdraft Reporting.pdf) has been updated to reflect the minor changes that result when
building the example.

Overdraft license resolved issue

The client handle was not reported correctly in ls_inod_callback when a borrowed overdraft feature
was expired or returned is resolved (FNP-11387).

Resolved Issues from FlexNet

Publisher 2015 Security Update 1
(11.13.1.2)
Buffer overrun vulnerability in lmgrd and vendor daemon
Please refer to the following customer article for details:

https://flexeracommunity.force.com/customer/articles/en_US/ISSUE/Two-security-
vulnerabilities-remediated-in-FlexNet-Publisher/

Flexera Software recommends producers take this opportunity to upgrade their license servers to FlexNet
Publisher 2015 Security Update 1 (11.13.1.2), where the vulnerability has been addressed (FNP-11413).

Checkout Performance delay

During the first checkout against a new job, virtualization checks are performed in FlexNet Publisher. In
FlexNet Publisher 2015 Security Update 1 (11.13.1.2) Windows kits, virtualization checks take
approximately 0.5 seconds, compared to 1.5 seconds in FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 1 (11.13.1.1)
and 0.3 seconds in FlexNet Publisher 2015 (11.13.1.0). This additional technique was optimized in FlexNet
Publisher 2015 Security Update 1 (11.13.1.2) (FNP-11434, FNP-11324, FNP-11306).

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 5
 Signing lmadmin Windows Installer
Earlier the FlexNet Publisher 2015 SP 1 (11.13.1.1) lmadmin installer was not code-signed. The FlexNet
Publisher 2015 Security Update 1 (11.13.1.2) lmadmin installer is correctly code-signed with the Flexera
Software certificate (FNP-11451).

Note • FlexNet Publisher 2015 Security Update 1 (11.13.1.2) lmadmin installers package includes FlexNet
Publisher 2015 Service Pack 1 (11.13.1.1) lmadmin - there are no functional changes to lmadmin in FlexNet
Publisher 2015 Security Update 1 (11.13.1.2).

Vendor Daemon Client Connection Limits

As a consequence of the high-client-volume lmgrd stability fix delivered in FlexNet Publisher 2015
Service Pack 1 (11.13.1.1) (FNP-11100), connections to the vendor daemon (VD) were mistakenly limited
as well as connections to the lmgrd. This manifested as new client connections to a Windows VD being
rejected at about the 2000th client, and at about the 8000th client for a non-Windows VD. In such cases,
the message “Highest file descriptor allowed (8196) has been reached” was written to the
server log. This has been corrected in FlexNet Publisher 2015 Security Update 1 (11.13.1.2), and VD client
connection limits are now returned to their FlexNet Publisher 2015 (11.13.1.0) levels (FNP-11401and FNP-
11421).

Windows UMN2 for Broadcom Ethernet adapters

Models of Broadcom adapters whose “PNP Device Id” is prefixed with the Broadcom driver string
“B06BDRV” would not previously generate a UMN2 on Windows. Such adapters will now generate a
UMN2 (FNP-11202).

Resolved Issues from FlexNet

Publisher 2015 Service Pack 1 (11.13.1.1)
General Issues
Report log: IP address was logged as lost for borrow checkouts after
server restart
After switching the report log (using lmnewlog) and restarting the server, a borrow user's IP address may
be logged as lost in the report log, this issue is resolved and the client IP address is displayed
(FNP-10713).

Linux stability issues related to loading of system libraries

(RTLD_DEEPBIND flag)
In order to resolve stability issues related to loading of system libraries such as libhal and libsmbios on
Linux, FlexNet Publisher LSB binaries are now built with the RTLD_DEEPBIND linker flag (FNP-11294).

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 6
 Typo in displaying Amazon family name
In FlexNet Publisher 2015 (11.13.1) release when you run lmvminfo -long to test the Amazon EC2
platform, the Family field displayed Family = AMAZO, this is now been corrected (FNP-11161).

Package lines having same component names had an issue during

upgrade
In the prior release, when we upgrade two different packages having same component names in a license
file, the license server displayed an error “Prior INCREMENT line for UPGRADE (xyz:5.0-
>5.0201) has no licenses“. This issue is now fixed (FNP-11149).

Client crash with empty LM_LICENSE_FILE

The client application built with FlexNet Publisher used to crash when LM_LICENSE_FILE contained an
empty string (FNP-10429).

Helgrind -detected race condition resolved

A thread race condition on Unix platforms, detected by the helgrind tool, has been resolved (FNP-10975).

lmstat displayed incorrect count of reserved licenses after lmreread

Previously, when a lmreread occurred after reserving licenses, lmstat sometimes displayed incorrect count
of reserved licenses of a particular component (FNP-2875).

Reported buffer overrun in FlexNet Publisher Windows activation library

(libFNP.dll)
Buffer overrun issues in deployed libFNP.dll libraries were analyzed through a crash dump obtained
from a producer's Windows Error Reporting (WER) account. The buffer overrun was traced to
inappropriate usage of a sscanf function, which has now been replaced (FNP-10810).

Three server failover issue

In Flexnet Publisher 11.13.0 on failover a client that uses license files instead of the recommended
port@host for license server paths, experienced a heartbeat failure. This client-side issue is now resolved.
(FNP-11311).

Slower checkout due to multiple DNS lookups

Some scenarios where multiple DNS lookups were inappropriately occurring, have been optimized (FNP-
11141).

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 7
lmadmin Issues
SSL server vulnerability
The cipher suites configured for lmadmin allowed man-in-the-middle attack, that is certain cipher suites
that do not require server authentication were supported by https client. Now by disabling the NULL
Authentication ciphers, the client always authenticates the server certificate, this in turn provides the
security against man-in-the-middle attack (FNP-10946).

SSL protocols supported in lmadmin

lmadmin now supports “TLSv1 and TLSv2 “SSL protocols (FNP-10941).

lmadmin installer import files issue

Importing files from previous Installation option in lmadmin installer throws an error “Couldn't copy
vendor daemon. <pathToPreviousInstalation>” due to vendor daemon path non availability. The
vendor daemon path is now updated in Server.xml file and no error is seen during import installation
(FNP-10871).

Virtualization detection updates for

11.13.1.1
VMware ESXi 6.0
VMware ESXi 6.0 is now supported (FNP-10908).

VirtualBox 5.0.4
FlexNet Publisher now supports detection of VirtualBox 5.0.4 (VirtualBox 4.3 previously). However, a bug
in the Virtual Box 5.0.0 and 5.0.2 Hypervisor means that lmvminfo returns 'physical' from a Windows
guest, and 'QEMU' from a Linux guest (FNE-4650, FNE-4651). On VirtualBox 5.0.4, lmvminfo returns the
expected 'VIRTUALBOX'. Therefore, Flexera strongly recommends installing the latest patch for VirtualBox
5.0.

Parallels Desktop 10
FlexNet Publisher now supports detection of virtual environments with Parallels 10. However, a bug in the
detection mechanism from Linux guests means that lmvminfo detects Parallels 10 as 'QEMU' (FNP-
11271). Parallels 9 is correctly detected as 'PARALLELS'.

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 8
Known Issues in FlexNet Publisher
2015 (11.13.1.2, 11.13.1.3, and
11.13.1.4)
Windows QEMU detection limitation
Some Windows 10 guests running on QEMU hypervisors may fail to detect a virtual environment (FNP-
11386).

lmadmin installer Java issue

When installing lmadmin on Mac OS X 10.11 machine, lmadmin Installer might show an error message
“no Compatible Java 1.5* is available” even if JRE 1.8 is already installed.

As a workaround it is recommended to install the legacy JRE 1.6 version on the Mac OS X 10.11 machine,
before running the lmadmin installer (FNP- 11370).

lmgrd license server as a Windows service fails to start

In FlexNet Publisher 2015 (11.13.1), a change was made to run Windows license server services with
LocalService privilege instead of LocalSystem privilege, following the least-privilege security best
practice.One inappropriate consequence is that a lmgrd Windows service, as installed by installs.exe or
lmtools.exe, may not start. This is because a LocalService service does not by default have sufficient
privilege to write the server debug log to (a subdirectory of) Windows Program Files or Users directories
(FNP-11460, FNP-11446, FNP-11431, FNP-11393).

Flexera therefore recommends following Windows best-practice for writing application data by
specifying debug log and report log locations within a subfolder of %SystemDrive%\ProgramData\.
LocalService services do by default have sufficient privilege to write to ProgramData (sub)directories
(FNP-11500).

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 9
Supported Platforms
This service pack release delivers FlexNet Publisher archives for: i86_n3 and x64_n6 it is a Windows only
Service pack. For more details, see FlexNet Publisher 2015 (11.13.1) release notes. Refer to url: http://
www.flexerasoftware.com/support/eol/flexnet-publisher-end-of-life.htm for the latest information on
supported platforms.

Platform Notes
• FlexNet Publisher 11.13.1.3 lmadmin is bundled in 11.13.1.4 Kits.

• FlexNet Publisher 11.13.1.3 has been tested against Apple OS X 10.11 and Windows 10 (FNP-11094).

• On some recent Linux updates, such as SUSE Enterprise Linux 12, the LSB component is not offered
as part of the supported distribution. Components in FlexNet Publisher, such as lmgrd, require the
LSB-loader. If this is not present, lmgrd will fail to run with a 'file not found' error (FNP-11338, FNP-
11353).

As a workaround specify a soft link to the native loader. The following symlinks have been verified on
SUSE Enterprise Linux 12:

32-bit Linux

sudo bash -c "if [ ! -e /lib/ld-lsb.so.3 ]; then ln -s ld-linux.so.2 /lib/ld-

lsb.so.3; fi"

64-bit Linux

sudo bash -c "if [ ! -e /lib64/ld-lsb-x86-64.so.3 ]; then ln -s ld-linux-x86-

64.so.2 /lib64/ld-lsb-x86-64.so.3; fi“

From 11.13.1.3, the install_fnp.sh script will issue a warning if LSB is not detected on the host.
Additionally, this script supports a new -nolsb parameter, which sets up the symlinks from the LSB
loader to the native loader, allowing components such as lmgrd to run (FNP-11524).

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 10
Legal Information
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2016 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This publication contains proprietary and confidential information and creative works owned by Flexera
Software LLC and its licensors, if any. Any use, copying, publication, distribution, display, modification, or
transmission of such publication in whole or in part in any form or by any means without the prior
express written permission of Flexera Software LLC is strictly prohibited. Except where expressly provided
by Flexera Software LLC in writing, possession of this publication shall not be construed to confer any
license or rights under any Flexera Software LLC intellectual property rights, whether by estoppel,
implication, or otherwise.

All copies of the technology and related information, if allowed by Flexera Software LLC, must display this
notice of copyright and ownership in full.

Intellectual Property
For a list of trademarks and patents that are owned by Flexera Software, see http://
www.flexerasoftware.com/intellectual-property. All other brand and product names mentioned in Flexera
Software products, product documentation, and marketing materials are the trademarks and registered
trademarks of their respective owners.

Restricted Rights Legend

The Software is commercial computer software. If the user or licensee of the Software is an agency,
department, or other entity of the United States Government, the use, duplication, reproduction, release,
modification, disclosure, or transfer of the Software, or any related documentation of any kind, including
technical data and manuals, is restricted by a license agreement or by the terms of this Agreement in
accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 12.212 for civilian purposes and Defense Federal
Acquisition Regulation Supplement 227.7202 for military purposes. The Software was developed fully at
private expense. All other use is prohibited.

Documentation last updated March 16, 2016 4:50 pm

FlexNet Publisher 2015 Service Pack 4 (11.13.1.4) Release Notes (March 2016) 11