MOSEK Licensing Guide

Release 9.3.20

MOSEK ApS

27 April 2022
Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Contact Information 2

3 License Agreement 3

4 Quickstart 7
4.1 I don’t have a license file yet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.2 I have a license file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.3 Local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.4 Floating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

5 License system basics 9

5.1 License Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.2 The License File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5.3 Versions and platform support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

6 Hostname and Hostid 11

6.1 The Hostname . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
6.2 The Host ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

7 Floating license setup 14

7.1 Windows: Token server setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
7.2 Linux: Token server setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7.3 Mac OS: Token server setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7.4 Changing default ports and firewall and antivirus issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.5 License Checkout Overhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

8 Client setup 21
8.1 With a local license file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
8.2 Without a local license file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8.3 Testing and debugging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

9 License in a Cloud Computing Environment 23

9.1 Example: Token server in Amazon EC2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

10 Licensing FAQ 24
10.1 General questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
10.2 Floating license issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
10.3 Local file issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
10.4 Need more help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Index 29

i
Chapter 1

Introduction

The MOSEK Optimization Suite is a commercial product that requires a valid license. This guide
explains how the licensing system works and how to install a license.
Are you only interested in quick, simplified instructions? Jump directly to Sec. 4.

1
Chapter 2

Contact Information

Phone +45 7174 9373

Website mosek.com
Email
[email protected] Sales, pricing, and licensing
[email protected] Technical support, questions and bug reports
[email protected] Everything else.
Mailing Address
MOSEK ApS
Fruebjergvej 3
Symbion Science Park, Box 16
2100 Copenhagen O
Denmark

You can get in touch with MOSEK using popular social media as well:

Blogger https://blog.mosek.com/
Google Group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mosek
Twitter https://twitter.com/mosektw
Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/mosek-aps
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvIyectEVLP31NXeD5mIbEw

In particular Twitter is used for news, updates and release announcements.

2
Chapter 3

License Agreement

Before using the MOSEK software, please read the license agreement available in the distribution
at <MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/mosek-eula.pdf or on the MOSEK website https://mosek.com/products/
license-agreement.
MOSEK uses some third-party open-source libraries. Their license details follows.

zlib
MOSEK includes the zlib library obtained from the zlib website. The license agreement for zlib is shown
in Listing 3.1.

Listing 3.1: zlib license.

zlib.h -- interface of the 'zlib' general purpose compression library
version 1.2.7, May 2nd, 2012

Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied

warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
arising from the use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,

including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it
freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not
claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software
in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be
appreciated but is not required.
2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be
misrepresented as being the original software.
3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

Jean-loup Gailly Mark Adler

[email protected] [email protected]

3
fplib
MOSEK includes the floating point formatting library developed by David M. Gay obtained from the
netlib website. The license agreement for fplib is shown in Listing 3.2.

Listing 3.2: fplib license.

/****************************************************************
*
* The author of this software is David M. Gay.
*
* Copyright (c) 1991, 2000, 2001 by Lucent Technologies.
*
* Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
* purpose without fee is hereby granted, provided that this entire notice
* is included in all copies of any software which is or includes a copy
* or modification of this software and in all copies of the supporting
* documentation for such software.
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS BEING PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
* WARRANTY. IN PARTICULAR, NEITHER THE AUTHOR NOR LUCENT MAKES ANY
* REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MERCHANTABILITY
* OF THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
*
***************************************************************/

Zstandard
MOSEK includes the Zstandard library developed by Facebook obtained from github/zstd. The license
agreement for Zstandard is shown in Listing 3.3.

Listing 3.3: Zstandard license.

BSD License

For Zstandard software

Copyright (c) 2016-present, Facebook, Inc. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this
list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,

this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

* Neither the name Facebook nor the names of its contributors may be used to
endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific
prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(continues on next page)

4
 (continued from previous page)
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

mimalloc
MOSEK includes the mimalloc memory allocator library from github/mimalloc. The license agreement
for mimalloc is shown in Listing 3.4.

Listing 3.4: mimalloc license.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation, Daan Leijen

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy

of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

blis
MOSEK includes the blis implementation of BLAS library from github/blis. The license agreement for
blis is shown in Listing 3.5.

Listing 3.5: blis license.

Copyright (C) 2018, The University of Texas at Austin
Copyright (C) 2016, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
Copyright (C) 2018 - 2019, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without

modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the name(s) of the copyright holder(s) nor the names of its
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
(continues on next page)

5
 (continued from previous page)
from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS

"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

OpenBLAS
MOSEK includes the OpenBLAS implementation of BLAS library from github/OpenBLAS. The license
agreement for OpenBLAS is shown in Listing 3.6.

Listing 3.6: openblas license.

Copyright (c) 2011-2014, The OpenBLAS Project
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without

modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright

notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright

notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
distribution.
3. Neither the name of the OpenBLAS project nor the names of
its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
derived from this software without specific prior written
permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE
USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

6
Chapter 4

Quickstart

These are quickstart instructions for users who just want the most basic, working, easy and quick license
setup and do not care about the more advanced configuration features.

4.1 I don’t have a license file yet

Free licenses
• To obtain a trial license go to https://www.mosek.com/products/trial/
• To obtain a personal academic license go to https://www.mosek.com/products/
academic-licenses/

• To obtain an institutional academic license go to https://www.mosek.com/products/

academic-licenses/
• If you have a custom license go to https://www.mosek.com/license/request/custom/ and enter
the code you received.

Commercial licenses
Assuming you purchased a product (https://www.mosek.com/sales/order/) you will obtain a license file
from us. For a floating license or server (node-locked) license you will first have to follow Sec. 6 to
determine the hostname and hostid of the designated machine. Contact us at [email protected].

4.2 I have a license file

• Do you have a trial license or personal academic license or server (node-locked) license
or group license or custom license? Go to Sec. 4.3.
• Do you have a floating license or institutional academic license? Go to Sec. 4.4.

4.3 Local
Put your license file in:

$HOME/mosek/mosek.lic (Linux/OSX)
%USERPROFILE%\mosek\mosek.lic (Windows)
In most cases that is:

/home/myusername/mosek/mosek.lic (Linux)
/Users/myusername/mosek/mosek.lic (OSX)
C:\Users\myusername\mosek\mosek.lic (Windows)

7
 If that folder does not exist (which it most likely does not if you are using MOSEK for the first
time), then create it.
Restart any software using MOSEK (for example MATLAB, R, etc.) if you updated an existing
license.
Need more options or are there issues? See Sec. 8.

4.4 Floating
• Start (or restart) the token server using the instructions in Sec. 7.

• On each user machine where you will run MOSEK do exactly the same as in Sec. 4.3.

Are there network issues? See Sec. 7.4.

8
Chapter 5

License system basics

The MOSEK Optimization Suite is licensed software which means a valid license is required. A license
is provided by a license file that specifies:
• which features in MOSEK have been licensed (an example of a feature is the nonlinear extension
PTON),

• how many copies of a feature can be used simultaneously,

• an expiration date of each feature,
• for floating licenses, the identifier of the server the license is tied to.

5.1 License Types

The license is managed by the FLEXlm (http://www.flexerasoftware.com/) license manager included in
MOSEK. FLEXlm has two types of licenses:

• floating: license tied to a particular computer that acts as a token server. MOSEK can be used
on any computer connected to the token server through the local area network (LAN). In particular
MOSEK can be used on the token server itself. Setting up a floating license is described in Sec.
7.

• server (also known as node-locked): license tied to a particular computer that allows unlimited
use of the licensed features on that particular machine. Setting up a server license is described in
Sec. 8.

Moreover, note that:

• institutional academic licenses are floating licenses.
• trial and personal academic licenses behave as server licenses, except that they are not tied to
a specific computer but can be used on any machine where the license file is present.
For floating, server and institutional academic licenses some computer-dependent information must
be provided:
• hostname: the name that identifies the computer in the network,

• hostid: a unique computer identifier (typically its MAC address).

Instructions for obtaining hostname and hostid can be found in Sec. 6.

9
5.2 The License File
A license file is a plain text file that can be opened for inspection using any plain text editor (such as
vim or emacs on Linux, or notepad on Windows). It is sometimes useful to inspect the file to check the
expiration date, the activated features and computer information.

Listing 5.1: An example of license file for a floating license.

SERVER hulk f4ed3061a731
VENDOR MOSEKLM
FEATURE PTS MOSEKLM 9.0 12-dec-2018 3

[ ... ]

FEATURE PTON MOSEKLM 9.0 26-feb-2017 2

[ ... ]
Listing 5.1 shows an extract of a license file for a floating license. We can see that:
• the token server is hulk with hostid f4ed3061a731,
• the PTS feature for MOSEK version 9 expires on 12-dec-2018 and the number of PTS tokens is 3,

• the PTON feature for MOSEK version 9 expires on 26-feb-2017 and the number of PTON tokens is
2.
Perhaps somewhat confusingly server (node-locked) licenses do not contain the SERVER line, but the
hostid is part of the feature description. A server (node-locked) license does not work and CANNOT be
used with a token server.

5.3 Versions and platform support

MOSEK version 9 requires a license file with version at least 9. In general the version of the license
must be at least as large as the version of MOSEK. Only the major version number matters.
In general the token server binaries should be as new as the newest client contacting the token server.
If that is not case issues can be expected.
The floating license token server is available on X86 platforms, that is in the linux64x86, win64x86,
win32x86 and osx64x86 MOSEK distributions.

10
Chapter 6

Hostname and Hostid

The hostname and hostid are the two basic computer identifiers used in MOSEK license files. The
hostname is just the standard host name and hostid is usually identical to the MAC address of a network
card.

Command line
The easiest way to obtain hostname and hostid is to open the shell, go to the directory with MOSEK
binaries (<MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/tools/platform/<PLATFORM>/bin/) and run the command

mosek -f
It will produce output similar to

MOSEK Version 8.1.0.23 (Build date: 2017-8-24 15:37:04)

Copyright (c) MOSEK ApS, Denmark. WWW: mosek.com
Platform: Linux/64-X86

FlexLM
Version : 11.14
Hostname : myoptserver
Host ID : "b083fa34ad2c"
License path : /home/mosekuser/mosek/mosek.lic

Operating system variables

LD_LIBRARY_PATH :

*** No input file specfied. No optimization is performed.

Return code - 0 [MSK_RES_OK]

Python
If you only installed MOSEK in Python (via Conda, Pip or otherwise) then you can get the same output
by running the following code. Note, however, that for floating licenses you will still have to download
the full MOSEK distribution package to obtain the license server binaries.

import mosek, sys

env = mosek.Env()
env.set_Stream(mosek.streamtype.log, lambda x: sys.stdout.write(x))
env.echointro(1)

11
Other ways
If you cannot run MOSEK at this point, other methods to obtain the hostname and hostid are outlined
below.

6.1 The Hostname

To obtain the host name open a shell and execute the command:

hostname

6.2 The Host ID

A purchased MOSEK license is tied to a particular computer via a unique identifier called a host ID.
Usually the host ID is identical to the MAC address of a network card. Therefore, the machine needs to
be equipped with a network card. However, an actual network connection is not needed as the licensing
system requires only the number encoded in the network card.

Important: Please follow the instructions below, and NOT use the shell command hostid.

6.2.1 Windows: How to get the Host ID

In the Start Menu under All Programs select Mosek Optimization Tools 9.3 and click on Generate
HOSTID. MOSEK will display the hostname and the host ID and generate a file named hostid.txt
in the user’s home directory e.g

%UserProfile%\hostid.txt

Please provide the hostid.txt file whenever the host ID is requested.

6.2.2 Linux: How to get the Host ID

To use the license manager the Linux standard base 3.0 must be installed. This package is called
lsb-base or lsb in most Linux distributions.
The host ID is obtained as follows:
<MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/tools/platform/<PLATFORM>/bin/lmutil lmhostid
An example output is

lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2006 Macrovision Europe Ltd.

and/or Macrovision Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
The FLEXnet host ID of this computer is "00001a1a5a6a";
In this case hostid is 00001a1a5a6a.

12
Troubleshooting
If you get an error similar to:

./lmutil: No such file or directory

then most likely the Linux Standard Base lsb package is not installed.

6.2.3 Mac OS: How to get the Host ID

The host ID is obtained as follows:
<MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/tools/platform/<PLATFORM>/bin/lmutil lmhostid
An example output is

lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2006 Macrovision Europe Ltd.

and/or Macrovision Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
The FLEXnet host ID of this computer is "00001a1a5a6a";
In this case hostid is 00001a1a5a6a.

13
Chapter 7

Floating license setup

A floating license is tied to a particular computer acting as a token server. A token server is a
service on Windows and a daemon on UNIX that serves license tokens to MOSEK client programs over
the LAN.
You may think of the token server as a computer with a bag of license tokens. Whenever a client
computer starts using MOSEK, a license token is requested from the token server, and when MOSEK
completes it sends back the license token to the token server. The following diagram Fig. 7.1 conveys
the overall idea.

Fig. 7.1: General floating license scheme: any MOSEK instances that can connect to the token server
can get a valid license.

This implies that you cannot use more license tokens than is available at any given point in time.
Moreover, MOSEK can be used on any computer connected to the token server through the local area
network. In particular MOSEK can also be used on the computer acting as token server.
A license file that contains at least one floating license always starts with

SERVER hostname hostid port

Observe that
• installing a license file without a SERVER line with a token server is NOT needed and is NOT
possible.
• at most one token server can be running on any given machine.
The token server consists of two daemons
• lmgrd: The token server daemon running as a service,
• moseklm: A daemon started by lmgrd.
The following subsections guide through the setup of a token server on Windows, Linux and Mac OS.

14
7.1 Windows: Token server setup
Below follows a step-by-step guide for installing a token server on Windows.
• Step 1: Make sure you have administrative privileges.
• Step 2: Download the license file and store it on the local drive of the computer running the token
server.
• Step 3: In the start menu select Mosek Optimization Tools and click on Install MOSEK
token server to start the license installation wizard.
• Step 4: Click Next and then click Browse and select the license file.

• Step 5: Click Next to install the token server.

• Step 6: Click Finish.

7.1.1 Testing the Token Server

In order to verify that the token server is running open a command prompt and run the command lmutil
lmstat -c [email protected] -a. The result for a running installation is shown below:

lmutil lmstat -c [email protected] -a

lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2015 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Flexible License Manager status on Tue 3/7/2017 17:45

License server status: [email protected]

License file(s) on 127.0.0.1: c:\users\auser\mosek\mosek.lic

127.0.0.1: license server UP (MASTER) v11.13.1

Vendor daemon status (on 127.0.0.1):

MOSEKLM: UP v11.13.1
Feature usage info:
Users of PTS: (Total of 4 licenses issued; Total of 0 licenses in use)

15
 You have now installed the token server. Next client users should follow the instructions in Sec. 8 to
connect to the token server.

7.1.2 Troubleshooting
If the server won’t start, or the client can’t check out the license first check Sec. 10.2. It covers most
typical issues. Always consult the log file lmrgd.log of the server.
If that doesn’t help please contact MOSEK support at [email protected]. Please include the
client error messages and the server log file lmgrd.log. See Sec. 10.4.

7.1.3 lmtools
Alternatively the FLEXlm installation tool lmtools may be used for installing, configuring and diag-
nosing the license server. It is available from the MOSEK folder in the Start menu if MOSEK was
installed using the MSI installer. For information about this tool and the many other options of FLEXlm
please see License Administration Guide.

7.2 Linux: Token server setup

On Linux Linux Standard Base (LSB) 3.0 or later must be installed in order for token server to work.
The LSB package is called lsb-base or lsb in most Linux distributions.
The programs lmgrd and MOSEKLM required for installation can be found in:
<MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/tools/platform/<PLATFORM>/bin/
To start the token server run the following commands:
cd <MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/tools/platform/<PLATFORM>/bin/
./lmgrd -c PATH_TO_LICENSE -l lmgrd.log
where PATH_TO_LICENSE is the path to your license file. The token server will save a log file in
the location given by the -l command line parameter. If the token server was started successfully the
lmgrd.log file will look similar to this

cat lmgrd.log
15:03:09 (lmgrd) -----------------------------------------------
15:03:09 (lmgrd) Please Note:
15:03:09 (lmgrd)
15:03:09 (lmgrd) This log is intended for debug purposes only.
15:03:09 (lmgrd) In order to capture accurate license
15:03:09 (lmgrd) usage data into an organized repository,
15:03:09 (lmgrd) please enable report logging. Use Macrovision's
15:03:09 (lmgrd) software license administration solution,
15:03:09 (lmgrd) FLEXnet Manager, to readily gain visibility
15:03:09 (lmgrd) into license usage data and to create
15:03:09 (lmgrd) insightful reports on critical information like
15:03:09 (lmgrd) license availability and usage. FLEXnet Manager
15:03:09 (lmgrd) can be fully automated to run these reports on
15:03:09 (lmgrd) schedule and can be used to track license
15:03:09 (lmgrd) servers and usage across a heterogeneous
15:03:09 (lmgrd) network of servers including Windows NT, Linux
15:03:09 (lmgrd) and UNIX. Contact Macrovision at
15:03:09 (lmgrd) www.macrovision.com for more details on how to
15:03:09 (lmgrd) obtain an evaluation copy of FLEXnet Manager
15:03:09 (lmgrd) for your enterprise.
15:03:09 (lmgrd)
15:03:09 (lmgrd) -----------------------------------------------
15:03:09 (lmgrd)
15:03:09 (lmgrd)
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16
 (continued from previous page)
15:03:09 (lmgrd) FLEXnet Licensing (v11.4.0.0 build 31341) started on kolding (linux)␣
˓→(5/14/2007)

15:03:09 (lmgrd) Copyright (c) 1988-2006 Macrovision Europe Ltd. and/or Macrovision␣
˓→Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

15:03:09 (lmgrd) US Patents 5,390,297 and 5,671,412.

15:03:09 (lmgrd) World Wide Web: http://www.macrovision.com
15:03:09 (lmgrd) License file(s): /home/sandvik/kolding.lic
15:03:09 (lmgrd) lmgrd tcp-port 27007
15:03:09 (lmgrd) Starting vendor daemons ...
15:03:09 (lmgrd) Started MOSEKLM (internet tcp_port 44950 pid 23251)
15:03:09 (MOSEKLM) FLEXnet Licensing version v11.4.0.0 build 31341
15:03:09 (MOSEKLM) Server started on kolding for: PTS
15:03:09 (MOSEKLM) PTOC PTON PTOM
15:03:09 (lmgrd) MOSEKLM using TCP-port 44950
In this case lmgrd is running on port 27007 and MOSEKLM is running on port 44950.

7.2.1 Testing the Token Server

In order to verify that the token server is running execute the commands
cd <MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/tools/platform/<PLATFORM>/bin/
./lmutil lmstat -c [email protected] -a
The result for a successfully running token server is shown below:

lmutil lmstat -c [email protected] -a

lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2015 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Flexible License Manager status on Tue 3/7/2017 17:45

License server status: [email protected]

License file(s) on 127.0.0.1: /home/user/mosek/mosek.lic

127.0.0.1: license server UP (MASTER) v11.13.1

Vendor daemon status (on 127.0.0.1):

MOSEKLM: UP v11.13.1
Feature usage info:
Users of PTS: (Total of 4 licenses issued; Total of 0 licenses in use)

7.2.2 Troubleshooting
If the server won’t start, or the client can’t check out the license first check Sec. 10.2. It covers most
typical issues. Always consult the log file lmrgd.log of the server.
If that doesn’t help please contact MOSEK support at [email protected]. Please include the
client error messages and the server log file lmgrd.log. See Sec. 10.4.
If you get an error similar to:

./lmgrd: No such file or directory

then most likely the Linux Standard Base lsb package is not installed.

17
7.2.3 Starting lmgrd on boot
For security reasons lmgrd should not run as root. To start lmgrd at boot time we recommend that you
add the following command to your startup script:

su USERNAME -c "umask 022; LMGRD -c PATH_TO_LICENSE_FILE -l PATH_TO_LOG_FILE"

Where:
• USERNAME is a normal, non-root, non-privileged user.
• LMGRD is the complete path and to the lmgrd binary.
• PATH_TO_LICENSE_FILE is the complete path to the license file.
• PATH_TO_LOG_FILE is the complete path to the debug log file.

7.3 Mac OS: Token server setup

The programs lmgrd and MOSEKLM required for installation can be found in:
<MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/tools/platform/<PLATFORM>/bin/
To start the token server run the following commands:
cd <MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/tools/platform/<PLATFORM>/bin/
./lmgrd -c PATH_TO_LICENSE -l lmgrd.log
Where PATH_TO_LICENSE is the path to your license file. The token server will save a log file in
the location given by the -l command line parameter. If the token server was started successfully the
lmgrd.log file will look similar to this

cat lmgrd.log
15:03:09 (lmgrd) -----------------------------------------------
15:03:09 (lmgrd) Please Note:
15:03:09 (lmgrd)
15:03:09 (lmgrd) This log is intended for debug purposes only.
15:03:09 (lmgrd) In order to capture accurate license
15:03:09 (lmgrd) usage data into an organized repository,
15:03:09 (lmgrd) please enable report logging. Use Macrovision's
15:03:09 (lmgrd) software license administration solution,
15:03:09 (lmgrd) FLEXnet Manager, to readily gain visibility
15:03:09 (lmgrd) into license usage data and to create
15:03:09 (lmgrd) insightful reports on critical information like
15:03:09 (lmgrd) license availability and usage. FLEXnet Manager
15:03:09 (lmgrd) can be fully automated to run these reports on
15:03:09 (lmgrd) schedule and can be used to track license
15:03:09 (lmgrd) servers and usage across a heterogeneous
15:03:09 (lmgrd) network of servers including Windows NT, Linux
15:03:09 (lmgrd) and UNIX. Contact Macrovision at
15:03:09 (lmgrd) www.macrovision.com for more details on how to
15:03:09 (lmgrd) obtain an evaluation copy of FLEXnet Manager
15:03:09 (lmgrd) for your enterprise.
15:03:09 (lmgrd)
15:03:09 (lmgrd) -----------------------------------------------
15:03:09 (lmgrd)
15:03:09 (lmgrd)
15:03:09 (lmgrd) FLEXnet Licensing (v11.4.0.0 build 31341) started on kolding (linux)␣
˓→(5/14/2007)

15:03:09 (lmgrd) Copyright (c) 1988-2006 Macrovision Europe Ltd. and/or Macrovision␣
˓→Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

(continues on next page)

18
 (continued from previous page)
15:03:09 (lmgrd) US Patents 5,390,297 and 5,671,412.
15:03:09 (lmgrd) World Wide Web: http://www.macrovision.com
15:03:09 (lmgrd) License file(s): /home/sandvik/kolding.lic
15:03:09 (lmgrd) lmgrd tcp-port 27007
15:03:09 (lmgrd) Starting vendor daemons ...
15:03:09 (lmgrd) Started MOSEKLM (internet tcp_port 44950 pid 23251)
15:03:09 (MOSEKLM) FLEXnet Licensing version v11.4.0.0 build 31341
15:03:09 (MOSEKLM) Server started on kolding for: PTS
15:03:09 (MOSEKLM) PTOC PTON PTOM
15:03:09 (lmgrd) MOSEKLM using TCP-port 44950
In this case lmgrd is running on port 27007 and MOSEKLM is running on port 44950.

7.3.1 Testing the Token Server

In order to verify that the token server is running execute the commands
cd <MSKHOME>/mosek/9.3/tools/platform/<PLATFORM>/bin/
./lmutil lmstat -c [email protected] -a
The result for a successfully running token server is shown below:

lmutil lmstat -c [email protected] -a

lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2015 Flexera Software LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Flexible License Manager status on Tue 3/7/2017 17:45

License server status: [email protected]

License file(s) on 127.0.0.1: /home/user/mosek/mosek.lic

127.0.0.1: license server UP (MASTER) v11.13.1

Vendor daemon status (on 127.0.0.1):

MOSEKLM: UP v11.13.1
Feature usage info:
Users of PTS: (Total of 4 licenses issued; Total of 0 licenses in use)

7.3.2 Troubleshooting
If the server won’t start, or the client can’t check out the license first check Sec. 10.2. It covers most
typical issues. Always consult the log file lmrgd.log of the server.
If that doesn’t help please contact MOSEK support at [email protected]. Please include the
client error messages and the server log file lmgrd.log. See Sec. 10.4.

7.3.3 Starting lmgrd on boot

For security reasons lmgrd should not run as root. To start lmgrd at boot time we recommend that you
add the following command to your startup script:

su USERNAME -c "umask 022; LMGRD -c PATH_TO_LICENSE_FILE -l PATH_TO_LOG_FILE"

Where:
• USERNAME is a normal, non-root, non-privileged user.
• LMGRD is the complete path and to the lmgrd binary.
• PATH_TO_LICENSE_FILE is the complete path to the license file.
• PATH_TO_LOG_FILE is the complete path to the debug log file.

19
7.4 Changing default ports and firewall and antivirus issues
The token server consists of two daemons
• lmgrd: The token server daemon. By default it listens on port 27007.

• MOSEKLM: A demon started by lmgrd. Opens its own port; its number can vary between runs unless
explicitly specified (see below).
Both need an open port in the firewall if a MOSEK client should be able to check out a license
license token. To specify explicitly which port number each daemon should use you must change the
license file. The first two lines in a standard MOSEK floating license file look like

SERVER my_server 123456789ABC 27007

VENDOR MOSEKLM
To instruct lmgrd to use port 27008 and MOSEKLM to use port 3084 instead, change the first two lines
of the license file to:

SERVER my_server 123456789ABC 27008

VENDOR MOSEKLM port=3084
Restart the token server and configure your firewall to allow access to the chosen port numbers, in
this case 27008 and 3084.
Finally, it is a good idea to check if the port is open by using the telnet command as follows

telnet my_server 27008

on the client computer(s). If you get an error message similar to

Connecting to my_server...Could not open connection to the host,

on port 27008: Connect failed
then the port is not open. See also the License Administration Guide for more information.
Note that antivirus software can have a similar effect and also block connections, even from the
same machine. In this case instruct the software to allow connections through the two ports you specify
explicitly in the license file as shown above.

7.5 License Checkout Overhead

In FLEXlm version 11.13.1.2 and higher users may experience an overhead of a few tenths of a second
when checking out the license token the first time. This is mainly due to additional checks the FLEXlm
performs to detect virtual machines. Unfortunately it is an issue whose fixing is beyond the scope for
MOSEK. FLEXlm is working on a solution to the issue.
Note that if the MOSEK environment is reused and license caching is turned on, then the issue will
only be noticed for the first optimization. Please contact [email protected] to obtain more information
if needed.

20
Chapter 8

Client setup

This section describes setting up client machines.

8.1 With a local license file

Default setup
The preferred option is to place the license file mosek.lic in the directory mosek in the user’s home
directory. That means

$HOME/mosek/mosek.lic
%USERPROFILE%\mosek\mosek.lic
on UNIX systems and Windows, respectively. If no other configuration options are set (see below)
this is the default location where MOSEK looks for a license. This works for all types of licenses. If the
license file contains a floating license, the client will use the information in that file to find and contact
a token server.

Environment variable
Alternatively, the path to the license file may be set by the environment variable MOSEKLM_LICENSE_FILE,
for example:

MOSEKLM_LICENSE_FILE=/home/user/licenses/mosek.lic
MOSEKLM_LICENSE_FILE=c:\users\mylogin\licenses\mosek.lic

Command line options

From the MOSEK command line the path to the license file can be set with the option -l.

From an API
In the Optimizer API and Fusion API the path to the license file can be set with the method
putlicensepath of the environment or Model, respectively, before first optimization.

21
8.2 Without a local license file
Another method to check out a license from a floating license token server is to set the environment
variable MOSEKLM_LICENSE_FILE in one of the following formats

MOSEKLM_LICENSE_FILE=@hostname
MOSEKLM_LICENSE_FILE=port@hostname
where hostname is the name of the token server machine and port is the port on which MOSEKLM is
listening. Then the client MOSEK application will contact the server directly and the possible overhead
for opening and reading the license file is eliminated. Observe a potential firewall may block access to
the token server.
The same format can be used in conjunction with the command line -l option and in the
putlicensepath method as mentioned in the previous section.

8.3 Testing and debugging

In either case the client configuration can be tested by running the program msktestlic.
If any errors related to licensing appear, then go through the error messages and look for a line
containing the path to the license file, for example:

License path: /home/someplace/mosek/mosek.lic

or:

License cannot be located. The default search path is ':/home/someplace/mosek/mosek.

˓→lic:'

This is the actual location where this instance of MOSEK was trying to locate the license. If it
does not correspond to your expectations then go through the setup again or check that this location
contains the correct file.

22
Chapter 9

License in a Cloud Computing

Environment

The token server may be deployed in a cloud environment. The main challenge in deploying a token
server in the cloud is to guarantee that the hostid (in this case the MAC address) stays unchanged
when the instance running the token server is stopped.
In the following section we discuss one possible deployment strategy on Amazon EC2.

9.1 Example: Token server in Amazon EC2

The license will be bound to a MAC address. In the most basic Amazon EC2 instance setup the MAC
address may change when the instance is stopped and later started again. Below we describe how to
work around this.
In Amazon EC2 a MAC address is a persistent resource associated with an Elastic Network Interface
(ENI). To keep the MAC address constant we advise creating an ENI that can then be associated with
the Amazon EC2 instance acting as a token server. The ENI can later be moved to another instance
within the same subnet if the token server needs to be moved to another instance.

Creating a token server Amazon EC2 instance

1. Create an ENI in the subnet into which you wish to launch the token server. Please consult the
Amazon EC2 documentation for how to create an ENI.
2. Create a new instance in the same subnet as the ENI. When configuring the network interface
select the newly created ENI as a network interface.

3. Launch the instance.

4. (optional) If the machine needs a public IP address then create an Elastic IP (EIP) and associate
it with the instance after launch. It is not possible to have an automatically assigned public IP
addresses when using an ENI in Amazon EC2.
5. Install MOSEK on the instance.

6. Retrieve the MAC address associated with the ENI, e.g by inspecting the ENI in the AWS Man-
agement Console or by logging into the instance and following the instructions in Sec. 6.
7. Contact [email protected] with the relevant MAC address to obtain a valid license file.

8. Make sure the security group associated with the instance running the token server allows for
incoming traffic to the token server. Allow for inbound TCP traffic on the ports your token server
is listening as shown in Sec. 7.4
9. Install the token server as described in Sec. 7.

23
Chapter 10

Licensing FAQ

10.1 General questions

Q: How do I know what version/expiry/hostid/port I have in my license file?
The license file is a plain text file. Open it in any text editor and follow Sec. 5.2.

Q: Can I edit the license file?

You can change the hostname, port number(s), add an OPTIONS section and edit comments. Any other
edits (in particular changing the hostid) will invalidate the license file.

Q: Can I reserve some of my floating tokens to a specific IP/username/group?

To reserve a certain number license features for a particular user or IP address, you must create an
additional options file and use the RESERVE option. For details see FLEXnet license administration
guide. For example, to reserve one PTS token for user username make an options file res.opt with
content

RESERVE 1 PTS USER username

and add the following to your license file:

VENDOR MOSEKLM OPTIONS=res.opt

Q: Can I check out licenses from more than one location?

You can concatenate multiple license search paths (local or remote) with the operating system’s path
separator. MOSEK will then sequentially try to check out a license from all these locations until one is
available. For example

MOSEKLM_LICENSE_FILE=/home/user/licenses/mosek.lic:27007@licensehost (Linux/
˓→OSX)

MOSEKLM_LICENSE_FILE=c:\users\mylogin\licenses\mosek.lic;27007@licensehost (Windows)

24
Q: Can I use more than one hostid?
Yes, for a server license. In exceptional situations we can generate a server license file with a list of MAC
addresses as hostid. At least one of them has to be active at any time for MOSEK to work. For a
floating license we can use only a single hostid.

Q: Is it possible to use MOSEK with a floating license on a machine detached from the LAN(WAN)?
Yes. It is possible to use the lmborrow functionality. See the FLEXnet license administration guide.

Q: Do you have a complete licensing guide that covers all of FLEXlm options?
The ultimate guide is at FLEXnet license administration guide.

Q: I know the hostid of the license server, but what about the clients?
The clients, that is machines on which MOSEK optimizations will actually be performed, can be
arbitrary, as long as they can connect to the license server to check out a token. The floating license
restricts only the physical machine for the token server.

Q: What does MOSEK use to verify the license?

Only the license file. There is no external communication whatsoever.

Q: When does MOSEK return the floating license token?

By default at the end of the session/process or when the MOSEK environment is deleted. This reduces
the checkout overhead if one process runs multiple optimizations. However, this is completely customiz-
able. For example, you can return the token after each optimization or upon calling a dedicated method.
Your API’s manual has instructions on how to do it in the section Technical guidelines / The license
system.

10.2 Floating license issues

Q: The lmutil and lmgrd will not start on Linux: No such file or directory.
If you run a command from the licensing system and get this error:

user@hostname:~/path_to_mosek$ ./lmutil
./lmutil: No such file or directory
then most likely you are missing the Linux Standard Base (LSB) package. LSB version at least 3 is
required. On Ubuntu the latest version of LSB can be installed with the command apt-get install
lsb.

Q: I get the error Vendor daemon is too old.

You are running an older license server (for example, from version 7) and tried to connect to it with a
much more recent client (for example, from version 9). The lmgrd license server must be at least as new
as all the clients who attempt to connect to it. Use the license server distributed with the most recent
version of the clients in use. We occasionally update the FLEXlm binaries inside MOSEK and then an
incompatibility with older license servers may occur.

25
Q: The license server will not start.
Always check the server’s log file lmgrd.log. It will explain the source of the problem. Typical issues
are:
• Wrong hostname:

11:55:03 (lmgrd) "HOSTNAME_REAL": Not a valid server hostname, exiting.

11:55:03 (lmgrd) Valid license server system hosts are: "HOSTNAME_LICFILE"

The hostname in the license file is not the actual hostname of the computer. Either you are running
the license server on the wrong machine, or using a wrong file or something changed on the machine
and you should contact us for a new license file.
• Wrong hostid:

8:46:36 (MOSEKLM) (@MOSEKLM-SLOG@) HostID node-locked in license file:␣

˓→a6321bc7ff3f

8:46:36 (MOSEKLM) (@MOSEKLM-SLOG@) HostID of the License Server: "af638abf82aa␣

˓→127c4da8f212"

8:46:36 (MOSEKLM) No valid hostids, exiting

8:46:36 (MOSEKLM) EXITING DUE TO SIGNAL 25 Exit reason 2
8:46:41 (lmgrd) MOSEKLM exited with status 25 (Invalid host)

The hostid in the license file does not correspond to actual hardware. Either you are running the
license server on the wrong machine, or using a wrong file or something changed on the machine
(perhaps a network interface was removed) and you should contact us for a new license file.
• Incorrect or unreadable license file, for example:

18:54:46 (MOSEKLM) Invalid license key (inconsistent authentication code)

It is possible that you invalidated the file by editing hostname or hostid or that you down-
loaded/saved it incorrectly. See Sec. 5.2 for how a floating license file should look. You should
revert to the original file (if applicable) or contact us for a new license file, attaching the current
one.
• Could not open port:

18:52:12 (lmgrd) Failed to open the TCP port number in the license.

The token server or vendor daemon could not open a port. Possibly it is already open by another
process, or there are firewall issues. In either case consult Sec. 7.4 for a solution. Terminate any
lmgrd or MOSEKLM processes running.
• Invalid License File, on Unix:

18:54:46 (lmgrd) Server's System Date and Time: Mon Jun 21 2021 18:45:01 CET
18:54:46 (lmgrd) Invalid License File

Can appear if the license file has permissions other than 644. Change the license file’s permissions
to 644.
• Hostname not in network database:

11:55:03 (lmgrd) Unknown Hostname: HOSTNAME_LICFILE

specified in the license file is not available in the local network database
11:55:03 (lmgrd) EXITING DUE TO SIGNAL 33 Exit reason 1

A rare error appearing on MAC where lmgrd exits almost immediately. The solution is to edit the
file /etc/hosts in your system and add a line with the IP address and hostname of your machine.

26
Q: The client cannot connect to the license server or license checkout times out.
The following symptoms can indicate firewall issues:
• The client cannot connect to the license server. The error is MOSEK cannot connect to the
license server or Operation now in progress.
• The client cannot connect to the license server from a remote machine, but everything works when
the client runs on the same machine as the server.
• License checkout times out after about 60 seconds with message Timeout: operation now in
progress.
First make sure that the license server is up an running and that the lmgrd.log file did not indicate
any errors (see previous question). Assuming that, consult Sec. 7.4, fix both ports described in that
section (the token server port and the vendor port) to your preferred values, make sure they are open in
the firewall and/or antivirus software, restart the license server and try again.
This happens typically in networks with tight security settings. Occasionally antivirus software can
trigger this problem.

Q: I cannot check out a token even though there should be more available.
Most likely there are processes/users who checked out a license but never returned it. The lmgrd.log
log file on the license server will contain the history of license ckeckouts and checkins which may be used
to identify the culprit.

10.3 Local file issues

Q: The Optimization Toolbox for Matlab or Rmosek says license has expired although I downloaded
a new one.
After you put the license file in the right place restart Matlab or R. It caches the license. If that doesn’t
help MOSEK probably uses another license path than you first thought. See next question.

Q: MOSEK says there is no license file or that it expired.

If you are sure that your license file is valid and in the right place, then it is possible that your system
is configured to expect the license file elsewhere than you thought. Search for the mosek.lic file on the
disk and see if there is one in another location. Remove any old expired licenses found.
Go through the error or diagnostic message you received from MOSEK and look for lines such as:

License path: /home/someplace/mosek/mosek.lic

or:

License cannot be located. The default search path is ':/home/someplace/mosek/mosek.

˓→lic:'

This is the actual location where this instance of MOSEK was trying to locate the license. If it
does not correspond to your expectations then go through the setup again or check that this location
contains the correct file.

27
10.4 Need more help
Q: I tried all of the above but it doesn’t help.
Send us an email and attach as much as possible of the following data:
• description of the problem,

• the license file,

• the token server log file lmgrd.log or its part relevant to the issue (for floating licenses),
• the exact error message reported by the MOSEK client, or the output from mosekdiag,
mosektestlic, mosek -f or other relevant diagnostic tool.

• MOSEK version, operating system, which interface you are using.

28
Index

F
floating license, 9

H
host ID, 12
obtaining on |linux|\ / macos|, 12, 13
obtaining on Windows, 12
hostname, 12

I
installation |linux|
token server, 16
installation |macos|
token server, 18
installation Windows
token server, 15

N
node-locked license, 9

O
obtaining on |linux|\ / macos|
host ID, 12, 13
obtaining on Windows
host ID, 12

S
server license, 9

T
token server, 14
installation |linux|, 16
installation |macos|, 18
installation Windows, 15

29