About NLRM

Network License And Reporting Manager(NLRM) is a utility that enables network licensing and monitors the usage of Autodesk product licenses on a network. Available on Windows and Linux, it records how many licenses were used and how long each license was in use. The data is sent to Autodesk to support Token-Flex licensing. You can view usage reports on the Autodesk Account Portal.

NLRM replaces the combination of Network License Manager (NLM) and Network License Reporting Service (NLRS). Instead of having to use NLM for license issuance and NLRS for usage reporting, with NLRM you can accomplish both functions from a single utility.

Preparing for Installation

Gather the below information you’ll need to configure NLRM in your target environment. Please check these against System Requirements listed in the next section.

• In which operating systems will you be installing NLRM?
  • Windows — Identify version
  • Linux — Identify distribution and version
  • Network License Manager (NLM)
  • Network License Manager (NLM) + Network License Reporting Service (NLRS)
  • Network License and Reporting Manager (NLRM)
  • No proxy server
  • Non-authenticated proxy server
  • Proxy Configuration Type (manual, PAC, WPAD)
  • Proxy Authentication Type (Basic, NTLM, Digest, Kerberos)
  • Default account (Local Service)
  • Any other account
  • No connectivity restrictions: The server is always connected to the Internet.
  • Limited connectivity: The server has only interim access to the Internet to transmit accumulated data.
  • Zero connectivity: The server never has access to the Internet.
  • No restrictions: PII data can be sent to Autodesk in plain text.
  • Requires masking: PII data must be masked before being sent to Autodesk.

  System Requirements

  Requirement	Windows	Linux
  Recommended OS	Windows Server 2022 Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2016	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (9.2) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (8.2) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (7.6) Rocky Linux 9 (9.2) CentOS 8 (8.2) CentOS 7 (7.6)
  Minimum RAM	4GB	4GB
  Storage space for manual servers	At least 1GB Actual disk usage is dependent on usage patterns and duration	At least 1GB Actual disk usage is dependent on usage patterns and duration
  Storage space for online servers	At least 1GB Actual disk usage is dependent on usage patterns and duration	At least 1GB Actual disk usage is dependent on usage patterns and duration
  Proxy Support	Supports Non-Authenticated Proxy, Authenticated Proxy including Basic, Digest, NTLM and Proxy configured through Proxy Auto-Configuration (PAC).	Supports only Non-Authenticated Proxy. Authenticated Proxy and Proxy Auto-Configuration (PAC) aren’t currently supported

  For detailed list of requirements, please refer to the NLM system requirements here .

  Data Collected

  Data elements collected by NLRM and sent to Autodesk:

  • License server data
    • Customer service contract number (Autodesk issued identifier)
    • Hostname and MAC addresses
    • Operating system name, version, and release
    • NLRM process runtime, CPU/memory usage, start time
    • Username of account under which processes are running
    • System memory(free/total) and uptime
    • NLRM application logs
    • OS username and hostname
    • Feature code of product in use

    Before initiating the installation process, check the status of the following elements and make any required changes.

    Files Required

    Before starting the upgrade process, please ensure that you have

    • the latest version of the NLRM installer (.msi or .rpm file).
    • license and authorization certificate if you do not already have valid ones. Copy all the files to the server in which NLRM will be hosted.

    Firewall setup

    • Allowed URLs: The table below lists the URLs / protocols that should be made accessible from the license server for NLRM to work correctly.

    Protocol	URL	Purpose
    https	https://car2.autodesk.com	Connect and send usage data to the Autodesk servers
    https	https://www.autodesk.com	Verify connection to the Autodesk servers (For NLRM version < 4.14)

    • Allowed ports: The following ports must be open for NLRM to function correctly:
      • 443 for transmitting usage data to Autodesk (https://car2.autodesk.com)
      • 2080 for adskflex (Autodesk vendor daemon)
      • 27000 to 27009 for lmgrd (master daemon)

      Note: If a custom port is used, then the port value will change for adskflex (Autodesk vendor daemon) and lmgrd (master daemon)

      Uninstalling NLM and NLRS

      • Windows NLM + NLRS Uninstallation Guide
      • Linux NLM + NLRS Uninstallation Guide

      Installing and Configuring NLRM

      • First Time Install Guide For Windows
      • First Time Install Guide For Linux

      Upgrading NLRM

      • Windows Upgrade Guide
      • Linux Upgrade Guide

      Updating License

      • Update License for Windows
      • Update License for Linux

      Updating authorization certificate

      • Update authorization certificate for Windows
      • Update authorization certificate for Linux

      Configuring Data Transmit Mode(Offline/Online)

      By default, every NLRM license server is in online mode and sends the collected usage data to Autodesk every 5 minutes. If the license server can connect to Autodesk to send the data, just once every few days, there is no need for any additional configuration or manual data transfer. Whenever the license server connects to Autodesk, NLRM will send the locally stored data to Autodesk.

      If the license server can never be allowed to send the data to Autodesk directly, then please configure the server in "Manual" transmit mode at the time of initial setup.

      Configure Offline Environments

      The "Manual" mode will require your system administrator to "export" the usage data from license server machine, transfer it to another machine and send the data from the secondary machine to Autodesk. By default, manual servers are allowed to remain offline (without usage transmission) from 1 to 30 days.

      Please note that the data can be stored locally only up to 60 days, after which the old usage data is purged.

      To enable manual mode, run the below command from installation directory:

      Windows	Linux
      nlrm_config.exe set transmit-mode manual	sudo ./nlrm_config set transmit-mode manual

      Offline duration allowance

      When the transmit-mode is set to manual, you may configure offline duration allowance (1 to 30 days) which is otherwise defaulted to 30 days. The usage data must be exported and transmitted to Autodesk servers, before the configured offline duration allowance is elapsed since the last time usage was collected from the license server.

      To set offline duration allowance, use the command below from installation directory:

      Windows	Linux
      nlrm_config.exe set offline-duration-allowance-days	sudo ./nlrm_config set offline-duration-allowance-days

      Data transmission

      If the manual mode is enabled, license usage data gets collected locally on the primary license server machine. To transmit this data to Autodesk servers, the server/license administrator then exports the data on the primary license server machine using the command below from installation directory:

      Windows	Linux
      nlrm_config.exe export-usage -o	sudo nlrm_config export-usage -o

      Then, manually zip and transfer the data to a secondary machine connected to the internet and use it to transmit the data to Autodesk through the command below from installation directory:

      Windows	Linux
      collection_dispatcher.exe send --source	sudo collection_dispatcher send --source

      Supported directory paths:

      • Any drive e.g., C:/, D:/, on the machine's disk
      • Any drive mounted to AWS/Azure VMs (excluding UNC path, UNC mount)

      Disable Offline/Manual Environment

      • Transmit mode can be updated from manual to online any time. To disable manual mode, run the command given below from the installation directory:

      Windows	Linux
      nlrm_config.exe set transmit-mode online	sudo ./nlrm_config set transmit-mode online

      • Stop and start NLRM.

      All of the previously collected data as well as the newly generated events, will be sent to Autodesk automatically as long as the license server has internet connectivity and firewall/proxy, if any, is allowed to connect to Autodesk.

      Configuring Proxy Environments

      NLRM supports the following proxy types for communication with Autodesk. NLRM will report license usage data to Autodesk through the configured proxy server.

      Authenticated Proxy

      NLRM supports Basic, Digest, and NTLM proxy authentication on Windows, configured manually or through Proxy Auto-Configuration(PAC) file.

      To configure authenticated proxy, please refer to: Authenticated Proxy Windows Configuration Guide

      Note: Authenticated proxy functionality is not supported on Linux.

      Non-Authenticated Proxy

      NLRM supports non-authenticated proxy on Windows and Linux. Proxy server can be configured using the steps given below.

      Windows

      • Open a command prompt as administrator
      • Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is C:\Autodesk\NLRM
      • Run this command:

       nlrm_config.exe set proxy-server

       proxy-server has been configured successfully.

      Linux

      • Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is /opt/Autodesk/NLRM/
      • Open a terminal at this location
      • Run this command:

       sudo ./nlrm_config set proxy-server

       proxy-server has been configured successfully.

      Configuring PII Masking

      If necessary, NLRM allows you to mask the personal information of the end users whose license usage is reported to Autodesk. To mask the personal information (end user's username and machine name), you can enable PII masking before the data is transmitted to Autodesk.

      Enable PII masking

      Windows

      • Open a command prompt as administrator
      • Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is C:\Autodesk\NLRM
      • Run this command

       nlrm_config.exe set pii-masking true

      Linux

      • Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is /opt/Autodesk/NLRM/
      • Open a terminal at this location
      • Run this command

       sudo ./nlrm_config set pii-masking true

      Disable PII masking

      Windows

      • Open a command prompt as administrator
      • Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is C:\Autodesk\NLRM
      • Run this command

       nlrm_config.exe set pii-masking false

      Linux

      • Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is /opt/Autodesk/NLRM/
      • Open a terminal at this location
      • Run this command

       sudo ./nlrm_config set pii-masking false

      Export PII mapping

      NLRM supports exporting masked PII data and clear format data mapping in a file on an on-demand basis. Using the nlrm_config tool provided by NLRM, a file can be extracted containing the hostname and username mappings.

      The mapping file contains data in the following format:

      • all hostname mappings, followed by
      • all username mappings

      unmasked observed data	masked recorded data
      ECS-1234567	39403C3BC58C4917385215B2481513F9
      ECS-1111111	66339C0270E8DD382A891434A7CC46B1
      TESTSERVER	8A4B97982D9E6FD4780788902AE310A5
      johndoeadmin	3B96D896BE2D9D48D5E01A7BB8AA138F
      你好	IQHOBBJ22HUZ7FRLMPSFT34ZFV6CCFZC
      你好new	3LOO4OI6TYL7Z3GOE25ZLNXDNBIJIGHS

      This mapping file with masked and unmasked values is NOT created by default. For obtaining the mapping file, please follow these steps:

      Windows

      • Open a command prompt as administrator
      • Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is C:\Autodesk\NLRM
      • Run the following command to export the PII mapping

       nlrm_config.exe export-masked-pii-mapping -f .csv

      Linux

      • Go to the location where NLRM is installed. The default location is /opt/Autodesk/NLRM/
      • Open a terminal and run the following command to export the PII mapping

       sudo ./nlrm_config export-masked-pii-mapping -f .csv

      Note:

      • This feature supports three file formats: .csv , .tsv, and .json.
      • Please use any modern text editor such as Wordpad, Notepad++, Textpad, Excel to view the exported file if the contents of the exported file are not rendered appropriately in notepad.
      • Do not use NLRM directory to export PII mapping data

      Display NLRM Settings

      To display last configured/detected NLRM settings, follow Read NLRM Settings

      Reconfiguring NLRM Settings

      If you have configured NLRM previously and wish to perform specific operations only, follow Re-configure NLRM Settings . These commands should be executed in consultation with your Autodesk support contact.

      NLRM Troubleshooting Guide

      For help on common issues, please refer to: Troubleshooting Guide

      Uninstalling/Decommissioning NLRM

      • Uninstallation Guide for Windows
      • Uninstallation Guide for Linux

      Release Notes

      Please see the latest Release Notes for details on the latest updates.