Learning Forum

[Altair45]

My license manager is installed at server that is powered by CentOS 8. I would like to run floating license on my Windows 10 PC. I don't know why but it keeps failing. It says "Server unreachable or license could not be found". I tried both server name and IP address.

There is another problem with the solver. When I'm in alt+tab screen, solver graphic seems OK. But then I turn into full screen, I'm keep seeing some  kind of strange afterimage. I'll upload screenshots that I took.

[Greg Baethge]

Thank you for posting on the forum. Regarding the first issue, could you post a screen capture of the "Licenses" tab (in the Launcher), showing the license configuration on the Windows machine. It should be something like:
Also, is there a firewall on the CentOS machine where the license manager is installed on?
Regarding the second issue, it might be due to the graphics driver and/or OpenGL support. So the first thing would be to update the graphic card drivers. You can also try and change the "Display Driver" setting in the Finite Element IDE (in the "View" tab):
Change it to "OpenGL" or "OpenGL2".
This page shows some additional things to check/try to solve graphics issues.

[Altair45]

Thank you for answers.
I turned off firewall and now I can see floating license is working. However, my PC is Windows 10 and my original license is for CentOS 8 so it seems running solver through my PC is not possible.
About the graphic issue, I'm using most recent version of the graphic card driver. So I tried to change display driver but it keeps showing message "The setting will be applied only when DEVICE is restarted". I thought I have to reboot the server computer but it didn't work. so I guess "DEVICE" is something else. How can I restart DEVICE?

[Greg Baethge]

Thanks for the update. I'm not too sure to understand what you mean by
my PC is Windows 10 and my original license is for CentOS 8 so it seems running solver through my PC is not possible.
Do you mean installing the license on the Windows PC? Could you clarify?
Regarding the graphics issue, DEVICE was the name of the GUI, that we now call Finite Element IDE. So restarting DEVICE means restarting Lumerical Finite Element IDE.

[Altair45]

License server is using CentOS 8 and yes, I ordered Lumerical license for CentOS 8. I tried to run floating license on my PC which is Windows 10. I have no trouble running solver at the server but when I run Lumerical on my PC, it keeps asking license.
This is screenshot Lumerical license at PC(Windows 10).

About graphic issue, I tried other graphic drivers and update the system but still having same problem.
As you see, I'm seeing background window through perspective view. I also tried /forum/discussion/25740/ansys-insight-fixing-graphics-related-issues-with-lumerical, but it seems not working for CentOS 8.

[Greg Baethge]

Thanks for the additional information,. Could you post screen copy of the error you get when trying to start one of the products (FDTD for instance, or any other tools included in the license). Is this happening even when the firewall is down? With a firewall, you need to set a fixed port for the vendor daemon. This is set in the license file, in the "VENDOR" line. For example:
VENDOR ansyslmd port=1056
Here we set the vendor daemon port to 1056, but you can set any available port number. Then open this port in the firewall. Two other ports should be open as well:
1055 (license server)
2325 (license interconnect)
See the "Configuring the license server" section in this page.
Regarding the graphics issue. what was the outcome of glxgears and glxinfo? Do you access the linux machine via remote connection? If so, what tool do you use? For instance, on our Linux HPC, we use VNC.

[Altair45]

Floating license is working with new port. Now I can use floating license in my PC, thank you so much.
About the graphic issue, glxgears shows around 1400 fps and what kind of information do you need with glxinfo? its too long to copy and paste here. I'm using Teamviewer and Remote desktop for remote accessing linux machine. The funny thing is, I have no such graphical issue with windows 10 PC.

[Greg Baethge]

Thanks for the update, glad the floating license issue is now solved! Regarding the graphics issue, the main point is to see if there is any error, whether is it in eventual missing libraries (using ldd) or in the OpenGL implementation.
In our system requirement page, we mention
LumericalÔÇÖs Finite Element IDE (FE IDE) uses a 3D rendering and visualization library that requires a compliant implementation of OpenGL 2 or DirectX 11. For optimal performance, please install the FE IDE directly on a locally accessible host computer with adequate graphics resources and up-to-date graphics drivers. The FE IDE has limited support on systems without compliant graphics drivers, including virtual machines and remote desktop interfaces.
An additional difficulty is the remote connection as it adds another layer that could cause problem. A first thing would be to figure out if the issue is on the Linux machine or due to the remote connection. Would you have the possibility to log on the machine directly? Alternatively, you can try other remote connection tools (VNC, MobaXterm, etc).
I'm not too surprised you don't have any issue with the Windows machine, I've rarely seen any issue on Windows and they don't rely on the same rendering tools. So problems on one platform are unlikely to happen on the other.

[Altair45]

Finally, the problem has been solved. You were right, there was a problem during remote connection between my PC and the server. My PC is using 32-bit color and CentOS 8 supports maximum 24-bit true color. There color setting difference caused the problem. So I changed setting of the PC from 32-bit to 24 bit and now my perspective view seems fine. Thank you for your help!


I have one more question, it's about application example in library. https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041725214
According to example, it doesn't include electrical simulation. I would like to do electrical simulation first with CHARGE, then simulate with MODE and MQW so I can get gain data. But the question is, can I combine electrical data and gain data so I can get L-I-V curve? Voltage is also important parameter of diode laser but it seems there is no such example in application gallery. I heard LASTIP has such function but not sure for Lumerical.

[Greg Baethge]

Good to hear you found the culprit! Regarding the other question, I'm not too familiar with this, but we used to have another example in our previous forum. The example can now be found here. It includes the CHARGE simulation to get the L-I-V curve. Note I believe this example was designed with an early version of the MQW solver that was scripted only. Since then we added a GUI to make its use easier. That said, it shouldn't affect the CHARGE simulations.
If you have any question about this, I would suggest to start a new discussion as it is a different topic. It would make it more visible for other users who could also be interested in this!