How to Manage National Instruments Licenses with FlexLM

National Instruments (NI) is a global leader in the development of test, control, and measurement solutions, thanks to platforms such as LabVIEW, TestStand, and VeriStand. In many companies, NI licenses are managed in floating mode using the FlexLM manager, which enables efficient sharing of licenses among different users and workstations within complex corporate networks.

How can you manage National Instruments floating licenses?

National Instruments uses the FlexLM license manager to manage floating licenses. To check license status, you must run specific remote query commands on the license server from both Windows and Linux systems.

The first step is to download the lmutil tool from the official Flexera website. The version must be the same as or later than that of the license server; otherwise, compatibility errors and incomplete results may occur.

The information required to perform the query is:

• The communication port (listed in the license file .lic).
• The exact name of the server (without DNS domain suffixes).

If the name cannot be resolved, you can configure the ` hosts ` file to force the correct local resolution.

How do I check the available National Instruments licenses?

To find out how many licenses are available and their expiration dates, use the following command:

lmutil.exe lmstat -a -c porta@nomeserver

If the license is distributed across a three-server cluster:

lmutil.exe lmstat -a -c porta@server1;porta@server2;porta@server3

On Linux:

lmutil lmstat -a -c porta@server1,porta@server2,porta@server3

Sample output:

Feature           Version   #licenses   Expires       Vendor
labview_base      2022.0    20          31-dec-2025   NILM
labview_fpga      2022.0    10          31-dec-2025   NILM
teststand         2022.0    15          31-dec-2025   NILM

How do I check the license usage for National Instruments?

To check which licenses are currently in use and by which users:

lmutil.exe lmstat -S -c porta@nomeserver

Sample output:

Users of labview_base:  (Total of 20 licenses issued;  Total of 8 licenses in use)
  "labview_base" v2022.0, vendor: NILM
  floating license
    user1 clientA (v2022.0) (ni-server/27000 5101), start Fri 10/05 08:15
    user2 clientB (v2022.0) (ni-server/27000 5102), start Fri 10/05 08:25

Why use Observer to monitor National Instruments?

Manual monitoring is not always effective in large IT environments. Observer fully automates the monitoring of NI FlexLM licenses, offering:

• Continuous, real-time monitoring of available and in-use licenses
• Automatic notifications for license expiration or depletion
• Analysis of usage peaks, denied requests, and utilization efficiency
• Historical reports and interactive dashboards for IT audits and optimization

Observer is fully compatible with FlexLM and enables centralized, proactive license management for all National Instruments products.

Contact us to receive a free demo or to find out how Observer can optimize NI license management at your company.