How to Monitor Permas Licenses with FlexLM

PERMAS is a FEA (Finite Element Analysis) solver developed by INTES, known for its high computational efficiency and used in advanced structural simulation applications, particularly in the automotive, rail, and aerospace industries. Although PERMAS has reached its EOL (End of Life) status, it is still in use in many legacy environments, where it continues to provide technical value thanks to its established models and proven computational pipelines.

PERMAS is based on a floating license system managed through FlexLM. Constant monitoring of the number of available and active licenses is essential to prevent disruptions in engineering work and ensure the proper allocation of resources.

1. Configure monitoring with lmutil

To obtain information about active PERMAS licenses, use the lmutil utility, a standard query tool compatible with FlexLM servers. It is available for Windows and Linux environments.

Early Stages

1. Download lmutil: Make sure the version is compatible with the License Manager installed on the PERMAS server.
2. Identify the server and port: This information can be found in the PERMAS license file. The format to use in the commands is porta@nomeserver. Avoid changing the hostname, as this may interfere with DNS resolution or cause connection errors.

2. Check the available licenses

Once lmutil has been configured, you can determine the number of active licenses using the following command:

lmutil lmstat -i -c porta@nomeserver

If the server is configured in triad mode (redundancy), the command will be:

lmutil lmstat -i -c porta@server1;porta@server2;porta@server3

or on Linux:

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

Sample Output

Feature           Version   #licenses  Expires        Vendor
permas            17.5      10         31-dec-2025    INTESLM

In this scenario, the server has 10 active PERMAS licenses, valid through December 31, 2025.

3. Check the licenses in use

To find out which users are currently using PERMAS licenses, you can run the following command:

lmutil lmstat -S permas -c porta@nomeserver

Sample output:

Users of permas:  (Total of 10 licenses issued; 6 licenses in use)
  "permas" v17.5, vendor: INTESLM
  floating license
    user1@SIM-PC01 (v17.5) (SERVER/27000 1981), start Fri 07/12 09:30
    user2@TEST-BENCH (v17.5) (SERVER/27000 1984), start Fri 07/12 09:40

4. Automate Monitoring with Observer

PERMAS, even in its EOL status, continues to be a critical component in many enterprise FEM computing workflows. To avoid problems related to the simultaneous use of licenses, it is advisable to implement an automated monitoring system.

Observer allows you to centrally manage PERMAS licenses and other FlexLM software, offering numerous benefits:

• Real-time monitoring of the number of available and occupied licenses
• Email alerts in case of capacity issues or upcoming deadlines
• Historical dashboards with usage trends, monthly reports, and peak analysis
• Manage multiple Triade servers and mixed software in a single view

Thanks to its direct integration with FlexLM, Observer collects data, stores it, and displays it on a web interface, giving the IT team and engineers full control and visibility.

PERMAS remains a reliable FEA solution for legacy and specialized environments. Monitoring these licenses, even after EOL, is essential to ensuring the continuity of projects and preparing for future migration to other CAE tools.

Request a free demo of Observer now and find out how to automate the monitoring of PERMAS licenses in your technical infrastructure.