What is the Abaqus/Elan license manager? #
Abaqus/Elan is the Elan License Manager in the build Abaqus shipped. Elan Computer Group, a company in Mountain View, California, made Elan as a software license manager that other vendors built into their own products. Abaqus, the finite element analysis (FEA) software developed by Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen (HKS), was one of those products.
It works like the network license managers you already run. A license server holds the license keys. When an analyst opens an Abaqus product or submits a solver job, the application asks the server for licenses. If enough are free, the server checks them out. If not, the request waits in a queue or is refused.
Three details matter when you audit the server. Each client sends the server a heartbeat about once a minute. If a client goes silent, the server takes its license back after a “zombie” period, three minutes by default. And Elan supports redundant license servers.
You query the server with abaqus_elmadmin, Elan’s administration utility as Abaqus ships it. The -l option lists current users and outstanding licenses. Add -h and you also see each client’s hold time and the shared-license count.
Abaqus moved on. A 2001 installation of Abaqus 6.2-1 still shipped the Elan admin tool. By version 6.5, the Abaqus Installation and Licensing Guide documented FLEXlm instead. Current releases run on FlexNet or the Dassault Systèmes License Server (DSLS), with DSLS as the default.
Dassault Systèmes bought the company behind Abaqus in October 2005, and the product line now sits under SIMULIA. Dassault Systèmes Abaqus, SIMULIA Abaqus, plain Abaqus: it’s the same simulation software. The Abaqus license manager behind it depends on the release.
So if an Abaqus/Elan server still runs in your estate, it’s serving an older Abaqus release. Its licenses sit outside any DSLS or FlexNet report your team pulls today.
Which license types does Abaqus/Elan support? #
Elan could do more than any single vendor used. A 1995 developer article by an Elan Computer Group engineer lists the license models the Elan License Manager supported:
| Modelo de licença | O que isso significa |
|---|---|
| Floating (concurrent) | Licenses float on the network up to a concurrent user count. Anyone can take one until the count runs out. |
| Currency-based | The application requests a variable number of tokens, based on a “price”. |
| Medido | Tokens are consumed by time, invocations, pages or another parameter. |
| Componente | Separate keys license individual modules or features. |
| Reserved or excluded | Licenses are set aside for, or barred from, specific users, groups or machines. |
| Held | A license stays with its user and host for a set period after the application exits. |
| Shared | Separate applications run by the same user on the same host and display share one license. |
| Demo or timed | Keys carry an expiry date. “Any-host” keys are used for demos. |
| Host-locked | A key is tied to one specific machine. |
Version 3.0, released in 1994, added soft limits and start-date keys. When usage crosses a soft limit, the server writes an alert for the administrator to its log.
Abaqus licenses by token. A job draws tokens from a shared pool and returns them when it finishes. A 2001 Abaqus 6.2-1 job log shows the solver checking out “the Enabling Token from the license server”. Dassault Systèmes still defines token-based licensing this way: a token is reserved for one use at a time and becomes available for other uses once released.
The token count per job rises with cores, but not in a straight line. For Abaqus analysis tokens, university HPC centres publish the formula 5 × N0.422, where N is the number of cores. One core takes 5 tokens. Four cores take 8, and 16 cores take 16. SIMULIA’s Unified License Model (ULM) packaging uses a different scale, and under it the same token pool can also run fe-safe, Tosca and Isight.
Two consequences for whoever owns the Abaqus software contract. A token pool runs out unevenly: one 16-core job takes as many tokens as two 4-core jobs. And the names in an elmadmin listing don’t map one-to-one to licenses consumed. A user who closed Abaqus can still appear, flagged “H” for held, until the hold time expires.
Which software vendors use Abaqus/Elan, and for which applications? #
One. The “Abaqus” in Abaqus/Elan names the vendor. The Elan-era evidence names Abaqus/Standard 6.2-1: a 2001 job log shows it checking out its token from the license server. Today’s line, including Abaqus/CAE, Abaqus/Standard and Abaqus/Explicit, licenses through DSLS or FlexNet.
The generic Elan License Manager had a wider customer list. These vendors document using it:
| Fornecedor | Aplicações | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA (originally HKS) | Abaqus, including Abaqus/Standard 6.2-1 | Abaqus 6.2-1 file listing and job log, 2001 |
| PTC (Arbortext) | Arbortext Editor, Styler, Architect and Publishing Engine, versions 5.2 to 5.4 | PTC support article CS31899 |
| Concurrent Computer Corporation | NightStar tools such as NightView, and MAXAda | Élan License Manager 5.0.2 release notes, August 2000 |
| Taligent | ELFIN, a licensing provider for the CommonPoint application system | Taligent CommonPoint documentation |
Ownership changed along the way. By 1999, PTC’s Arbortext documentation credited the Elan License Manager to Rainbow Technologies.
For a SIMULIA estate, the vendor list matters less than the release list. If your Abaqus releases span two decades, you may run Abaqus/Elan, FlexNet and DSLS side by side. That means up to three distinct licensing environments or data sources to check.
How Open iT supports your work with Abaqus/Elan #
Open iT is a software asset management vendor, operating since 1999, that measures how engineering software gets used. Its main product, LicenseAnalyzer™, reads your license servers and turns what it finds into reports on concurrent use, who held each license and for how long.
For Abaqus/Elan, Open iT installs a small agent, the Open iT Core Client, on the license server. The agent runs sampling every 5 minutes, and every hour it sends the processed data to the Open iT Core Server for storage and reporting. Your Elan server keeps running as it is. You need administrator rights on the license server and the location of abaqus_elmadmin.
Open iT’s documentation lists concurrent usage, elapsed time and real-time monitoring for Abaqus/Elan. In practice that gives you peak demand as a number instead of an argument, and how long each checkout lasted. You also see usage by user, host and user group. Open iT’s License Monitor adds a live view of what’s checked out now, next to every other license manager Open iT collects from.
Open iT’s v10.3 documentation covers 100 license manager configurations, including DSLS and FlexNet, so Elan-era and current Abaqus usage can sit in one report.
Read next: How to configure Abaqus/Elan License Manager in Open iT, with activation, collection and verification steps.
Perguntas frequentes #
Is Abaqus/Elan the same as FlexNet or DSLS?
No. They’re three different license managers. Abaqus 6.2-1, from 2001, shipped the Elan admin tool. By version 6.5, Abaqus documented FLEXlm. Current releases use FlexNet or DSLS, with DSLS as the default.
What does abaqus_elmadmin do?
It’s Elan’s administration utility as Abaqus ships it. With -l it lists current users and outstanding licenses. Adding -h shows each client’s hold time and the shared-license count. Open iT reads the same output to collect usage data.
Can Open iT report Abaqus/Elan license denials?
Not according to Open iT’s current documentation, which lists concurrent usage, elapsed time and real-time monitoring for Abaqus/Elan. Open iT does report denials for DSLS, the default license server for current Abaqus releases.
How many tokens does an Abaqus job use?
For Abaqus analysis tokens, 5 × N0.422, where N is the number of cores. One core takes 5 tokens, 4 cores take 8 and 16 cores take 16. SIMULIA’s Unified License Model uses a different scale, so check the documentation for your release.
See your Abaqus usage in one place #
You know how many Abaqus tokens you pay for. What you probably can’t see is peak use last quarter, or how much of it ran through an Elan server outside your usual reports.
Open iT answers that from your own license servers, Elan, FlexNet and DSLS together.
Book a demo → Talk to a licensing specialist about the Abaqus license servers in your estate.
