SUMMARY: Tools to parse FlexLM log files

From: Donald Ballance (donald@mech.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Thu Jan 20 1994 - 13:09:22 CST


Before Christmas I asked about Tools to parse FlexLM log files. I had been
hoping to summarize after I had tried out some of the options but have not
had the time since then to examine the options. I am therefore summarizing
without having tried any of the options suggested. My original posting was
as follows:

> Tools to parse FlexLM log files
> -------------------------------
>
> We are now in the position where we need to charge out maintenance
> costs for some of our software. One product uses the FlexLM license
> manager to control access, however it is not in a particularly friendly
> form to be able to determine use of the product by different individuals.
>
> Ideally I am looking for a tool that will parse the log file and give
> details of the number of times an individual uses the product, and the
> total length of time the product was used for. The product we are using
> is MATLAB, and an extract of the log file is given below. Also it would
> be useful to have a note of the maximum number of users using the product
> at any one time.
>
> Extract of log file:

There then followed an extract from the log file. I received 10 replies.
Of these one requested information on where to get further information
on FlexLM, five requested a summary of any information I received,
two came up with suggestions of how I could do it myself and three
had given up looking and had writen something themselves.

The suggestions were:

1) Use awk and sort

2) Use Nawk (and lmstat for current position)

3) Use Perl

> From leach@oce.orst.edu Wed Dec 8 01:12:15 1993
> From: leach@oce.orst.edu (Tom Leach)
>
> Donald, Can you use a perl script? I have a perl script that I've written
> that does some of the things that you wish. It goes through any FlexLM
> log file and prints out how many times each user has used that specific
> product, and any denials due to exceeding the number of licenses of that
> product. It doesn't provide the time used, but if you know perl it should
> be pretty easy to add it in. It also doesn't do the max users at any one
> time but that would be useful. I may just have to add the time and max
> users to my script as well...
> Anyway, You're welcome to it if you'ld like.
>
> Tom Leach
> leach@oce.orst.edu

4) Use appstat ...

> From jason@ews7.dseg.ti.com Tue Dec 7 20:36:24 1993
> From: jason@ews7.dseg.ti.com (Jason Jonas)
>
> I work at Texas Instruments in Dallas. We too have been looking for tools
> to extract metrics from FlexLM log files. This search has taken so long
> that I finally decided to write a program to do this. The program is
> called app_stat for application statistics.
>
> app_stat is a simple program that gathers the following metrics:
>
> - DENIED: This is the number of times/day users were denied
> a license
> - PEAK: This is the maximum number of licenses in use during
> the day.
> - LICENSES: This is the total number of licenses for that
> app or feature if multiple features are present.
> This is read from the license.dat file
> - TOTAL: This is the total number of license checkouts during
> the day.
>
>
> I don't currently report user-specific metrics although that function-
> ality is currently in the program. The reason is that management could
> interpret the user-specific metrics as who's doing their work or not.
> Anyway, after talking to users and management it was decided that these
> metrics really weren't required and that the above metrics would suffice.
>
> If you want more info about app_stat Donald, just let me know and I'll
> see what I can do for you. l8r!
>
> -Jason Jonas
> TI-Dallas
> 214-995-5525

5) Use a C-program ..

> From patchen@CH.CERN.DSY-SRV3 Wed Dec 15 09:43:00 1993
> From: patchen@CH.CERN.DSY-SRV3
> Hi Donald,
> I have been developing a C programme that analyses login files
> producing statisics on users/hosts/daemons/features login times and
> number of licenses used etc etc etc which seems to be just what you
> are after. I am currently in the process of updating the program so
> it works dynamically but I can send you a copy of the original if you
> want ? Please let me know if there are any problems.

Thanks to the following:

jason@ews7.dseg.ti.com (Jason Jonas)
MEYSTMA@EARN.DUVM (Michael (M.A.) Meystel)
shandelm@jpmorgan.com (Joel Shandelman)
leach@oce.orst.edu (Tom Leach)
af@bk.sel.de (Andreas Fenner)
vasey@issi.com (Ron Vasey)
acker@wg2.waii.com (Douglas L. Acker)
heiser@TDWR.ED.RAY.COM (Bill Heiser)
hushing@gdwest.gd.com (Sumner Hushing)
ricky@fibronics.co.il (Ricardo Marek)
patchen@CH.CERN.DSY-SRV3 (Gary Patchen)

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