Cannot obtain the license for spectreRF when interfacing matlab with spectre

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your suggestions! I checked the licenses you provided, but none of them are available. Here is what I did

module load cadence/spectre/231_802

/NAS/cad/cadence/SPECTRE231_802/bin/perf_test -f Virtuoso_Spectre -test_cp -lc 1

/NAS/cad/cadence/SPECTRE231_802/bin/perf_test -f Virtuoso_Acceler_Parallel_sc -test_cp -lc 1

/NAS/cad/cadence/SPECTRE231_802/bin/perf_test -f Virtuoso_Multi_mode_Simulation -test_cp -lc 1

And the returns are the same:

--- Checkout Performance Test A ---

Description: Loop of checkout calls checking out the same feature with
             additional ( upgrade ) license each iteration of the loop.
             The server maintains one job with number of licenses over
             the course of this test. The first license server will be
             used if there are more than one server specified in the
             license path.

ERROR: CDS_LIC_FILE is not set.
       Please set CDS_LIC_FILE to point to a single license server
       or a triad redundant license server.

                      --- Checkout Performance Test B ---

Description: Loop of checkout calls checking out the same feature with
             additional ( incremental ) license each iteration of the
             loop. The server maintains the number of jobs with one
             license each over the course of this test. The first license
             server will be used if there are more than one server
             specified in the license path.

ERROR: CDS_LIC_FILE is not set.
       Please set CDS_LIC_FILE to point to a single license server
       or a triad redundant license server.

                      --- Checkout Performance Test C ---

Description: Loop of checkout and checkin calls each iteration of the loop.
             The server maintains one job with one license over the course
             of this test. The first license server will be used if there
             are more than one server specified in the license path.

ERROR: CDS_LIC_FILE is not set.
       Please set CDS_LIC_FILE to point to a single license server
       or a triad redundant license server.

                      --- Checkout Performance Test D ---

Description: Loop of checkout calls each iteration of the loop.
             License will be checked out from any of the available
             license server specified in the license path.

ERROR: CDS_LIC_FILE is not set.
       Please set CDS_LIC_FILE to point to a single license server
       or a triad redundant license server.

I also echo $CDS_LIC_ONLY, and it is undefined:

CDS_LIC_ONLY: Undefined variable.

However, $LM_LICENSE_FILE is set properly. It confused me that, although the three licenses are not avaible, there is no "License for the SpectreRF option could not be obtained" as long as I do not set the LD_PRELOAD. When I set the LD_PRELOAD, the license cannot be obtained.

Or, is there any possibility to use a older version of spectre, e.g., spectre 17.1, so that to fit the matlab2016? I tried this, but the error message are the same -- it cannot obtain the license.

Thanks again for your patient help!

Best Regards,

Sai

Hi Andrew,

Thank your for your suggestions! I checked the three licenses but none of them are available. I also checked $CDS_LIC_ONLY, it is undefined. However, the LM_LICENSE_FILE is set properly. What confused me is that, although the three licenses are not available, there is not "License for the spectreRF option could not be obtained" message as long as I do not set the LD_PRELOAD. If I set the LD_PRELOAD, the license cannot be obtained.. (I wrote a reply containing the detailed error messages, but I was informed that the reply is determined to be SPAM... Maybe the reply is too long. Sorry for that.)

Or, is there any possibility to use an older version of spectre, e.g., spectre 17.1, so that to fit the Matlab 2016? I tried this, but the problem is the same -- it cannot obtain the license.

Thanks again for your patient help!

Best Regards,

Sai

Sai,

SW202509035411 said:

Thank your for your suggestions! I checked the three licenses but none of them are available

If none of the licenses are available via the perf_test, it's never going to work (with this or the older version of Spectre).

SW202509035411 said:

What confused me is that, although the three licenses are not available, there is not "License for the spectreRF option could not be obtained" message as long as I do not set the LD_PRELOAD.

That's not surprising. If you are getting the issue with the Invalid MEX-file message then the MEX file won't be loaded, and since it's not loaded it can't try to do the license checkout and then fail. In other words, the code that is doing the license check is never called. Using the LD_PRELOAD allows a compatible version of the libstdc++.so.6 to be loaded both by Matlab and by the MEX file for the Spectre toolbox, and hence it gets to doing the license check.

SW202509035411 said:

(I wrote a reply containing the detailed error messages, but I was informed that the reply is determined to be SPAM... Maybe the reply is too long. Sorry for that.)

I found that post awaiting appeal and approved it, so I can now see the detail. It went into moderation because of the repeated text, most likely.

SW202509035411 said:

Or, is there any possibility to use an older version of spectre, e.g., spectre 17.1, so that to fit the Matlab 2016? I tried this, but the problem is the same -- it cannot obtain the license.

Unsurprising, because the problem is licensing, not the version you're using.

Please set CDS_LIC_ONLY (the perf_test seems to require that env var to be set - it doesn't use LM_LICENSE_FILE), and repeat the perf_test. I'm not sure I understand the reluctance to set that specific env var (we generally recommend setting the Cadence-specific env variable rather than the generic LM_LICENSE_FILE, as particularly with CDS_LIC_ONLY, this leads to better license performance as you don't end up checking irrelevant license servers).

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thank you so much for your reply! I have learned quite a lot from your instructions! I set the CDS_LIC_ONLY and CDS_LIC_FILE as follows:

module load cadence/spectre/231_802

setenv CDS_LIC_FILE 5280@licsrv02

setenv CFS_LIC_ONLY 1

And I repeat the perf_test, it gave me a very long message containing Test A, Test B, Test C and Test D. The error message are the same:

ERROR (LMF-03010): License call failed for feature Virtuoso_Spectre, version 1.000 and quantity 1. The license server search path is defined as 5280@licsrv02. The FLEXnet error message is as follows,
    FLEXnet ERROR(-10, 0, 0): Feature has expired.

Run 'lic_error LMF-03010' for more information.

So I ran lic_error LMF-03010, and got

ERROR (LMF-02010): Feature has expired.

The feature has expired. Today's date is after the expiration date in the
license file.

Contact Cadence support at support@cadence.com for further assistance.

I also read your post in https://community.cadence.com/cadence_technology_forums/f/custom-ic-design/21033/cadence-ic-6-14-license-issue, so I tried lmstat -a -c 5280@licsrv02, it returns a large amount of information containing the location of the license file, the feature usage info, etc., so I guess there is nothing wrong for the communication with the license server.

Thanks again for your patience!

Best Regards,

Sai

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your reply! Could you please approve the post? It was blocked again.. I tried to set the CDS_LIC_ONLY and CDS_LIC_FILE, and repeat perf_test. It returned an error message (LMF-03010, I am afraid this reply can be blocked again if I post the entire message, sorry for that..). I also ran lmstat -a -c 5280@licserverhostname according to your post in https://community.cadence.com/cadence_technology_forums/f/custom-ic-design/21033/cadence-ic-6-14-license-issue, and I thought the communication with the license server works well.

Thanks!

Best Regards,

Sai

SW202509035411 said:

Could you please approve the post? It was blocked again

If a post gets blocked, please appeal it rather than keep posting again and again (I don't generally go and check posts awaiting appeal because then I have to wade through all the real spam posts).

Anyway, I found it (at least one of them) and approved. 

The error message is clear:

SW202509035411 said:

ERROR (LMF-03010): License call failed for feature Virtuoso_Spectre, version 1.000 and quantity 1. The license server search path is defined as 5280@licsrv02. The FLEXnet error message is as follows,
    FLEXnet ERROR(-10, 0, 0): Feature has expired.

it's telling you that you are past the expiration date in the license file (for this feature, at least). The lmstat will still list expired licenses (I think), so you should look at the license file itself.

If you're getting the expired feature error for all the three licenses, that's your problem...

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

Andrew Beckett said:

If a post gets blocked, please appeal it rather than keep posting again and again (I don't generally go and check posts awaiting appeal because then I have to wade through all the real spam posts).

Got it! I will appeal next time. Sorry to bother you..

Andrew Beckett said:

If you're getting the expired feature error for all the three licenses, that's your problem...

I see.. I will contact our lab's support to check the license then...

Thanks a lot!

Best Regards,

Sai