How can I stop older versions of the Quartus II software or IP from using newer floating network licenses?

If your license file contains FEATURE and INCREMENT lines for the same product but with different maintenance dates, the license server may check out newer licenses from the FEATURE line to users running older versions of the Quartus® II software or IP, which leaves fewer licenses for users running newer versions of the Quartus II software or IP.

The default behavior of a license server is to use licenses from the first matching FEATURE or INCREMENT line in the license file. If all the licenses in the first FEATURE or INCREMENT line are in use, it then tries the next FEATURE or INCREMENT if one is available, until it reaches the end of the license file.

You can use a FLEXlm Options file to control which users can access which licenses by creating pools of licenses for each FEATURE and INCREMENT line.

The versions of the Quartus® II software or IP cores that a license line supports is defined by the maintenance date or version string, which is the fourth entry on a license FEATURE or INCREMENT line.

The following code shows a typical license FEATURE or INCREMENT line:

<FEATURE / INCREMENT> <product> alterad <maintenance date> permanent <number of seats> ….

Where:
<product> is the Altera software or IP product (quartus, maxplus2, ip_base, and so on)
<number of seats> is the number of licenses for the product.

For example:

FEATURE quartus alterad 2010.12 permanent 2 …
…
…

INCREMENT quartus alterad 2009.06 permanent 2 …
…
…


The FEATURE line above supports the Quartus II software versions released before December 2010 (2010.12)

The INCREMENT line above supports the Quartus II software versions released before June 2009 (2009.06)

For more information about reading license files, refer to the Altera Software Installation and Licensing handbook

Using a FLEXlm Options File

The options file creates a separate pool of licenses for each FEATURE or INCREMENT line of a product in a license file, based on the maintenance date or version support of the FEATURE and INCREMENT lines. Access to the license pools can then enabled by user name or groups of users.

To setup a floating license server to use an options file, follow this example based on the following license file:

FEATURE quartus alterad 2010.12 permanent 2 …
…
INCREMENT quartus alterad 2009.06 permanent 2 …
…

FEATURE ip_base alterad 2010.12 permanent 2 …
…

INCREMENT ip_base alterad 2009.06 permanent 2 …
…

For more information about reading license files, refer to the related solution or the Altera Software Installation and Licensing handbook

To create an options file to use with a floating license server, follow these steps:

1. Open a new text file.
2. Add a GROUP line for each user group you want to use, with a space separated list of usernames for each group (users can be members of more than one group).
   GROUP <group name> <username 1> <username 2>
   For example:
   GROUP quartus2010 kjones bknight root administrator
GROUP quartus2009 bknight cface root administrator
3. Add an INCLUDE line for each INCREMENT and FEATURE line in your license file for the product you wish to control. The VERSION keyword must be set to the maintenance date or version date on the INCREMENT or FEATURE line from the license file. The GROUP field controls which group(s) can use the license line.
   INCLUDE <product name>:VERSION=<maintenance date> GROUP <group name>
   For example:
   INCLUDE quartus:VERSION=2010.12 GROUP quartus2010
INCLUDE quartus:VERSION=2009.06 GROUP quartus2009
INCLUDE ip_base:VERSION=2010.12 GROUP quartus2010
INCLUDE ip_base:VERSION=2009.06 GROUP quartus2009
4. Save the options file <filename>.dat
   For example alteraOptions.dat
5. Add the options file as the last option on the VENDOR line in your license file.
   For example:
   VENDOR alterad "C:\licenses\alterad.exe" "C:\licenses\alteraOptions.dat"
6. Stop (if applicable) and start your FLEXlm license server or perform a reread.
   For example,
   Linux command line:
    lmutil lmreread -c <license file name>.dat
   Windows command line:
     lmutil.exe lmreread -c <license file name>.dat

For more information on FLEXlm option files please see the FLEXlm End User Guide which is available online.