Fico Fico Xpress Optimization Xpress Optimization: Installation Guide
Fico Fico Xpress Optimization Xpress Optimization: Installation Guide
Fico Fico Xpress Optimization Xpress Optimization: Installation Guide
8.7
INSTALLATION GUIDE
2.9 Virtualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.9.1 Static Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.9.2 Floating Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.9.3 Application and Enterprise Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.9.4 Virtualization Recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.9.5 Using HASP Dongles with VMware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.9.6 Using HASP Dongles with Microsoft Virtual PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.9.7 Using HASP Dongles with Microsoft Virtual Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3 Supported Platforms 26
3.1 Hardware and Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.2 Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3 Data Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Appendix 34
A Contacting FICO 34
Product support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Product education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Product documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Sales and maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Related services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
FICO Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
About FICO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Index 36
1.1 Introduction
This document describes how to install the FICO Xpress Optimization Suite and the licensing
configuration options for the software.
For installation instructions pertaining to FICO
R Xpress Insight, please see the Xpress Insight
Installation guide.
Note: For the purposes of this guide, Option_1 (Node Locked), Option_2 (USB Dongle), and Community
licenses are referred to as "static" licenses. Option_3 (Floating) licenses are referred to as "floating"
licenses.
If you have any problems with your Xpress license, please refer to the sections on 2.3, and 2.4. These
sections also tell you what information you must supply to FICO Support if you cannot resolve the
problem on your own.
You can obtain a license file, xpauth.xpr, from FICO Sales (or your Xpress supplier). The full license
file removes the problem size limits imposed by a Community license. This applies to both new users
and users upgrading from earlier releases. The full license file removes the restrictions imposed on
problem size by a Community license.
License files are generated using information from the output from the Xpress Host ID tool. If you are
requesting a static license, run the tool using the following procedure on the machine that will host the
installation; For a floating license, follow the steps to run the tool on the server.
Using Microsoft Windows, you can run this tool from the Start menu, or by browsing in Windows
Explorer to navigate to the <installationdir>\bin folder and double clicking
xphostid.exe.
If you use Unix, the tool is installed in the <installationdir>\bin folder as xphostid.
If you are upgrading from an earlier release, you must also supply their ASSC (support) reference
number.
A license authorizes the use of all minor releases within a major release. For example, a license file for
Xpress 8.4 authorizes the installation of all 8.4 minor releases (8.4.1, 8.4.2, and so forth). A new license
file is required for a new major release such as Xpress 8.5.
an install script version for all the Linux and Unix installers, and
a DMG file for Macintosh.
To install an Xpress patch rather than a full Xpress installation, see the section 1.12.
1. To install the software, double-click the left mouse button on the file you downloaded; this causes
the self-extracting zip file to display the following dialog:
2. Click Setup and wait a few moments for the files to be prepared and the installer to run. Once the
files have been extracted from the package, the InstallShield installer displays the following
window:
3. Click Next to continue with the installation. Click Back if you want to return to the previous screen.
4. Next you will be presented with the Xpress licensing agreement as shown below:
It is important that you read this agreement and make sure that you agree to its terms and
conditions. Use the scroll bar (highlighted in green) to read the complete agreement. Click Print
to print the agreement text.
5. Click Yes if you agree with the terms. (If you click No, the installer will automatically close.)
6. Accept the default installation location (or navigate to the desired location) then select what type
of license you wish to use:
Community License: Choose this to use the software with the free FICO Xpress Community
License for academic and commercial use. The capacity limitations previously listed in 1.2
apply. The software will install for the local machine only.
Static Licensing: Choose this to use the software with a paid or evaluation license. The
software will install for the local machine only. Click Next. See 2.1 to continue the
installation.
Note that if you select the Static licensing option and plan on using a dongle to license
Xpress, you will be able to move the dongle between machines, but only one machine at a
time can access the software.
Floating Licensing: Choose this to use the software with a paid license. The software will
install for the current network. Click Next. See 2.2 to continue the installation.
2. Click Next.
3. To continue the installation, see 1.8.
1. At this point you will be prompted to specify whether the installation is for the client (the machine
that runs the Xpress software and requests licenses from elsewhere), or the server (the machine
that runs the license manager and grants or refuses licenses to client machines). For more
information see FICO Xpress Licensing.
2. Click Yes if you want the XPserver license manager to be run as a Windows service. (This means
that the license server will be started automatically in the background, which is often the easiest
and best way to run the license manager.)
You can also start the license manager as a standard program by running the runlmgr.bat file.
For more information see FICO Xpress Licensing.
3. Click Next.
4. For the installer to fully setup your configuration, it needs to know from which server to make
license requests. If you do not know what the server is called, then ask your system administrator
for the name of the FICO Xpress license server.
If the name of the server is unknown, but you would like to continue with the installation, leave
Server empty and click Next. This creates a license file with an empty field for the server name.
Once the server name is known, you can open the license file (located in
<installationdir>\bin) with any text file editor and type the server name between the
quotes in the line use_server server="".
Select Yes and click Next if you wish to use dongles. This step ensures that the driver
software, required by Windows so that it can understand the dongle, is installed during the
Xpress installation process.
If you select No and then later decide you do need the dongle drivers, see 2.5. Click Next.
3. Specify whether you want to install the Xpress Kalis constraint programming add-on. This add-on
can be used within the Mosel modeling environment. The default option is to install this add-on,
but you must have a license which allows its use in order to use the Kalis functionality. If you
select to install this option, you must agree to the Artelys Kalis terms and conditions.
Click Install.
The software will now install. This may take a few minutes.
4. After the software has installed, you will be prompted to point to the license file and the
environment variables must be set.
If you have a license file from FICO Support, click Browse and enter the folder in which the
license file (xpauth.xpr) is located. Click Next.
If you do not have a license file from FICO Support, you can continue; however the license file
created in the Xpress installation directory will not be a valid file, just a temporary
placeholder until you have a valid license.
5. Click Yes if you want to have the Xpress software added as an option on the Windows Start menu.
Note: If you have an Xpress license, it is recommended that you make a note of the full directory path that
contains the file (xpauth.xpr) before you begin installation since you will need this information.
1. To extract the files from the tar archive and start the installation script, enter the following
commands. (For this example the installation is for an 8.4 Linux 64-bit version; as such, your tar
file may have a slightly different name depending on the Xpress version and system on which you
are installing.)
tar xf xp8.4_linux_x86_64_setup.tar
./install.sh
After script start up, you will be prompted to answer a series of questions to set up the
installation. (You can exit the installation process at any time by pressing the Ctrl and c at the
same time.)
2. Specify the type of licensing you wish to use: choose from community (free FICO Xpress
Community License for academic and commercial use; the capacity limitations previously listed
in 1.2 apply), static (one computer, or a dongle for a non-server installation) or floating. Also note
the following when responding to the prompts:
In this and all of the other installation questions, valid options are visible in the question text
surrounded by square brackets. For example, at this point there are three options:
(c)ommunity or (s)tatic or (f)loating. Therefore valid entries are c or s or f.
When the question requires a yes/no answer, you must type y or n.
When entering a directory path, type the full path, or press Enter to accept the offered default
path.
3. If you opted to install a floating license, you will be prompted to indicate whether you want a
(s)erver or a (c)lient installation. If you will be connecting to another computer (or another
XPserver Xpress license manager on the same machine) then enter c; if you want to make this
machine the license server then enter s.
4. Determine where to install the software: The default is /opt/xpressmp. Press Enter to accept
the default. To install to a different location, enter the full path, making sure to use forward
slashes "/". You may enter the relative path if you wish, but this may affect how the environment
variables are set later in the installation process. The supported method is to enter the full path.
5. Using the Xpress Kalis constraint programming engine: this is an optional component for use in
the Mosel modeling environment. It requires the relevant licensing option in order to authorize its
use; however, anyone can install the add-on provided they accept the terms and conditions.
If you select the default option (to install Kalis) the Kalis licensing agreement is displayed. This
can be scrolled through quickly using the Space bar key, or scrolled through slowly using the up
and down arrow keys or Enter. Pressing q stops the display of the licensing agreement, at which
point you will be asked if you agree to its terms. Press n or y.
6. Add Xpress installation paths to your .bashrc file: by doing this, Xpress command-line tools can
be accessed from any Bourne shell (bash) you create. If not, you will have to manually source the
xpvars.sh file to use Xpress tools. Press n or y.
7. License file: you will be prompted to indicate whether you have an Xpress license file from FICO
Support.
If you do not have a license, enter n. At this point, you can stop the installation in order to
obtain the license file from FICO Support and then perform the installation once you have it.
Or you can continue with the installation and get the license file at a later date. If you choose
the latter option, you will need to place the license file in the bin directory of your Xpress
installation. For instance, in the preceding example, (/opt/xpressmp) you would copy the
xpauth.xpr license file in to the /opt/xpressmp/bin directory.
If you indicated earlier that you have an Xpress license and provided its location, you will be
prompted whether you want to copy the license file to the default directory (which is
/opt/xpressmp/bin for this example). This is the default option.
If you decide not to use the default location for the Xpress license, Xpress will still work
correctly; however you should make a careful note of where the license file is stored in case
it requires updating at a later date. (Once installation is complete, the location you have set
for the license file should be pointed to by the XPRESS environment variable.)
The files will now be extracted from the tar archive. Depending on the speed of the computer, this
may take only a few seconds or it may take as long as a few minutes.
8. If you indicated earlier that you were installing a floating client, you will now be prompted for the
name of your license server. If you know the name, enter it now. If you do not know the server
name, press Enter and make a note of the onscreen instructions for entering the server name at a
later date. (You can alter the server name in the xpauth.xpr license file using any text editor,
such as Emacs or Vi.)
9. On completion, the installer generates two script files, one for the Bourne shell (xpvars.sh) and
another for the C shell (xpvars.csh). These scripts should be run, as detailed in the installer
output, to set up the shell environment so that Xpress runs correctly. Add them to any user
profiles or service startup scripts that will be making use of Xpress.
10. If you need to set any custom environment variables for Xpress (in the Bourne shell) you can
create a file called xpvars.local.sh alongside the generated xpvars.sh file and export
custom environment variables from this script.
11. If you did not have your license file while performing the installation, you will need to set the
XPRESS environment variable to point to it once you do have it. The instructions for doing this
from the command line are described within the installer output.
12. If you want to add the change to XPRESS to a more permanent script that can be run whenever the
shell is opened, then the best option would be to edit the relevant xpvars script in the bin
directory of your Xpress installation. You can edit these files with any Linux/Unix text editor by
altering the line relating to the XPRESS environment variable (since this is the location of the
license file).
13. If you indicated earlier that you were installing a floating server installation, the install script
attempts to start the XPserver license manager.
14. If you do not have a server license, then an error message is displayed. If it starts successfully,
then any log messages from it will be output in to the xpress.log file. By default the
xpress.log file is written to /var/tmp/xpress.log. For more information, see FICO Xpress
Licensing.
Once the environment variables have been set using the script and a valid license file is present, then
the Xpress software is ready to use.
./install.sh -h
You can specify as many options as you like, if there are any required options missing you will be
prompted for these with interactive prompts. If you require the installation to be fully automated make
sure you supply all the necessary options so that the interactive prompts do not appear.
Here is an example of a fully automated installation assuming you are in a directory containing the
Xpress tar archive and a valid xpauth.xpr license file:
mkdir xp84
tar xf xp8.4_linux_x86_64_setup.tar -C xp84
pushd xp84
./install.sh -l static -a .. -d /opt/xpressmp -k yes
popd
1. If you have Xpress installed, back up any existing Xpress licence file, then open the Applications
folder. Right click on the FICO Xpress folder and select Move to Trash to uninstall.
2. Double-click the downloaded FICO Xpress for Mac installer.dmg file to display the license
agreement.
3. Click Agree to continue the installation. A Finder window is displayed, showing the application
and a shortcut to your Applications folder.
4. Drag the FICO Xpress icon to your Applications folder to install the application.
The FICO Xpress folder includes a copy of Xpress Workbench that provides direct support
for the authoring, editing, executing and debugging of Xpress Mosel models and FICO Xpress
Solutions. You can create a shortcut to the Xpress Workbench application by opening the
Applications > FICO Xpress folder and dragging the Workbench icon to the Dock.
5. Optionally, copy the FICO Xpress Examples folder, that contains a range of useful resources
including code examples, to your preferred location and unzip it.
6. When the installation is complete, unmount the DMG file. Ctrl-click in the Finder window and
select Eject "FICO Xpress Installer". You can then delete the DMG file
7. Finally, place the license file in the bin directory of your Xpress installation. For instance, in the
preceding example, (/Applications/FICO Xpress/xpressmp) you would copy the
xpauth.xpr license file in to the /Applications/FICO Xpress/xpressmp/bin directory.
. /Applications/FICO\ Xpress/xpressmp/bin/xpvars.sh
Files are not installed selectively as the whole archive will be uncompressed.
Not all environment variables are automatically set.
The dongle driver installation will not be run automatically (Windows).
The file shortcuts will not automatically be added to the Start menu (Windows).
The XPserver license manager will not be automatically configured to run as a service.
4. Read the license.txt file in your installation folder and make sure you agree with the terms
and conditions. (If you do not agree, then cancel the installation and delete the software.)
5. Add the XPRESSDIR environment variable and point towards the xpressmp folder of the
installation directory. You can set this by going to the Start menu Settings Control Panel
System Advanced Environment Variables, and creating a new environment variable. Use
the full path.
6. Add the path %XPRESSDIR%/bin to the PATH environment variable. (This allows the system to
find the relevant Xpress libraries and executables.)
7. To add links to the programs on the Start menu, select Start menu Settings Taskbar and
Start Menu. Click on the Start Menu tab and click Customize.
Click Add. The Microsoft Windows wizard will display so that you can add the programs to the
Start menu. You may want to add optimizer.exe and xpworkbench.exe as basic links,
although a number of other executables are available. (See the bin folder in the installation
directory.)
If you installing a floating server license, you need only add links to XPserver.exe, or the
configuration batch file runlmgr.bat.
8. If you installing a floating server license, you can delete all files and folders except the following:
9. If you are going to use dongles for licensing, then install the dongle drivers found in the
tools\dongle\hasp directory of your Xpress folder. Use a Windows console as it requires the
addition of command-line arguments. You can open a Windows console by running cmd using the
Start Run menu. See 2.5 for more information.
10. Set up the XPserver license manager. See FICO Xpress Licensing for instructions.
1. If you have not done so, untar the downloaded installer (if you have attempted to install via the
automated install script then you have already performed this step). This command extracts the
files from the tar archive:
tar xf name_of_downloaded_installer.tar
2. The extracted files include the installation script install.sh. Move the .gz file to the directory
where you want to install the software.
Decompress the .gz file using the following command:
gunzip name_of_gz_file.gz
3. The preceding command extracts another tar archive which itself contains the installation files
and may be unarchived using the following:
tar xf name_of_new_tar_file.tar
4. The installation directory should now contain several directories of files and several license and
html files. Read the license files and make sure you agree with the terms and conditions; if you do
not agree to them, delete the software and discontinue the installation.
5. Copy your xpauth.xpr license file to the bin directory of the Xpress installation.
6. Set the relevant environment variables so that your system can find the Xpress executables,
runtime libraries and license file. For example, on a Linux system using the C shell:
The name of the environment variable used to find shared libraries varies by system; on Linux and
Solaris it’s usually LD_LIBRARY_PATH and on macOS you should use DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
instead. If unsure, consult your system administrator.
You may find it useful to create a small shell script that sets these variables, or to set them in a
script that runs automatically as you log in.
7. If you plan to use the xssh: protocol to connect to a Mosel optimization service running from this
installation of FICO Xpress, execute the following commands to generate a unique machine key:
cd $XPRESSDIR/bin
./xprmsrv -key new
8. If you are performing a Linux installation and require the use of dongles for licensing, install the
dongle drivers now. See 2.6.
9. If you are installing a floating server license, you only need a few of the files and can remove the
rest. You must keep the following files in order for the XPserver license manager to function
correctly:
10. To setup the XPserver license manager, follow the instructions as described in FICO Xpress
Licensing.
2. If you know where the replacement file(s) should be copied, copy them to the correct destination,
overwriting the older file. (You can always rename the older file if you still want access to it.)
If you are uncertain where the new file should go, search from the Xpress installation directory for
the name of the file. To do this, right-click on the Xpress installation folder and select Search from
the menu. Enter the name of the file you wish to replace in the All or part of the file name box and
click Search. The resulting list indicates where in the Xpress installation the file can be found.
After the patch is placed in the correct location in the installation, the software may be run as normal
and the updated files will be automatically used.
Note: If you plan to install multiple copies of Xpress on one system, make sure that the folder you are
applying the patch to is the correct one and that the XPRESS, PATH and MOSEL_DSO environment
variables point towards the correct folders.
gunzip patchfilename.tar.gz
tar xf patchfilename.tar
In most cases, these will be replacements for library or executable files are found in the lib and
bin folders of the Xpress installation, or the .dso files found in the dso folder of the installation.
2. If you know where the replacement file(s) should be copied, copy them to the correct destination,
overwriting the older file. (You can always rename the older file if you still want to have access to
it.)
If you are uncertain where the new file should go, search on the Xpress installation directory for
the name of the file. You can do this using the find command from the Xpress installation
directory:
3. Running the preceding command results in generating a list of files with matching names. You
may find that if you are searching for a particular minor revision of a file, such as
libxprs.so.18.10.05, that no matching name is found. This is to be expected as the
Linux/Unix library files are named as per their revision and contain symbolic links (libxprs.so
and libxprs.so.18.10 in this case) which point to the actual library file.
After the patch is placed in the correct location in the installation, the software can be run as normal
and the updated files will be automatically used.
If you are attempting to install multiple copies of Xpress on one system, ensure that the folder you are
applying the patch to is the correct one and that the XPRESS, XPRESSDIR, PATH, LIBPATH (or
SHLIB_PATH or LD_LIBRARY_PATH, depending on the system used) and MOSEL_DSO environment
variables point towards the correct folder.
2. After the patch has been extracted to the correct location, the software may be run as normal and
the updated files will be automatically used.
Note: This section applies to Option_1 (Node-locked) and Option_2 (USB Dongle) licenses.
1. Install the license file (xpauth.xpr) that you received from FICO Support by saving/copying the
file into your xpressmp\bin directory.
For UNIX machines, copy the xpauth.xpr file into a convenient directory, such as xpress/bin,
and set the XPRESS environment variable to the following directory:
The XPRESS environment variable is only used by Xpress to find the license file and only on Unix.
Setting XPRESS on Windows will have no effect.
2. You are now ready to use the Xpress product.
1. To use a floating license, you must designate a machine on your network to be the license server.
This machine must be on the same IP subnet as the client machines, and must allow incoming
connections on TCP port 27100 (or another of your choice as described in the section 2.2.5).
2. Run the Xpress installer on the server machine. The installer is a wizard that step you through the
installation process.
On UNIX machines you will be prompted for a license file. Enter the path to the folder
containing the file xpauth.xpr that you received from FICO Support. The license file will
automatically be copied into the server installation.
For Windows NT/2000 or later only: You will be asked whether to install the license manager
as a Windows service. To install the license manager as a service you must have
Administrator privileges, so if you do not have Administrator privileges choose No when
prompted.
3. For Microsoft Windows installations only: Copy the server license file you received from Xpress
Support (xpauth.xpr) into the bin folder of Xpress installation directory.
4. Before you run Xpress on any of the client machines, start the license manager on the server.
On Windows, use the shortcut on the Start menu to start the license manager. If you
installed the license manager as a Windows service you can also start and stop it using the
Services control panel applet.
You can also start the license manager from a Unix shell or Windows command prompt (or
DOS box) using one of the following commands:
runlmgr start (for the standalone license manager and the Unix license manager)
runlmgr starts (for the license manager Windows service)
The license manager remains running until you stop it manually or restart the computer, in which case it
will need to be restarted before Xpress can be used again.
1. To set up a client machine to use a floating license, you must first install Xpress on the client
machine. When the installer asks you whether this is a server machine or a client, choose client.
Enter the path where you want to install Xpress.
2. During installation you will be prompted to enter the hostname of your license server. Enter the
hostname of your machine, together with any qualifying domain if necessary. For example:
uranos.ficdash.co.uk
Note: It is not necessary to run the license manager on the client machines.
To run the Xpress software on your server machine: Install the client and server in different
folders. Install the client first (as described earlier) and then install the server. When prompted for
an install path, enter a different path.
To install the client and server into the same folder: Install the client first, and then the server. You
may also have to edit the use_server line of your license file to point the client at your local
machine, since both client and server will use the same license file for this type of configuration.
On Windows, you can stop (and start) the license server using the links placed in the Xpress area
of the Start menu.
If you are using a Unix machine (or for Windows users who do not/cannot use the Start menu
option just described) you can control the license server using the runlmgr script manager from
a Unix shell or Windows command prompt (or DOS box):
runlmgr stop (for the standalone license manager and the Unix license manager)
runlmgr stops (for the license manager Windows service)
1. Edit the license file on the server and add a server line specifying the port number. For example:
server port="12840"
2. Edit the license file on the client and add the following port directive to the use_server line. For
example:
3. Restart the license server application in order for it to re-read the license file.
2.2.6 Logging
Note: This section applies to Option_3 (Floating) licenses.
By default the license server process creates a log file called xprl_server.log in a temporary folder
on the server machine.
On Windows machines, the server logfile is created in the temporary folder by default, which is
typically the folder Local Settings\Temp within the profile of the user account used to run the
server; however in some circumstances it may appear in C:\Windows\Temp.
On Unix machines the server logfile is generally found in either /tmp or /var/tmp.
To fine-tune the server’s logging: edit the server license file and add a logging line. For example, you
can change the location of the logfile as follows:
logging file="C:\logs\xprl_server.log"
or on Unix machines:
logging file="/var/log/xprl_server.log"
To change the level of detail that will be placed in the log file, use the logginglevel command. For
example:
logging level="verbose"
The default detail level is normal. Other levels are quiet (log only serious errors), verbose (log more
detail than normal) and debug (which should only be used under the direction of FICO support).
To change the log file size: By default the log file should not get much larger than 128 kilobytes; if you
find this is not enough and want to store more logging data you can set the maxsize directive to the
number of kilobytes you want to retain. For example:
logging maxsize="256"
For Option_1 (Node Locked) or Option_2 (USB Dongle) licenses, this location is in the bin
sub-folder of the Xpress installation.
For Option_3 (Floating) licenses, you must place it in the bin subfolder of the Xpress server
installation on the server machine. Restart the server process in order to force the server to
reread the license file.
2. If you have a portable Windows machine with a license tied to your Ethernet address, and you are
having problems when the machine is not connected to a network, it may have Media Sense
enabled. This disables the Ethernet card when no network is connected to save power. Disable
Media Sense by following the instructions on Microsoft’s website:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q239924.
3. If you are running Windows XP and the Xpress host ID tool does not show any host IDs, your
network adapters may be bridged. To fix this, use the Control Panel and select Network and
Internet Connections, and click Network Connections (depending on your set-up, you may
instead have to double-click Network Connections as soon as you open the Control Panel). If the
window contains a section entitled Network Bridge, right click the Network Bridge icon and
choose Delete. Now re-run the Xpress host ID tool to find out the host ID of your computer.
If you still have problems, please contact FICO Support, giving full details about the error number and
message obtained, along with a description of the circumstances under which it occurred.
Sense, as described earlier in this section. If you have a dongle, make sure that it is plugged in
and to manually install the dongle drivers from your latest Xpress installation, as described in
the section 2.5.2.
10 Your license expired on (date).
Your license has expired. Contact FICO Support to renew it or to obtain an upgrade.
14 Could not connect to server...
Check that the server computer is visible over the network. Enter the following command:
ping name_of_license_server
Also, verify that the license server application, xpserver, is currently running on the server
machine. Check the logfile for errors. If you have a firewall, ensure that it is not blocking
communications to and from the Xpress license server application.
20 License could not be checked out on redundant servers.
A quorum (two out of three) of redundant license servers could not be obtained for this
license. Either insufficient redundant license servers are active, or the license is already
checked out on the other two redundant license servers. (This error can only occur when using
a redundant server license.)
21 Your license only supports release (rel).
Your license is for a previous release of Xpress. Be sure that you are not using an old license
and that Xpress is finding the correct license file by following the suggested resolution in (#2
) above.
If your license only covers a previous release, contact FICO Support to upgrade it.
32 Not within local subnet
Your license only permits you to connect to the license server from machines within the same
subnet as the license server machine. If you attempt to connection from a machine outside of
your subnet this error is triggered.
89 Your license only supports platform(s) (plat1,...).
Your license file does not support the platform that you are using to run Xpress. Contact FICO
Support if you want to upgrade.
103 Your license does not allow Xpress to be run on a Terminal Services server
You can only use Xpress on a Terminal Services server with a Workstation or Server license. If
you require a license upgrade, please contact your supplier.
259 This is an OEM license and you have incorrectly specified the OEM number.
You have either called an initialization function without first calling the OEM licensing function
or you specified the wrong OEM number in your call to the licensing function. Check your
OEM documentation to be sure that you are using the correct initialization sequence. Note
that OEM numbers issued for releases earlier than Xpress-MP 2003 are invalid with
Xpress-MP 2003 and beyond. If in any doubt, confirm your OEM number with FICO Support.
haspdinst -i
2.5.3 Notes for Xpress Release 13 (and Earlier) Users with Dongles
Releases of Xpress prior to Xpress-MP 2003 used a different mechanism: the license information was
included in the dongle itself, and different types of dongle were supplied depending on whether the
license was static or floating. When using your existing dongle with Xpress-MP 2003 or later, all
information on the dongle, apart from the four-digit dongle number, is ignored. Since your dongle does
not need to be updated to work with 2003 or later, it still supports previous releases of Xpress.
If you have a NetHASP dongle (red plastic casing), for use with a floating license, the NetHASP license
manager is no longer used, and can be disabled. Floating licenses are now administered by the
xpserver license manager as described in this document. The NetHASP dongle acts as an ordinary
dongle and must be attached to the license server.
1. You must install the license server application on all three license server machines. Edit your
server license file and ensure that the machine names in the use_server lines match with the
names of your three license server machines. For example:
Install the same server license file on all three redundant server machines.
2. In the client license, list the three redundant license servers, marked as redundant license servers,
as follows:
Xpress will try to connect to each of the redundant license servers in turn, until it successfully
establishes a connection with one of them.
Keep in mind that you cannot use Xpress when only one redundant license server is active. Xpress will
only license successfully if two or three of the redundant license servers are available.
2.9 Virtualization
Xpress software supports the most common virtualization technologies including VMWare, Microsoft
Virtual PC/Server, App-V, and so forth.
With this option activated, any USB device you plug in while the virtual machine has the focus will
be connected to the virtual machine, rather than to the host operating system.
2. You can now install Xpress as normal. Select to use hardware dongles as the licensing key when
prompted by the installer. Click in the virtual machine window to ensure it has the focus, and if
you plug in your dongle now, it should connect to the operating system and be recognized when
you run Xpress.
3. Should you plug in your dongle when the virtual machine does not have the focus, it will be
connected to the host operating system instead. To disconnect it from the host and connect it to
the virtual machine, bring up the VM menu from VMware, slide across Removable Devices and
USB Devices, and select Aladdin Knowledge Systems USB Device as shown in the following
example:
4. You will be requested to disconnect the dongle from the host and reattach it to the virtual
machine. Click OK.
The following tables list the supported platforms and the minimum processing requirements needed to
run FICO Xpress and Xpress Insight. Contact FICO for recommended platforms and sizing in your
specific case.
1 IVE editor and Xpress Workbench are available for Mosel on Windows only.
2 Mosel connectivity to spreadsheets is available on Windows, Linux, and MacOS only.
3 Knitro solver component for Xpress NonLinear is available on Windows, Linux 64-bit, and MacOS only.
4 Xpress Kalis is available on Windows 64 bit and Linux 32- and 64-bit only.
3.2 Java
The interfaces for calling Xpress libraries from Java require a minimum of Java 6 (internal version:
1.6.0); compatible distributions of Oracle Java and OpenJDK are supported.
For distributing an application that uses some portion of FICO Xpress Optimization to end-users we
recommend that you distribute the whole installation package, but if you only want to distribute parts of
it then here is how to do it.
advmod.bim mmxprs.dso
aec2.bim mmjobs.dso mmhttp.dso mmssl.dso
mmsystem.dso mmxml.dso
Windows: mplink.exe mpscp.exe
dmp.dso mmhttp.dso mmsystem.dso
Windows: jansson.dll
Unix: libjansson.so.⁎
If you are using a floating license, you also need these files:
Xpress license manager xpserver.exe xpserver
License state query tool xplicstat.exe xplicstat
Some of the components of FICO Xpress Optimization contain open source software. When
redistributing parts of Xpress please make sure that you also include the corresponding files
from the licenses subdirectory of the Xpress distribution.
3. Copy all of the Xpress files listed above to one directory on your end-user’s computer. This can be
any directory, but we strongly recommend that you use the directory containing your application
program.
If you are building a runtime distribution for Mosel applications we recommend that you maintain
the same subdirectory structure (with directories bin, dso, lib, and if you are using MATLAB
also matlab) as the original Xpress distribution.
4. Windows requirement: Add the directory containing the Xpress files to the Windows PATH, so that
Windows knows where to find the Xpress DLLs.
5. Unix only: Set the environment variable for locating shared libraries on your platform
(LD_LIBRARY_PATH for Linux and Solaris, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH on macOS) to point to the
directory containing the Xpress libraries.
6. Unix only: Set the environment variable XPRESS to point to the directory containing the Xpress
license file, xpauth.xpr. (Do not set the XPRESS environment variable under Windows – the
license file will be looked for in the same directory as the Xpress DLLs, and while setting XPRESS
has no effect, if it was set it might confuse the user or support.)
7. If you are using Mosel, set the environment variable MOSEL_DSO to point to the directory
containing the Mosel DSO files.
8. Under Windows: Do not pass an explicit path argument (to XPR?license or XPR?init) when
initializing Xpress to specify the location of the security files. Do not set the XPRESS environment
variable. Do not put the Xpress license file (xpauth.xpr) into a different directory from that
containing all other Xpress library files and DLLS listed above. Doing any of these will add to the
complexity of the Xpress licensing procedure, potentially cause a licensing error, and make it
difficult to support your application on your end-user’s computer.
9. Unix symbolic links: The tar file distributions contain symbolic links e.g. libxprs.so.17.10.01
->libxprs.so.17.10 ->libxprs.so ( .so extension may vary between UNIX platforms).
In the example above, the binary file has the full version number postfixed to enable the support
team to easily identify the exact version number being used. The intermediate filename without
the 3rd element of the version number is used internally by one Xpress component to link to
another. The link with no version number is used to support the version-independent
documentation, examples and example makefiles.
In general, it is possible to remove the soft links and rename the libraries, with the following
exceptions. The security library must be made available as libxprl.so.yyyy for all Xpress
components to use. If any components ( including Xpress Optimizer console ) other than the
Xpress Optimizer runtime library are to be used then the Xpress Optimizer runtime library must be
made available as libxprs.so.xx.yy .
Dongles
10. If you are using Xpress dongles, you must install the dongle driver on your end-user’s computer.
You can obtain the files necessary to do this from the fico.com website:
Administrator privileges are required to install the dongle driver. To install the driver, execute
hinstall -i -criticalmsg
The driver does not normally start up until the computer is re-booted.
For HASP dongles on Linux you need the file HDD_Linux_dinst.tar.gz (available from the
Xpress client area download page); to install the dongle driver daemon you must
uncompress this archive somewhere convenient, switch to your superuser account and run
the supplied dinst shell script.
Floating Licenses
11. Users with floating licenses: make sure the Xpress license manager is installed and running on
the server machine. Please refer to the chapter 2 for full instructions and troubleshooting. If you
wish to install the license server as a service on Windows machines, run xpserver -service
install and to remove the service, xpserver -service remove
12. Users with floating licenses: when creating your installer for the client machines you will have to
construct an xpauth.xpr file for connecting to the server. This file should contain one line as
follows:
use_server name="<servername>"
Where <servername> is the name of the license server machine. You may wish to prompt the
user for this information as part of the install process.
FICO provides clients with support and services for all our products. Refer to the following sections for
more information.
Product support
FICO offers technical support and services ranging from self-help tools to direct assistance with a FICO
technical support engineer. Support is available to all clients who have purchased a FICO product and
have an active support or maintenance contract. You can find support contact information and a link to
the Customer Self Service Portal (online support) on the Product Support home page
(www.fico.com/en/product-support).
The FICO Customer Self Service Portal is a secure web portal that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week from the Product Support home page. The portal allows you to open, review, update, and close
cases, as well as find solutions to common problems in the FICO Knowledge Base.
Please include ’Xpress’ in the subject line of your support queries.
Product education
FICO Product Education is the principal provider of product training for our clients and partners.
Product Education offers instructor-led classroom courses, web-based training, seminars, and training
tools for both new user enablement and ongoing performance support. For additional information, visit
the Product Education homepage at www.fico.com/en/product-training or email
producteducation@fico.com.
Product documentation
FICO continually looks for new ways to improve and enhance the value of the products and services we
provide. If you have comments or suggestions regarding how we can improve this documentation, let
us know by sending your suggestions to techpubs@fico.com.
Please include your contact information (name, company, email address, and optionally, your phone
number) so we may reach you if we have questions.
Related services
Strategy Consulting: Included in your contract with FICO may be a specified amount of consulting time
to assist you in using FICO Optimization Modeler to meet your business needs. Additional consulting
time can be arranged by contract.
Conferences and Seminars: FICO offers conferences and seminars on our products and services. For
announcements concerning these events, go to www.fico.com or contact your FICO account
representative.
FICO Community
The FICO Community is a great resource to find the experts and information you need to collaborate,
support your business, and solve common business challenges. You can get informal technical
support, build relationships with local and remote professionals, and improve your business practices.
For additional information, visit the FICO Community (community.fico.com/welcome).
About FICO
FICO (NYSE:FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper.
Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics
and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 165 US and foreign patents
on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction, and growth for businesses in
financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail, and many other industries. Using FICO
solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment
cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are
in the right place at the right time. Learn more at www.fico.com.
C
Community license, 1
size limits, 1
D
dongle, 32
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH, 14, 31
F
floating license, 31
I
installer packages, 2
L
LD_LIBRARY_PATH, 14, 31
library
runime, 28
license
dongle, 6, 16
floating, 5, 16
static, 4, 16
license manager, 5, 16
license server, 16
M
Mosel, 29
module, 29
package, 29
MOSEL_DSO, 32
O
open source licenses, 31
Optimizer, 28