How to Maybe Make a Dongle Work with ArcGIS

You just got a new license file and a dongle and you are installing ArcGIS for the first time:

  1. Get a License file (text) and save it somewhere on your machine.
  2. Open the file and enter the name of your computer name near the top of the file wehre it says "server" (your computer name is found in: Accessories > System Tools > System Info) and save the file.
  3. Install ArcGIS and while doing so choose also the "Install Server" option.
  4. It will ask you where your license file is; follow the instructions from there.

You are getting a new license file to update your expired one and/or you want to be able to switch back and forth from using your license file and dongle to connecting to a license server running somewhere else:

  1. Get a License file (text) and save it somewhere on your machine
  2. Run Start/Program Files/ArcGIS/License Manager/License Manager Tools
  3. Tell the License Manager to read your License file from Step 1 ("Browse" in the "Service/License File" tab)
  4. Reboot your computer so the License Manager will start. Or maybe there is an "Update License" choice now?
  5. Run Start/Program Files/ArcGIS/Desktop Administrator > License Manager: "Change" and enter your computer's name (found in Start > Settings > Control Panel > System: Computer Name tab). To revert to using a licnese server you can do this step again later and re-enter the name of a license server such as "server.example.washington.edu". Except this may no longer be correct?

NOTE: If you have LM_LICENSE_FILE and/or ESRI_LICENSE file Environment Variables set, you may need to disable or change them? They are found in Start > Settings > Control Panel > System: Advanced: Environment Variables

Maybe there is an easier way to do this? Surely lots of this is wrong, out of date, etc? Let us know.

Editorial content: Apparently what is happening with a dongle is you are making your own computer a "license server" so that it serves the license to itself, as opposed to connecting to a remote server that serves the license to you. Whatever. While this is all fine and good for people who (want to) understand such distinctions and intricacies, it strikes this somewhat non-technical user as another example of a company passing along its internal problems to its customers, the same crappy thing that banks and airlines do (and most recently, the US Postal Service).

So, to ESRI in this case I say: Keep the process simple. I don't care about how your technology works or what it can and can't do. Your goal should be to:

  1. Figure it out.
  2. Deliver a single, simple interface with all the choices to make the software work regardless of what my license situation is.
- Charles Kiblinger