[UW-GIS-L] UW Users - ArcGIS Starting Slooooowwwly?? This can help...

[Luke Rogers]

UW ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Workstation Users-

If you use SDE.GIS.WASHINGTON.EDU as a license server (or any other license
server for that matter), you can speed up the license checkout process which
happens each time you start ArcGIS. I have increased the time to start
ArcGIS by a factor of 4 by doing the following:

WARNING: The instructions below include making changes to essential parts of
your operating system. It is recommended that you backup your operating
system and files, including the registry, before proceeding. Consult with a
qualified computer systems professional, if necessary.

Open the Registry Editor by going to Start > Run and type regedit. Click OK.
Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ESRI\License hive.
Double-click on the LICENSE_SERVER variable to edit it.
Change the Value Data to '27004 at sde.gis.washington.edu;
27004 at toniwha.atmos.washington.edu' (no quotes)

You may also want to delete or change the value for the LICENSE_SERVER key
at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESRI\ArcInfo\Workstation\8.0\

Deleting the value works just fine as it will fail-over to the other key
(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ESRI\License).

More Information

When the license manager connects to a license server it searches through a
bunch of ports starting with port number 27001 all the way up through 27010.
When the license server detects an available license it checks it out and
ArcGIS starts. Firewalls can slow down this process by refusing connections
to ports other than the one that is serving licenses. Many license server
managers, myself included, firewall these other ports. In order to expedite
the license checkout process a port number can be specified when selecting a
license server. Unfortunately, the Desktop Administrator does not allow you
to enter numbers or the @ symbol so you can not specify a specific port.
Editing the values directly in the registry does work and allows you to
enter multiple license servers with specific ports.

The environment variable ARCGIS_LICENSE_FILE also does the same thing but
will not override the values in the registry so it's best to change it
directly in the registry.

-Luke

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Luke Rogers, Rural Technology Initiative
Senior Geographic Information Research Scientist
Box 352100 | Seattle WA, 98195 | Tel:(206)543-7418
lwrogers at u.washington.edu | http://www.ruraltech.org
University of Washington - College of Forest Resources
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