Please refer to the system requirements for your license server.
Specifically the operating system and CPU. The license server can be headless. The license server can be on a virtual machine.

Download the latest Production or Daily build of the Houdini version you are looking to install.

You do have the option of installing only the license server component.

These are examples of installing only the license server on Linux using the launcher command line option.

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If the machine has Internet:

Download and run the install_houdini_launcher.sh script.

To only install the license server:

sudo ./houdini_installer install --product 'License Server' --version 22.0.368 \ 
--platform linux_x86_64_gcc14.2 --settings-file /tmp/settings.txt 

The settings file will contain the login information and the EULA acceptance. Please refer to the documentation.

An example settings.txt file:

username=[your SideFX license email]
password=[your SideFX license password]
accept_eula=SideFX-2021-10-13

If the machine does not have Internet

Download and run the install_houdini_launcher.sh script and upload to your server.

Download the offline iso file for the version you wish to install. Navigate to the Offline Packages section. Select to "Show offline package".

sudo ./houdini_installer install --product 'License Server' --version 22.0.368 \
--platform linux_x86_64_gcc14.2  \
--offline-installer /tmp/houdini-22.0.368-linux_x86_64_gcc14.2.iso \
--accept-EULA "SideFX-2021-10-13"

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An example of installing only the license server on Linux using the old-style installer:

Note that the old-style installer will be depreciated in future releases.

tar xvzf houdini-22.0.368-linux_x86_64_gcc14.2.tar.gz
cd houdini-22.0.368-linux_x86_64_gcc14.2
sudo ./sesinetd.install

Follow the prompts.

On Linux, the license tools are located in /usr/lib/sesi.

An automated backup of the old version of the sesinetd and sesictrl tools, and licenses file is located in /usr/lib/sesi/BACKUP_SESI*.

Systemd vs System V

The license server daemon (sesinetd) does support systemd. If you are using the old installer (eg. houdini-22.0.368-linux_x86_64_gcc14.2.tar.gz) the sesinetd daemon will use system V (starting from init.d by default). However, you can configure the daemon to use systemd. The sesinetd.service unit file is provided for you in /usr/lib/sesi.

If you are using the launcher, the license server will try to be installed using systemd, if the system supports it.