Troubleshooting Licensing Problems

Problems with our licenses are typically easy to resolve. The following information provides a conceptual framework and troubleshooting tips suitable for all licensing problems.

Identifying License Problems

License problems occur when users attempt to apply them to incorrect products or when they hit a ceiling associated with concurrent usage. Most license errors are explicit and include text that states whether the active license is invalid, expired, or exceeded. Performance and stability issues that do not produce explicitly license-related error msesages are not likely to be caused by licenses.

Evaluation licenses do not limit overall functionality. Our products are fully functional regardless of the license key applied. An evaluation or other license key may place limits on the length of time for which a product may be used (expiration date), the number of concurrently active database sessions and/or client hosts, or the supported data access mechanisms (ODBC, JDBC, OLE DB, ADO.NET). Explicit error messages indicating such license-based limitations will be produced when relevant.

Sources of Licensing Problems

Licenses problems appear under the following circumstances:

• A license file for Release 3.x or earlier is ftp'd in binary.

• A license file for Release 4.x or later license file is ftp'd in ASCII.

• The license covers a different product.

• The license covers a different release.

• A machine has more logical processors than permitted by the license.

• The license cannot be found.

• The wrong license is found.

• You did not perform the appropriate steps to register the license.

• The License Manager process (Release 6.x and later) needs to be restarted.

• The license is inadequate for your level of concurrent activity.

Troubleshooting Tips

Use the following tips to resolve your licensing issues and/or supply our Support staff with your findings:

• FTP all license files with a .lic extension in binary mode (BIN). Use ASCII FTP for .ini files.

• Review the terms of the email that delivered the license file.

• Compare the product installed on your machine with the product covered by the license key.

• Compare the product version on your machine with the product covered by the license key.

• Identify the number of logical processors on the box that hosts the license and ensure these are covered by the license key.

• Use our licensing guidelines to ensure that the license is placed in the appropriate location on the target machine.

• Use the host machine's search utilities to ensure that expired or deprecated license files are removed from the host machine and deleted from the trash.

• Use our licensing guidelines to ensure that you have performed the license application procedure using the correct steps in the appropriate order.

• Use the host monitoring utilities to ensure that applicable processes have been restarted as detailed in our licensing guidelines.