Receiving warnings in Control Compliance Suite Console about expired licenses

Products

• Control Compliance Suite
• Control Compliance Suite Standards Database
• Control Compliance Suite Standards Module
• Control Compliance Suite Standards Server

Issue/Introduction

When starting the Control Compliance Suite (CCS) Console, you receive warnings about having an expired license or that a license is in a grace period.  You have valid licenses and would like to remove those warnings.
 

Warnings of expired licenses or licenses that are in a grace period.

Cause

Expired licenses are not automatically removed from the ADAM database used by CCS.

Resolution

All these steps should preferably be performed on the Application Server while logged in as the CCS service account, or the account that installed CCS.

First, you should make a backup of the ADAM database following these instructions:

Backing up the Control Compliance Suite ADAM and SQL databases

1. After ADAM is backed up, close out the CCS Console.
2. Open File Explorer and Navigate to %ProgramData%\Symantec Shared\Licenses\
3. There can be anywhere from 1 to several *.slf license files. Edit each one to find the ones that are expiring soon.
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<licenses xmlns="https://licensing.symantec.com">
<license signature="removed=" keyid="">
<license_format>1</license_format>
<fulfillment_id>123456789.0</fulfillment_id>
<serial_id>123456789.0</serial_id>
<serial_number>B1234567890</serial_number>
<product_name>Symantec Control Compliance Suite Standards Manager Server</product_name>
<site_id>123456</site_id>
<transaction_type>6.0</transaction_type>
<sign_date>2023-01-03</sign_date>
<key>
<name>CCS Core</name>
<version>12.0</version>
<start_date>2023-01-03</start_date>
<end_date>2024-03-15</end_date>
<count>1</count>
4. Take note of the "serial_id" and the "<end_date>", as the <end_date> will be the date that will tell us which licenses are expiring soon or are already expired.
5. Do this for each SLF file located in the "Licenses" folder.
6. Next, we need to use ADSIEdit, if installed is located at "Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools\"
   
7. If this utility is not installed we will need to install it via Windows Service Manager -> Manage -> Add Roles and Features.
   Under "Features" you will expand out "Remote Server Administration Tools" - "Role Administration Tools" and check the box for "AD DS and AD LDS Tools"
   
8. Open ADSIEdit, right-click on "ADSI Edit" click on "Connect to...", and enter a name such as "CCS", for "Connection Point" type "O=Symantec" as the Naming Context and then localhost:3890 as the "Computer", then click "OK" to connect.
   
9. Drill down to CN=Licenses, OU=Infrastructure, O=Symantec, and locate the expired license(s), then right-click Delete:
   
10. Now restart the Application Server service.  After you open the CCS Console you should no longer see the popup for the expiring licenses.