Updated workflow license installed successfully, but receiving license error when trying to publish workflow

Products

• Workflow Solution

Issue/Introduction

Updated workflow license installed successfully, but receiving license error when trying to publish workflow

Resolution

Sent customer steps to try to resolve the license error.

These are the important things to check when experiencing a licensing error in Workflow Designer:

1) In the Licensing tab in Notification Server console, verify that there are valid, unexpired licenses for "Server License" and "Designer License".  (Note: there are two legacy entries that may or may not appear in Licensing for "Symantec Workflow" and "Locked Server License".  The references have no function in the shipping version of Workflow Solution and do not need to be present and, if present, do not have to be active.)

2) The computer running Workflow Designer and Workflow server must be managed by the Altiris Agent.  Changes to configuration should be properly updated on the Altiris Agent Details screen when "Update Configuration" is selected.  If this is not functioning properly, troubleshooting should be done to get it in working order.

3) In the Notification Server console, under Configuration | Solutions Settings | Workflow | Workflow License Assignment, the Workflow Designer machine should be assigned a Designer License and a Server License (as needed).

4) In the Workflow Designer application under Plugins | Altiris NS Credentials, the proper Notification Server settings should be provided for the NS that manages the Workflow Designer machine.  (Note: If Workflow Designer is running on the same machine as the Notification Server, it is recommended that the NS Server Name be entered as 'localhost'.)

5) Troubleshooting licensing issues depends upon shutting down the Workflow Designer application AND restarting the Server Extensions.  If there is incorrect information in the Altiris NS Credentials, they will often be cached and will not reflect changes that have been made.

For example, if the name of the Notification Server is incorrect in the Altiris NS Credentials, the Designer application will attempt to connect to the Notification Server when it is first loaded.  If it cannot connect (due to the incorrect name), it will report the following error to the Workflow log:

Connection failed. Returning no license present. Please check your Notification Server settings.  The remote name could not be resolved: '<invalid name>'

If you were to keep this session open and then open up a project, this error would be repeated in the Workflow logs.  It displays this error despite the fact that it does not actually make another connection to the Notification Server.  I relies on the cached failure from when the client was originally opened.  If you then were to choose the option to Publish the project, it would report the error "The current license does not allow project deployment".  The Workflow log would again repeat the same error from above.  Again, the Designer is not making another connection to the Notification Server but relying on the cached failure.

Also, it is important to be aware that if you change settings to the Altiris NS Credentials, the Server Extensions must be restarted.  Otherwise, the cached credentials from the last time it loaded will be maintained.  This will affect the Workflow Designer application even if the Designer is restarted.  To completely, clear these cached credentials, the Designer should be closed and then the Server Extensions should be restarted.

These cached credentials and cached authentication failures make capturing information through a packet trace problematic.  Although the error above regarding "Connection failed" gives the impression that it is making a separate connection to the Notification Server, that is not actually happening.  Only the initial failure can be seen in a packet trace.

Any troubleshooting involving licensing issues should include shutting down the Workflow Designer and restarting the Server Extensions at every step.  And, any attempt to validate a fix, verify a defect, or run any packet traces of this process requires that the shutdown and restart occur immediately prior to the troubleshooting step.

Applies To
Workflow Server 6.x