Error "License Count for CMDB/Asset Management Solution has been exceeded. Licenses owned:1, in use:1" occurs when trying to use CMDB or Asset Management

Products

• IT Management Suite
• Asset Management Solution

Issue/Introduction

When using CMDB Solution or Asset Management Solution, the error "License Count for CMDB/Asset Management Solution has been exceeded. Licenses owned:1, in use:1" occurs, even though only one license is being used. This prevents further use of CMDB or Asset Management.

License count for CMDB/Asset Management Solution has been exceeded. Licenses owned:1, in use:1

Cause

There are multiple causes for this issue:
 

• Timeouts occur when CMDB or Asset Management attempts to validate the license.
• Duplicate user accounts, usually one is created manually and one is imported through Active Directory.
• The computer accessing the console is doing so with both IPv4 and IPv6 enabled.
• There is a product defect when using CMDB 7.1 or Asset Management 7.1 when the license count for either is only one. 
   

Product defects, Etracks 2412610, 2751628, 2813749 and 3163775.

Resolution

 

 

 

These issues are resolved in CMDB Solution 7.5 and Asset Management Solution 7.5 . Due to the defects' complexity, point fixes for 7.1 will not be provided, however, the following workarounds can often resolve the issue in 7.1.

Preliminary: Check if licenses are being consumed normally

Notes: (1) Before continuing, one license for CMDB or Asset Management will only grant one user in a Symantec Management Console access to those program's functions at a time. If it's possible another user is consuming the license, then this is working as designed. The other user must close their Console and then five minutes elapse for the license to be reclaimed, or the Altiris Service can be restarted. If the main user is 100% certain, however, that there are no other users, and only one license is available, than the issue that this article discusses is most likely the cause. (2) Also, this issue should therefore not be confused for when this occurs "normally", meaning, all licenses are actually validly being used. Close the workstation's console and then allow 10 to 15 minutes to pass for the license to be reclaimed for other users wishing to use CMDB or Asset Management, or, consider purchasing additional licenses to accommodate the number of Asset workers.
 

• In the SQL Server Management Studio, run the following SQL script:
  
  Use Symantec_CMDB
  SELECT *
  FROM Evt_NS_Item_Management
  ORDER BY _eventTime DESC
  
  Review the ItemName column and the User column. This may help show that there are actually more users than expected using CMDB or Asset Management, and where they are in the Altiris Console.
   
• For Asset Management only, in the Altiris Console, click on Settings > All Settings > Service and Asset Management > Asset Management Solution > License Usage.
  
  Review the User column. If this shows more than one user, then most likely Asset Management is indeed being used by more than one user simultaneously, thus the license usage exceeded error. (However, this, through the defect, may report incorrect information such as the User name being different for the same user.)

If the above checks show that the licenses are failing to be reused by the same user on the same computer, the following are workarounds that may resolve or reduce the frequency of the issue:

Part 1: Increase the Security Cache and Item Cache settings for the Symantec Management Platform.
 

1. On the Symantec Management Platform Server, open a Command Prompt window as an Administrator user.
2. Type CD <install directory>:\Program Files\Altiris\Notification Server\Bin\Tools and press the Enter key, where "<install directory>" is the drive, usually C, where Altiris is installed to.
3. Type NSConfigurator.exe and press the Enter key. This runs the NSConfigurator tool.
4. Click to expand the folder Security Settings.
5. Click on SecurityCacheSize.
6. Double its Value. By default, this is 50,000; change this then to 100,000.
7. Click on the Save button.
8. Click to expand the folders User Interface > Tree > Cache.
9. Click on ItemCacheSize.
10. Double its Value. By default, this is 3,000; change this then to 6,000.
11. Click on the Save button.
12. Close NS Configurator.
13. When next possible, restart IIS and the Altiris Service:
    
    a. From the Command Prompt window, type IISRESET /RESTART and press the Enter key.
    b. Once IIS finishes restarting, close the Command Prompt window.
    c. Click on the Windows Start button > Administrative Tools > Services.
    d. Locate and right click on the Altiris Service > Restart.
    e. Click on the Yes button.
     

 Part 2: Verify that no duplicate user accounts exist and that the user account being used has been imported from Active Directory.

Note: This is a common issue and often ends up being the cause and solution.
 

1. In a Symantec Management Platform Console, click on Settings> Security> Account Management.
2. Click on Accounts.
3. Verify that no duplicate roles exist for the CMDB and/or Asset Management user. If so, remove any that were created manually. WARNING: Do not remove the user if they are the Application Identity, as that will lock the user out of the Console!
4. If it is unsure or known that the user account being used has not been created by an AD import:
   
   a. Log in as a different user account that is a Symantec Administrator, and then delete the user's record from Home > Service and Asset Management > Manage Configuration Items > Organizational Types > User, and/or from Accounts, from step 2.
   b. Perform a new AD import by clicking on Settings > All Settings > Notification Server > Microsoft Active Directory Import, Users.
   c. Re-add the user to the appropriate roles from step 2.
   d. Log in as that user and try to reproduce the issue. 
    

Part 3: Ensure that the computer accessing the Symantec Management Platform Console is not using both IPv4 and IPv6.
. 

1. In a Symantec Management Platform Console, click on Home > Service and Asset Management > Manage Configuration Items.
2. Click to expand the folder Computers and Peripherals.
3. Click on Computer.
4. Locate and right click on the computer > Resource Manager.
5. In the Network section, check for IP addresses using IPv4 and IPv6. If both are used, using Windows Networking (which is not covered by these instructions), disable one of the IP addresses/network cards, if possible. If this is not possible, a different computer may need to be used for CMDB or Asset Management functions, as this issue on the original is still affected by having two types of IP addresses.

Part 4: If the above normal solutions all fail, upgrade the CMDB Solution or Asset Management Solution license node count to greater than 1.

The only other way to resolve this is to apply a new license for the product that has the issue (either CMDB Solution and/or Asset Management Solution, depending on the product in the error) that has more than 1 node count. Purchase a new license from Symantec Sales, or apply the temporary limited licenses attached to this article to accomplish this.
 

1. Download the appropriate license for the affected product:
   
   
   
   1. For CMDB Solution 7.1: Download the appropriate CMDB license from this article. One is in 1024-bit format and should be used when the following article is applicable to the user's environment:
      
      Altiris IT Management Suite or Symantec-based Endpoint Management solutions may be affected - Microsoft Update (KB 2661254)
      http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH194869
       
   2. For Asset Management Solution 7.1: Please Contact Symantec Technical Support. They will verify the solutions in this article and if then still necessary, provide an Asset Management license, which is internally attached to this article. For the TSE: Please review the internal note about this and how to provide it to the customer.
       
2. If the license file is compressed (*.zip), unzip the license file to the desktop or to a folder where license files are stored at on the hard drive.
3. Click on the Windows Start button > All Programs > Symantec > Symantec Installation Manager > Symantec Installation Manager.
4. Click on "Add/Update licenses".
5. Click on the "Install Licenses" button.
6. Navigate to where the license file was unzipped to from step 2.
7. Click to select the license file.
8. Click on the Open button.
9. Continue through any other prompts to finish installing the license.
10. Once back to the main window, close Symantec Installation Manager.
11. Wait five minutes for the license to release or restart the Altiris Service to immediately release the license. Note: This may take longer, up to at least thirty minutes. The Altiris Service can also be restarted to help this take effect.
12. If this does not resolve the issue:
    
    a. If possible, reboot the Symantec Management Platform.
    b. If the issue still occurs, this may be caused by a corrupted license file. Use the RemoveLicense.exe tool found in the folder <install directory>:\Program Files\Notification Server\Bin\Tools to remove the old license, of which there may be several for the affected product, then reinstall the license from the Symantec Installation Manager. WARNING: The user should not remove the old license if they are not sure where the .txt license file is located at, as otherwise they will then be unable to reinstall this in Symantec Installation Manager. 
    
    If the RemoveLicense.exe tool cannot be used, manually remove the licenses using the instructions in the following article:
    
    How to manually remove licenses without the license removal tool
    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO4263

 
Relatd Article

How do Asset Management Solution and CMDB Solution licenses work?
http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO95165

Applies To

ITMS 7.1
CMDB 7.1
Asset Management 7.1
License count is only one for CMDB or Asset Management; rarer occasions can see multiple licenses still have this issue, even though there should be some free for use.

Note: This cannot occur with CMDB Solution 7.5 as it is no longer licenses and has not been reported for Asset Management 7.5. If this appears to be occuring for Asset Management 7.5, ensure that all solutions from this article are followed correctly, which should resolve the issue (and is therefore not the 7.1 defect re-occurring).