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Solved
Symantec Endpoint Conflicting with FlexLM (AutoCAD) Licensing
Posted on 2008-10-20
Hi all,
I am having trouble with a rather strange issue. I talked to a symantec tech about this and he successfully crashed my entire network during work hours. (So much for paid support) Anyway the issue I am having is this.
We are an engineering office with about 250 employees. The main program we run is AutoCAD (Currently running 2008). We recently upgraded from Symantec Corporate 10.2 to Symantec Endpoint 11. There were some minor bug which have been worked out. The remaining issue it that AutoCAD will error out when attempting to retrieve a license from our licensing server. The licensing for AutoCAD is done through a 3rd party program called FlexLM. The way it works is that when a user opens a session of AutoCAD the FlexLM client goes and checks out a license from the Licensing server specified in a .lic file stored locally on the user's C:/ drive and holds it until the user closes the session.
The error we are getting is:
"Your application was not able to obtain a license because the FLEXlm license manager could not determine where to find the licensing data it needs. Please choose one of the following:
Specify the License Server | Specify the License File"
If a user ether specifies the correct Licensing server OR hits cancel and opens again they are able to receive a license.
Now if Symantec Endpoint "network threat protection (firewall)" and "TruScan Proactive threat protection" are disabled and only antivirus/antispyware remain the problem disappears.
Now I have opened up every possible port I believe to be associated with the licensing per AutoCAD's website so I am fairly certain it is not a port issue.
Any ideas fellows?
I am having trouble with a rather strange issue. I talked to a symantec tech about this and he successfully crashed my entire network during work hours. (So much for paid support) Anyway the issue I am having is this.
We are an engineering office with about 250 employees. The main program we run is AutoCAD (Currently running 2008). We recently upgraded from Symantec Corporate 10.2 to Symantec Endpoint 11. There were some minor bug which have been worked out. The remaining issue it that AutoCAD will error out when attempting to retrieve a license from our licensing server. The licensing for AutoCAD is done through a 3rd party program called FlexLM. The way it works is that when a user opens a session of AutoCAD the FlexLM client goes and checks out a license from the Licensing server specified in a .lic file stored locally on the user's C:/ drive and holds it until the user closes the session.
The error we are getting is:
"Your application was not able to obtain a license because the FLEXlm license manager could not determine where to find the licensing data it needs. Please choose one of the following:
Specify the License Server | Specify the License File"
If a user ether specifies the correct Licensing server OR hits cancel and opens again they are able to receive a license.
Now if Symantec Endpoint "network threat protection (firewall)" and "TruScan Proactive threat protection" are disabled and only antivirus/antispyware remain the problem disappears.
Now I have opened up every possible port I believe to be associated with the licensing per AutoCAD's website so I am fairly certain it is not a port issue.
Any ideas fellows?
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5 Comments
SEP caused me so much trouble. SEP brought down network connectvity. What I ended up doing was getting the cleanwipe tool from Symantec then fully removing SEP from the servers. Even if you don't install the Network Threat protection it will still install the services and registry keys which caused us big problems. I ended up installing McAfee total protection because Symantec Tech support wasn't any help and MS said that SEP was causing huge problems across the board.
What's listed in the following registry key on the clients?
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWAR
Is it different before (when if fails to find the server) vs after (when you specify it or hit cancel and it finds it)?
Another possibility is this....
Autodesk introduced the cascading license feature in Autodesk's 2008 based products. This increases the license transaction time from the client request to it's response. Perhaps coupled with Symantec's overheard, the transaction is taking too long and the client gives up.
Add the following registry key to a client to increase the timeout setting...
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWAR
String Value: FLEXLM_TIMEOUT
Value: 1000000
I doubt this is it but it's worth a shot. Typically if this is the issue it just tells you it failed to obtain a license instead of telling you it doesn't know where to look.
Other options or things to try are specifying an IP address or Fully Quallified Domain Name instead of a server name in the ADSK_LICENSE_FILE setting on the client.
You could also specify the same server multiple times. In a distributed license server setup, multiple servers are listed in the order they are searched.
ADSK_LICENSE_FILE = @server1;@server2;@server3
Because it can't initially find the server, but specifying it or even hitting cancel seems to find it, perhaps for some reason it needs to hit the server a couple times before it get's through. Specifying the same server multiple times in thr ADSK_LICENSE_FILE might cause it to hit a few times, artificially doing the same thing that's happening when you mnully specify the server or hit cancel when prompted.
The only other time I've seen something similar was with some remote VPN clients accessing network licenses. If they started AutoCAD too quickly after the VPN connection, it ewas almost like DNS hadn't fully resolved server addresses. Waiting a bit to launch AutoCAD seemed to help.
Take a peek in the FlexLM user guide. Maybe something in there will catch your eye on either the client or server side setting. If you are on subscription with AutoCAD, you could try subscription support but they'll likley disapoint you. When the license cascading came out, our very remote clients (dial up) couldn't pull license any longer and I had to go round and round with them before they offered a solution other that "get a faster connection". They essentially showed me how to disable the license cascading feature but in the end, I came up with the timeout solution they ended up creating the knowledgebase article for. A year later I worked for a reseller and found the same guy giving out customer the same bad advice "get a faster connection" when he knew the correct answer. Sometimes you need to kepp on those guys before you get the answer you're looking for.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWAR
Is it different before (when if fails to find the server) vs after (when you specify it or hit cancel and it finds it)?
Another possibility is this....
Autodesk introduced the cascading license feature in Autodesk's 2008 based products. This increases the license transaction time from the client request to it's response. Perhaps coupled with Symantec's overheard, the transaction is taking too long and the client gives up.
Add the following registry key to a client to increase the timeout setting...
Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWAR
String Value: FLEXLM_TIMEOUT
Value: 1000000
I doubt this is it but it's worth a shot. Typically if this is the issue it just tells you it failed to obtain a license instead of telling you it doesn't know where to look.
Other options or things to try are specifying an IP address or Fully Quallified Domain Name instead of a server name in the ADSK_LICENSE_FILE setting on the client.
You could also specify the same server multiple times. In a distributed license server setup, multiple servers are listed in the order they are searched.
ADSK_LICENSE_FILE = @server1;@server2;@server3
Because it can't initially find the server, but specifying it or even hitting cancel seems to find it, perhaps for some reason it needs to hit the server a couple times before it get's through. Specifying the same server multiple times in thr ADSK_LICENSE_FILE might cause it to hit a few times, artificially doing the same thing that's happening when you mnully specify the server or hit cancel when prompted.
The only other time I've seen something similar was with some remote VPN clients accessing network licenses. If they started AutoCAD too quickly after the VPN connection, it ewas almost like DNS hadn't fully resolved server addresses. Waiting a bit to launch AutoCAD seemed to help.
Take a peek in the FlexLM user guide. Maybe something in there will catch your eye on either the client or server side setting. If you are on subscription with AutoCAD, you could try subscription support but they'll likley disapoint you. When the license cascading came out, our very remote clients (dial up) couldn't pull license any longer and I had to go round and round with them before they offered a solution other that "get a faster connection". They essentially showed me how to disable the license cascading feature but in the end, I came up with the timeout solution they ended up creating the knowledgebase article for. A year later I worked for a reseller and found the same guy giving out customer the same bad advice "get a faster connection" when he knew the correct answer. Sometimes you need to kepp on those guys before you get the answer you're looking for.
Thank you both for your responses. I will have to look into the registry key you suggested darren. As far as the issue with opening AutoCAD too soon I actually have found that out, however, since endpoint this issue will happen at any point, even when a user may have an instance open and is going to open another. As far as the DNS resolution I was thinking along those lines as well and I specified the license server as the IP address to no avail, even if it did, the practicality of switching the license key for all our users is staggering. I will defiantly check the registry key tomorrow though, thanks for the idea, this one really has me stumped, almost suspecting the TruScan Proactive threat protection though I have yet to prove this in my test group.
If your clients are configured to look for an IP adress, this is about as clean and quick as can be. Doubtful a FQDN would help. I just prefer FQDN's for specifying license servers because I can quickly repoint DNS in the event I have a down license server and need to setup another box.
If nothing else works (like the TIMEOUT setting), let me know and I'll see if I can't locate the DLL that needs to be unregistered to disable the license cascading feature of AutoCAD in the event that helps.
If nothing else works (like the TIMEOUT setting), let me know and I'll see if I can't locate the DLL that needs to be unregistered to disable the license cascading feature of AutoCAD in the event that helps.
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