Frequent Licensing Errors

1. User does not provide enough information in initial request. Solution: send email with URL (http://www.fnal.gov/doc/products/kai) asking for complete information. This is often done by the experiment liaison.
2. Approval falls in the crack. D0 users are approved by the D0 Liaison(Qizhong Li), CDF by the CDF Liaison (Rick Colombo), CD by Ruth Pordes. Unusal requests, or requests made while the liaison is on vacation, get lost. Solution: Escalate experiment approvals to appropriate Computing Division department head for verification.
3. User sends email to kai-support@fnal.gov mailing list and receives no response. Solution: wait until second email occurs and figure out whether experiment liaison didn’t approve it, Jackie didn’t receive it, or Jackie hasn’t sent email back to the right user.
4. License request went to Jackie but no license is forthcoming. Jackie is only working part time since her baby, so licenses are delayed. Solution: send repeat email.
5. License request came back from Jackie but wasn’t sent to the user. This often occurs when the request is generated on behalf of someone else. Solution: examine initial request and compare to make sure that all the appropriate parties received Jackie’s reply, forwarding as appropriate.
6. User doesn’t use Fermilab packaging, but tries to download directly from the KAI site. Solution: experiment liaison should educate about appropriate usage within experiment environment, as this is often a user at a remote university who is trying to get started and doesn’t have the correct documentation.
7. License when received by the user doesn’t work because it was cut for the wrong release. CDF is (currently) on Release 3.3, CDF is (currently) on Release 3.4. As the current release is 4.0, it is often the case that the license is cut for the wrong release. The best way to detect this is to compare the license to one that is known to be good. Solution: send email to Jackie.nelson@intel.com and have her cut a new one.
8. License when received by the user doesn’t work because the license is installed incorrectly. This is often difficult to separate from an incorrect license. Solution: as for the user to echo the value of $KCC_LICENSE after setting up, and compare to the license to determine if the number is being correctly displayed.
9. License when received by the user doesn’t work because the license is for one seat, and not unlimited users, for a node-locked (FLEXlm) license. This is due to a standard license, not one specific to the Fermilab agreement, being cut, and can be detected by an error message indicating that the license server needs to be started. Solution: send email to Jackie asking for a replacement unlimited user license.
10. License when received by the user doesn’t work because the machine information provided was incorrect, or the IP address changed. For FLEXlm licenses, examine the error message, as the kai_key product sets the environment variables that provide for the maximum debug information. For the earlier (3.3) releases, less debug information is provided. Solution: ask user to verify provided information and if it is still correct, ask Jackie to generate a new license.
11. License doesn’t work because of a transcription error. As the license generation process for the special, older licenses require data to be entered by hand, transcription errors occur, most often between the letter O and the number 0, and the letter l and the number 1. Solution: verify with Jackie that the information was entered correctly.
12. License doesn’t work because the user has edited the data in the FLEXlm license file. Some users have tried to bypass license changes by editing the FLEXlm license data directly, not realizing that there are checksums embedded in the license file. Solution: don’t try to hack the old one, get a new license.
13. User has a personal use license but has downloaded the “node-locked” version of the kai product. This occurs for Linux 3.4 and 4.0. The personal use license is a string of characters but the node-locked version expects a FLEXlm license file. Verify by checking the path given in the error message of the installed version is consistent with the license type. Solution: instruct the user to download the correctly qualified product.
14. User has a “node-locked” license but has downloaded the “personal-use” version of the kai product. This occurs for Linux 3.4 and 4.0. The “personal use” license is a string of characters, but the “node-locked” license contains several lines in a file. Verify by checking that the path given in the error message of the installed version is consistent with the license type. Solution: Instruct the user to download the correctly qualified product.\
15. User tries to install the license without reading the directions given in the README file, INSTALL.NOTE, or at the top of the file in kai_key that the user must edit. Solution: instruct the user to read the installation directions and to send additional mail if there are any questions.
16. User upgrades Linux product version and the personal use license no longer works. The personal-use license is backward compatible but will only work for those versions that were out when the personal-use license key was generated. For example: a user who asks for a Release 3.3 personal-use license today will get a license that works for 3.3, 3.4, and 4.0, so no new license will need to be cut when the user upgrades to 3.4 or 4.0. However, had that license been cut after 3.4 came out but before 4.0 came out, then it would only work on 3.4. Solution: If it’s an old license and the error message says that it’s not valid, ask Jackie for a new one.
17. User with a personal-use license moves from one machine to another. Solution: the license will continue to work, but the user should notify kai-support@fnal.gov that the transfer has taken place, so that the spreadsheet license information can be kept up-to-date.
18. A working node-locked license stops working. The algorithm used to verify the machine is being used is proprietary and varies based on platform/release. Changes to hosted, hostname (for example, machine becomes machine.fnal.gov), IP address of the first Ethernet card, etc. can impact this. Solution: ask the user to supply current information and request a license update from Jackie.
19. User loses license. This often happens when a machine is decommissioned without appropriate backups. If the license is a personal-use license, then the information is in the spreadsheet that Jackie Nelson and Sue McNamera maintain. Solution: locate license in spreadsheet, historical emails, or have Jackie regenerate.
20. User transfers license from one machine to another but doesn’t send paperwork to Jackie acknowledging that the license is being removed from the old machine. Jackie will not generate the new license until this paperwork is removed. Solution: have Jackie fax the form to the appropriate individual; if the person is at a remote university, the experiment liaison can sign the form instead.
21. A working license for a machine with more than eight processors stops working. Solution: At the present time, all machines with more than eight processors (fcdfsgi2, d0mino, d0test) have an annual license that expires on September 30 of each year. Solution: be sure that an updated license is installed before September 30 of each year.
22. A working license for a machine expires. In an effort to insure that annual licensing was paid, some licenses have been generated to expire at the end of the support contract, which for Fermilab usually means December 31. The vendor has already realized that this is not a viable approach and has changed it, but many such licenses remain. Solution: ask for an upgraded license and realize that developers work on New Years day, but license grantors do not.
23. A working license for a machine expires and it’s not the end of the support period. Solution: ask the user to check the setting of the system clock so see if it is correct.