SMBServer 5.0 Licenses Exceeded

[Don]

We have a pretty basic stand alone Win2000 (SP4) server in a lab which
serves as a file and printer server. In mid-December, I started getting
greeted by

"Warning: License usage for a product licensed in per server mode has
exceeded the maximum number of licenses ......."

error messages. Looking at the application event log, there were entries
like:

"No licenses were available for LABDOMAIN\user_don using product
SMBServer 5.0"

On the 'Product View' tab of the License manager, the Windows server product
showed the following:

Per Seat Purchased 0
Per Seat Allocated 0
Per Server Purchased 41
Per Server Reached -81

Yes, minus 81. Today it showed -234 (yup, negative 234!)

The only recent change to the network was the addition of Linux server being
used for CVS, wiki, etc. It does, however, copy some files to the Windows
server for tape back-up. The total number of users has not changed (about
6) and the number of attached Windows workstations has not changed.

I am guessing something funky with the Samba share on the new Linux box.
What I have been able to uncover with regards to this kind of problem though
points to Small Business Server or Exchange; neither of which we are
running.

Any suggestions on how to identify the root cause of this problem and fix
it?

Thanks!

Don

 

[John John]

What is the Event ID number and full event text of the Event Error?
There is some information about this on the Microsoft.com site. Some of
the information refers to backup softwate (Backup Exec) causing this
error. There is also mention of a hotfix for the license mangager. Did
you look for answers there?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305138/EN-US/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311770
http://search.microsoft.com/results...+per+server+mode+has&l=1&mkt=en-US&FORM=QBME1
http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?q=Llssrv.exe+License+Logging&l=1&mkt=en-US&FORM=QBME1

John

 

[Don]

John John,

The Event ID number is 201 and the description of the Event in the log is:

No licenses were available for LABDOMAIN\user_don using product
SMBServer 5.0

the source is LicenseService.


The full text of the License Warning pop-up is:

Warning: License usage for a product licensed in per server mode has
exceeded the maximum number of licenses purchased and will prohibit further
licenses from being granted. Consult the Application event log or License
Manger from the Administrative Tools folder for more information.


I forgot to put in my original post that I looked through KB305138. Issue
there is that the hotfix was supposedly included in Win2000 SP3 and SP4.
Our server has SP4 installed. On the off chance that the hotfix was not
part of the Service Pack, I tried installing it today. However, the install
failed saying that there was a more current version already installed.

I went through the MSDN searches you provided, and they all seemed to come
back to the hotfix. Again, the fact that SP4 is on the machine means that
aspect is covered.

Regarding the back-up software possibility; the machine has been running
fine for months and there were no configuration changes made to the machine.
The machine has ARCServe on it, but again, nothing has been changed there.

Based on some of the MSDN articles, I am leaning towards one of the recently
added Linux boxes sending out RPC messages that are not quite right. Given
the negative number of licenses used, it almost seems like what ever it is
sending more disconnect messages than connect messages.

I'm confused!!

Thanks for the suggestions!

Don

 

[Kurt]

We have a pretty basic stand alone Win2000 (SP4) server in a lab which
serves as a file and printer server. In mid-December, I started getting
greeted by

"Warning: License usage for a product licensed in per server mode has
exceeded the maximum number of licenses ......."

error messages. Looking at the application event log, there were entries
like:

"No licenses were available for LABDOMAIN\user_don using product
SMBServer 5.0"

On the 'Product View' tab of the License manager, the Windows server product
showed the following:

Per Seat Purchased 0
Per Seat Allocated 0
Per Server Purchased 41
Per Server Reached -81

Yes, minus 81. Today it showed -234 (yup, negative 234!)

The only recent change to the network was the addition of Linux server being
used for CVS, wiki, etc. It does, however, copy some files to the Windows
server for tape back-up. The total number of users has not changed (about
6) and the number of attached Windows workstations has not changed.

I am guessing something funky with the Samba share on the new Linux box.
What I have been able to uncover with regards to this kind of problem though
points to Small Business Server or Exchange; neither of which we are
running.

Any suggestions on how to identify the root cause of this problem and fix
it?

Thanks!

Don

I've not had a problem with Linux boxes copying to a Windows box for
backup. I have at least 4 that do that regularly (just a simple shell
script). If you suspect that Samba is maxing out licenses by connecting
to the Windows server, try reversing the roles. Have the Linux box copy
the files to a local directory, share it and let the Windows box perform
the copies. You won't have any licensing issues on the Linux side.

....kurt