License certificates

[tan...@verizon.net]

We have 2 servers in our company. Novell 6 Server running server version
5.60.02(ds), NDS version 1033003 and a Novell 5.1 running server version
5.00.10(ds), NDS version 883... Some of our clients were having problems
with applications running very slow, and alot of times just freezing. They
were also loosing their drive mappings, causing us to reboot. I dicovered
in NWadmin that the licenses on the novell 6 server were not being
released. There was 103 lincense units trying to be used but we only have
70 installed, also in the server error logs I saw Error# c0001006 policy
manager update license connection failed, for several different users.
further more, all the users in the error logs were the ones who were
having the problems. I checked the licenses policy and they are set to
update the license certificate every 131040 minutes using policy model 4
and stop policy 2 and to check for duplicates every 24 days. I did not set
this up and I am not the admin of the system but feel this is a problem. I
believe the admin should have the licenses release every 0 to 45 minutes.
I have been manually going into NWadmin and releasing the licenses to keep
them under 70. It has made the slowdowns and freezing stop. My question
is, Can the licenses cause these problems to happen to specific users who
do not have a license certificate? Is there something else that can be
causing this that I should look at? I have tested this just the past week
or so, manually logging into the system under different users names who
were not at work and let the licenses again go over 70. When it hit about
80, the users, most were in the error logs, told us the system was very
slow. Can you help me confirm that this is an issue? Has other people had
this problem?

Thank you

[Andrew C Taubman]

On NW6, licenses are consumed by a user for 90 days, and only get released
automatically then, or when an admin manually releases them. This is by
design. If you have more than 70 individual users who use the NW6 server
within 90 days you need more licenses.

Do make sure you have nw6sp3 and nls603ft applied, for licensing to work
properly on NW6.
--
Andrew C Taubman
Novell Support Forums Volunteer SysOp
http://support.novell.com/forums
(Sorry, support is not provided via e-mail)

Opinions expressed above are not
necessarily those of Novell Inc.

[tan...@verizon.net]

> thanks for your reply: Users are consuming 2 or 3 licenses at a time, I
dont mind maually releasing them but if we need more then we need more.
All the users in the error logs (the users without licenses) are having
the same issues... Slow loading of Apps on the Network and lockups. Have
you heard of this? If you go over the limit of licenses you have will it
cause slowdowns of network apps for the users without licenses?

[Andrew C Taubman]

>Users are consuming 2 or 3 licenses at a time,

5.1, 6, or both? Under 5.1 a user consumes a license on each server
connected to. If connected to a 5.1 and a 6 two licenses will be consumed.

But if using two 6 licenses, the patch I mentioned will fix that.

>If you go over the limit of licenses you have will it cause slowdowns of
network apps for the users without licenses?

No, you'll have no access. That is a separate problem which I suggest you
start a fresh thread on in the server forums.

[tan...@verizon.net]

> It seems that 2 or more licenses are just being consumed by the 6 server
not the 5.1. I will advise My supervisor to update it with the patch...
About the slow apps and lockups... The users are able to login they just
dont recieve a license. When I manually release them and give the users a
license the problem (slow apps and lockups) Stop for those users who did
not have a license before. Now my supervisor doesnt want me to release
them and the users without licenses are complaining about this problem
again.
>

[tan...@verizon.net]

> Just wanted to mention the app that is locking up and running slow is on
the 6 server.. it runs from there..

[Andrew C Taubman]

Let me know how it goes once all the NW6Sp3 servers have the NLS patch
applied.

[Andrew C Taubman]

As I said, that will be nothing to do with licensing and needs a fresh
thread of its own, once this licensing issue is resolved here.