Discovery License Activation Troubleshooting

- September 26, 2022 at 9:53 am
  Solution
  Participant
  ansysls_client_2019r1.zip
  discovery_license_activation_troubleshooting.pdf
  
  This article and the attached and downloadable document provides a step-by-step process for troubleshooting problems related to Discovery License activation.
  
  1) Check & Install latest Discovery version
  
  Make sure that you have installed latest build of Discovery product. The latest build was available from 14 May 2018 on Discovery forum. If you are using a version which was downloaded prior to this date, please download the latest one from below link and install.
  
  For release 19.1, please also refer to this hotfix for a known offline subscription licensing issue.
  
  Download Discovery Products
  
  2) Activating Subscription license
  
  Upon successful registration and installation of Discovery products, when you first launch any Discovery product to activate the license, it will ask you to sign in using your Discovery account login. During activation process, it tries to communicate with cloud based ANSYS License Activation Server. If this communication is successful, Discovery product will launch successfully. You can also login to your account page and check subscription details like activation ID, expiry dates, etc.
  
  3) Error messages during activation
  
  If communication with cloud based ANSYS License Activation Server is not successful, you will receive any of the error messages shown below:
  1. There are no current ANSYS subscriptions that enable capability ANSYS Discovery SpaceClaim
  1. Unable to connect to ANSYS subscription registration service. No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.
  Above 2 error messages indicate that when ANSYS Discovery products are trying to reach the cloud based license server, the connection requests could be blocked by customer firewall settings.
  1. Unable to initialize activation storage on system.
  The above error is most likely due to the presence of special characters in the Windows login name. Reinstalling Windows and changing the Windows Login name which does not contain any special character fixes this issue.
  
  4) Connection request check
  
  Perform following steps to check whether this connection request is getting blocked or not:
  1. Open Command prompt in administrative mode.
  2. Execute following command:
  ping ansys-fno.flexnetoperations.com
  1. For a successful connection with license server, the above command should return 0% loss as shown below:
  1. If the output shows 100% loss or request timed out or message like “Ping request could not find host ansys-fno.flexnetoperations.com . Please check the name and try again.”, it indicates that connection requests could be blocked by firewall settings.
  5) For ping command showing 100% loss or request timed out message:
  
  If the ping command output shows 100% loss or request timed out or message like “Ping request could not find host ansys-fno.flexnetoperations.com . Please check the name and try again.”, it indicates that connection requests could be blocked by customer firewall settings.
  
  5A. Firewall settings required to unblock ANSYS Discovery Products
  
  If your network is protected by a firewall, the following exception rules need to be implemented:
  1. Enable outbound communication over port 443 (https) to the following:
  1. Add the ansysls_client.exe (subscription handler) executable to your endpoint and network security exclusions (for example, whitelisting solutions).
  2. Add ansysls_client.exe (subscription handler) to the list of allowed apps of your antivirus software
  5B. Proxy Server Settings
  
  If your network uses a proxy server, additional configuration is required to ensure communication takes place:
  1. In the Windows Control Panel under Internet Properties, click on the Connections tab and then click on LAN settings to open the right window. Specify proxy server address and its port (refer below image). As always, consult with your IT Department for assistance.
  1. Install ansysls_client patch attached at the top if you are using any version prior to 2019 R1, else move to step 3:
  1. Download ansysls_client patch if you are using any version prior to 2019 R1.
    b. Go to Shared FilesLicensingwinx64 .
    c. Rename ansysls_client.exe to ansysls_client_old.exe
    d. Copy & paste the coentents of downloaded patch in this location.
  1. Once done, try launching Discovery product. If it doesn’t work, set below environment variable:
  HTTPS_PROXY=”https://host:port”;
  
  where host and port are the proxy host and port.
  1. Once done, try launching Discovery product. If it doesn’t work, gather diagnostics and send to ANSYS.
    a. Open Windows Explorer.
    b. Browse to %temp% .
    c. Find the directory named .ansys, right-click on the directory, select Send To and then Compressed (zipped) folder.
  1. Send the resultant file.
  ANSYS Discovery products licensing requests might also be denied by your antivirus software or by missing user permissions in Windows. If you are still experiencing issues after adding the aforementioned firewall exception rules, please try the following troubleshooting recommendations.
  1. Add ansysls_client.exe (subscription handler) to the list of allowed apps of your antivirus software.
  2. Make sure you have user permissions to write to the following folders on Windows:
  %LOCALAPPDATA%
  
  %Temp%
  
  With above settings, check ping command again and if it outputs 0% loss, it indicates that connection to license server is successful and Discovery products can be launched successfully.
  
  5C. Error – Trusted storage hostid does not match system hostid
  
  When you activate your license, that license could be locked to multiple components relating to your system and username. The ANSYS Licensing Error – FlexNet Embedded Action message (shown below) indicates one of those components has changed.
  
  Error Message: ANSYS Licensing Error
  
  FlexNet Embedded Action: FNE Checkout -> Acquire License
  
  FlexNet Embedded error: [1,7E1,8,0[7000004A,0,701A4]]
  
  Trusted storage hostid does not match system hostid
  
  Solution: To overcome this issue, deactivate the license as follows:
  1. Launch the Windows Command Prompt from the start menu by entering “cmd” into the search field.
  2. In the command prompt, type in:
  cd C:Program FilesANSYS IncShared FilesLicensingwinx64
  
  (this is the default installation directory of Discovery products. If you have installed it at a different location, enter appropriate path where ansysls_client.exe is present)
  1. Once in that directory, run the following command:
  ansysls_client -DeactivateAllEntitlements
  1. Then re-run the software and activate by logging in with your Discovery account login.
  A successful deactivation can be confirmed as below:
  
  5D. Error – Peer certificate cannot be authenticated with given CA certificates
  
  ANSYS Licensing Error – FNE activation failed (shown below) is received if DigiCert certificate is not available on your system
  
  Error Message: ANSYS Licensing Error
  
  FNE Activation Failed: FlexNet Embedded Action: FNE Generate Binary
  
  Request -> FNE Send Binary Message
  
  FlexNet Embedded error: [1,7e1,8,0[74000008,3c,110001f3]] Generic
  
  communication error.
  
  [1,7e1,8,0[75000001,60,30010255]] General data transfer failure. Peer
  
  certificate cannot be authenticated with given CA certificates
  
  Solution: The ANSYS License Activation Server was issued certificates through the DigiCert infrastructure. Therefore the DigiCert certificate needs to be in place on any system that will have ANSYS subscription licenses installed.
  
  Follow below steps to check if DigiCert certificate is available on your machine:
  1. Download attachment “fnecerttest.zip” from below link and extract. Download FNE Certificate Test Script
  2. This contains a PowerShell script (FneCertTest.ps1) that performs checks of 2 CA certificates
  3. Once renamed to .zip and extracted, from Windows Search launch “Windows PowerShell” in administrative mode
  4. Go to the location where you have unzipped the powershell script
  5. Enter powershell script name i.e. FneCertTest.ps1 and hit Enter. See below image.
  1. The above command should DigiCert certificate.
  2. If DigiCert certificate is not listed, Download the certificate (DigiCertFederatedIDRootCA.crt) from the Digicert website
  1. Right click on the file (DigiCertFederatedIDRootCA.crt)
  2. For the “Store Location”, select: Locale Machine
  3. Take the default response to any remaining questions.
  4. Once installed, try running Discovery products again.
  5E. Error – Start date for the requested feature is in the future
  
  When you try to activate your license, you may get following error
  
  Error Message: ANSYS Licensing Error
  
  FlexNet Embedded Action: FNE Checkout -> Acquire License
  
  FlexNet Embedded error: [1,7E1,8,0[7000000C,0,C0091]]
  
  Start date for the requested feature is in future.
  
  Solution: This error indicates that the license activation date is set to a future date and it cannot be activated prior to the activation date.
  
  6) For ping command showing 0% loss:
  
  If ping command output is showing 0% loss and still you are unable to launch Discovery product, then perform following steps:
  1. Send output of ping command to Discovery Support Team
  2. Download attachment “curl_7_53_1.zip” from below link and extract Download Curl Installer
  3. Rename curl.exe.tmp to curl.exe
  4. Open Command prompt in administrative mode and go to the location where curl.exe is saved
  5. Execute following command:
  curl.exe -v https://ansys-fno.flexnetoperations.com
  1. Send the output of above command to Discovery Support Team
  1. Type %temp% in Windows Search and locate .ansys folder. Zip this folder and send it to Discovery Support Team
  2. Send following log files located at ~/Ansys Inc
  Install.log
  
  Install_licconfig.log
  
  Install.err (if it exists)