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Troubleshooting License Issues

When licensing misbehaves, the symptom usually falls into one of three buckets: the License Server service won't start, users don't receive a license, or activation fails. This guide covers all three for ScrewDrivers v7 deployments using the Tricerat License Server.

Check compatibility first

ScrewDrivers 7.9.6 and later require License Server v6.0.7.0 or later, and v7 products need v7 activation codes — v6 codes don't carry over. If licensing broke right after a product upgrade, upgrade your License Server before troubleshooting anything else.

The License Server service refuses to start​

Startup failures are usually configuration errors, and Tricerat Support can read the story from the server's files. Gather these from your license server into one folder before opening a ticket:

  1. C:\Program Files\Tricerat\Simplify Licensing\lmx-serv.cfg
  2. C:\Program Files\Tricerat\Simplify Licensing\lmx-serv.log
  3. Every *.lic file from the same folder
  4. The host ID: run the LM-X Configuration Tool (Start → X-Formation → LM-X Configuration Tool), open the HostID tab, click Save To File, and add LmxHostid.txt to the folder.

One self-service check: if you recently upgraded the License Server, the installer resets lmx-serv.cfg to defaults. If you'd customized it, reapply your values — see Optimizing Your Tricerat License Server Configuration — and restart the service.

Users don't receive a license​

These steps assume the License Server service is running:

  1. Verify the license configuration on the server (correct activation, licenses present).
  2. Check connectivity from the session host to the license server — firewalls between them are the usual culprit.
  3. Enable diagnostic logging on the session host.
  4. Have a user log on to the session host to reproduce the checkout.
  5. Gather the logs and contact Tricerat Support.

Two behaviors to know before assuming failure: while a License Server is being upgraded, users requesting a license receive a grace-period license until it's back — brief outages don't stop printing. And if you need to keep license warnings away from users while you troubleshoot, you can suppress license error dialogs.

LicenseActivate doesn't activate a license​

  1. Open C:\ProgramData\Tricerat\Logs\LicenseActivate.log and check the last line.
  2. If it reads "The HTTP request is unauthorized with client authentication scheme 'Anonymous'. The authentication header received from the server was 'Negotiate, NTLM'." — your proxy server rejected anonymous access. Activate the license manually using the offline activation process (see the License Server installation documentation, "Activating a License without Internet Access").
  3. Any other message: contact Tricerat Support with the log file.

When you contact support​

Include your ScrewDrivers and License Server versions, the licensing model (nodelocked, concurrent user, or concurrent server), the files gathered above, and what changed most recently — upgrades and network changes precede most license incidents.