What could be the reason?
The customer is trying to activate two or more licenses at once with the file based offline web depot license activation process.
- Customer creates license request file for license 1 for dongle A.
- Customer creates license request file for license 2 for dongle A.
- Customer uploads first and second license request file and downloads the license update file
- Customer imports both license update files in the license manager and creates a license confirmation file for each.
- Customer uploads license confirmation file for license 1 - everything works fine
- Customer uploads license confirmation file for license 2: error message is displayed.
Dongles in unexpected state
Following the procedure described above could lead to an 'unexpected state' of the dongle. This causes tremendous problems in updating the license and/or deleting the license.
Imagine the license process like this: the customer uploads an individual fingerprint with the license request file. Based on that fingerprint, the license central calculates the license update and sends out the license update file. Based on the license update file, the license central already knows how the dongle should look like. The customer sends then the confirmation file to tell the license central the actual state of the dongle. If the pre-calculated state and the confirmed state correlate, everything is fine.
If however the license confirmation does not match the pre-calculated state for that dongle, the dongle is set to a so-called 'unexpected state'.
The license central does not know if it should 'trust' the state of the customer dongle sent with the confirmation file or if it rather uses the calculated state and the customer messed around with the software dongle (internally, the state is called 'manipulated')
Additional reasons for the unexpected state could be (list might not be complete):
- customer performs two license activations at once.
- customer uses an old confirmation file.
- customer resets the PC or virtual machine to a previous state.
Follow up problems:
Now it really gets bad.
When updating a license the process foresees that the existing licenses on that dongle are withdrawn first. That means that the license central calculates backward to set the dongle to a state where the license was not even on the dongle. But as the current state of the dongle is unknown, this state cannot be calculated.
The license update process is interrupted. The license which should replace the initial license is not created.
This also applies to the license deletion. A license deletion is basically a license withdrawal without the creation of a replacement license, the license deletion can also not be performed.