EEI | Product not activated (Topic last mentioned on March.)

[avielc 54]

@j-gray - FYI - initial look at EI 1.10 is good on my end, seems like installation + reboot to the machine solves most issues "for now" I am waiting a couple of days before giving it a full OK from my end. (so take that as a limited guarantee of issue solved, at least for the time being.)

[j-gray 35]

Unfortunately, I can't say there is any improvement from my side:

1. I have ~150 OS X clients that show EI Connector is not activated.
   • EI Connector upgrade succeeds, but activation task either completes but does not successfully activate OR runs for 24-hours and times out with unsuccessful activation.
2. I have ~150 OS X clients where EP Console shows EI Connector is not installed even though it is installed (usually shows EI Connector is not activated.
   • EI Connector upgrade succeeds, but EP Console still does not list the application or show that it is installed. They also remain in the dynamic group where EI Connector is not installed, despite being installed.
   • In these cases EI Connector may or may not be activated. If not, EI activation tasks typically runs for 24+ hours before failing.

There still appear to be issues with licensing, as ESET license management shows less than half of my EI licenses consumed, despite having a full install base.

The short of it is that one third of our OS X fleet is still sideways.

[avielc 54]

I'll describe a few key points from our ESET env - I hope maybe something there would shed light. 
I'll start with the most basic one: 
EEI Server is running with server.xml file I edited and added the public hostname of the server (this needs to be updated every upgrade) 
Next:
* I have EP run a task with installing EEI Connector with the license chosen at the same window (so it's not a separated task to activate the product. 

* I'm using EESv6 instead of v7 - there are some key features that are missing from EEAv7 which we need to have, part of company's policy. 

* EEAv7 is a huge drag to uninstall, some machines needed it to run manually using the uninstall.sh script inside the `Helpers` folder - and it seems to get stuck in the third step so I send a Break (CTRL+C) to pass that point and then it continues (something with ut-dissociate) <-- if this interests you to investigate why EEAv7 is acting like that @Peter Randziak

*Also, restart matters

And proxy is in use with our environment. 
Let me know if I can help with anything

 

[j-gray 35]

@avielc Thanks for the info. In our environment, we've not touched the server.xml file, nor do we use a proxy.

If I include the license file with the EI Connector install task it runs for quite some time, then eventually reports failed on OS X clients, even though it completes successfully. For this reason, we run the activation task after the EI Connector install.

We currently have a mix of v6 and v7 OS X installs and are in the process of upgrading all to v7. The issues we're experiencing affect both versions, however.

For EP Console, we're running the latest version along with the latest agents. We have zero issues with Windows clients (thankfully).

I'm curious if your ESET Inspect license usage is reported accurately in EP Console? For us, we show 675/1600 whereas EES licenses are 1517/1600, which is more accurate.

[avielc 54]

Starting from the bottom:

40 minutes ago, j-gray said:

I'm curious if your ESET Inspect license usage is reported accurately in EP Console? For us, we show 675/1600 whereas EES licenses are 1517/1600, which is more accurate.

I actually didn't follow up on that part with the 1.10 installation, - I'll verify that for you tomorrow. 

Yea, we don't have issues with WIndows clients. 
it seems something is very different betwen our environments, not sure where it comes from. 
for me, installation of the new 1.10 doesn't get stuck with the license anymore. it just works smoothly. 
I did the upgrade inside EP to the server itself and it went smoothly. 
I'm trying to think if something like communication to external network could be an issue for computers in your network? 

 

[j-gray 35]

21 hours ago, avielc said:

I'm trying to think if something like communication to external network could be an issue for computers in your network? 

After some testing, it seems the EI connector will now install successfully with the license file specified, so that's good.

I don't believe the other issues are network related, as the clients are fully functional otherwise -meaning they run all ESET tasks, get definition updates, check in regularly, and appear as normal in the EI Console.

And, at least in the case of my OS X device, it is activated and happy for some time, but then fails with the following:

0x70000a021000 Error: License check failed. License no longer active. Failed to process a request to/from ESET Endpoint Security/Antivirus. RUN_LOOP_ERROR RUN_LOOP_TIMEOUT (2)
 

Typically a reboot will resolve this error, but it still remains a recurring issue. I'm still in the process of troubleshooting, but those that won't activate run the activation task successfully but refuse to activate.

Troubleshooting is difficult, as systems are at other sites and may be in use or powered off and I can't continually disrupt our clients' work to uninstall/reboot/reinstall/reboot, etc.

[avielc 54]

54 minutes ago, j-gray said:

Troubleshooting is difficult, as systems are at other sites and may be in use or powered off and I can't continually disrupt our clients' work to uninstall/reboot/reinstall/reboot, etc.

I ran into the same issue with clients on other sites too. 
very hard to work like that. 
From my end, it looks like everything worked out after upgrading to 1.10 with licnese, and restarting the machine. 
Crossing fingers that next week I won't open EP for a red console from computers that relapsed back to failed activation. 

Could it be related to the EEA\EES installation?  (Can't figure why you would run into the issue still. 

 

[j-gray 35]

12 minutes ago, avielc said:

Could it be related to the EEA\EES installation?  (Can't figure why you would run into the issue still. 

Quite possible. With all the constant upgrades (agent, endpoint, connector), plus OS patches and upgrades it's a wonder anything actually works.

On the random handful I've checked, all seem to report the previous issue with RUN_LOOPERROR RUN_LOOP_TIMEOUT. And I just noticed the 'Event Statistics, From:, 1969-12-31 17:00:00'

This is what I was encountering on my Windows Server upgrades. I was able to reliably reproduce this with each EI Connector upgrade on the servers. However, Engineers couldn't/didn't produce a fix. Appears it's happening on my OS X clients now, too.

The Server fix was uninstall/reboot reinstall the connector. Not sure what is causing the corruption. Would be great to know.

[j-gray 35]

@Peter Randziak I see what's happening now. EI Connector on OS X is somehow corrupted. When I run an install task with license, or just an activation task, EI Connector makes 5 license checks every 5 minutes before failing, so install task or activation task takes close to 30 minutes to report failed. In this case, the EI Connector install succeeds, but activation fails, so overall failure is returned.

That said, in my previous case of corrupt connector on  Windows servers (reporting 1969 date in the connector logs), connector uninstall/reboot/reinstall fixed the issue.

However, this does not clear the issue on OS X. Uninstall/reboot/reinstall still fails activation and still reports 1969 date in the connector log entries (along with the RUN_LOOP errors).

Any clues on how I can clear a corrupt EI Connector install on OS X? 

[JorgeL 0]

Good day, J-Gray. I would recommend contacting us directly via phone or chat support so that we can have a share screen session with you and possibly collect logs if needed.

Toll Free: +1 866-343-3738 Option 2 or to helpus.eset.com

Thank You!

[j-gray 35]

@JorgeL Been there, done that (ref #00444283). Issue reproduced and observed, logs collected and analyzed. No solution provided.

The provided log files indicate the EI Connector has become corrupted. I'm left to figure out how to fix it.

[j-gray 35]

Interestingly, when I uninstalled/reinstalled EI Connector on my Mac, it activated successfully.

However, a day later it broke again and shows Unactivated.

The log files now (on Apr. 3) show only events from when it was reinstalled and not with current timestamps:

0x700005d46000 Info: Events Statistics, From:, 2023-03-31 22:10:59, To:, 2023-03-31 22:10:59

So it appears the EI Connector is again corrupt as the dates are old. It is successfully communicating the server but also still getting the RUN_LOOP_ERROR RUN_LOOP_TIMEOUT (2), which I thought had been resolved several releases back.

[avielc 54]

Any chance this is related to the NTP update of the machine itself? 

I've been racking my brain to try and think of something for you @j-gray, 

Just as a trial, any chance you can get a clean mac, (like freshly restored to default)
and start with ESET before adding to a domain (not clue how is your organization's set up is) 
Let the Mac get it's default details like timezone\time update automatically. 
and give it a few days, see if it fails. 

Add to it cross-referencing the time to the EEI\EP Server to make sure everything is synced. 

Of course, I could be completely wrong here, Just wondering if such thing might be affecting your machines. 
Cheers

Aviel

[j-gray 35]

7 hours ago, avielc said:

Any chance this is related to the NTP update of the machine itself? 

I've been racking my brain to try and think of something for you @j-gray, 

@avielc; thanks for the thoughts, I appreciate it.

Clean/new installs don't seem to be an issue, at least initially; we image, rename, join to AD, then script the agent install with JAMF. Once installed, dynamic triggers add the AV and Connector.

Specifically in the case of our Windows servers, the connector upgrade caused the EI connector corruption, noted by the 1969 year in the newly created log entries.

NTP is not an issue. Our hierarchy is solid and we'd know pretty quickly if there was any significant time skew. And of course, all of our Windows EI Connectors are working fine with no activation problems (aside from the Server issue mentioned). The majority of the OS X clients seem to behave, but 20% failure rate is still not acceptable.

I'm back to working with support again, so we'll hope to make some progress.

[avielc 54]

sorry to hear that mate, 
I'm down to 1 machine on my physically managed region (2-3 on remote locations, which makes it harder to work on) 
 

I may need to consult with support again... I'll try a few uninstalls and reinstallas again next week, hope it would fix things

[j-gray 35]

We're finding that something in the process of upgrading from v6 to v7 appears to be causing the EI Connector corruption.

We're now up to over 200 OS X clients that will not activate the EI Connector, despite activation tasks running (reportedly) successfully.

So far logs indicate the same two issues:

1. License check fails with RUN_LOOP_ERROR RUN_LOOP_TIMEOUT (2)
2. All Event Statistics are "From:, 1969-12-31 17:00:00, To:, 1969-12-31 17:00:00"

And we're still finding that unfortunately an uninstall/reinstall does not resolve the issue.

[dgillespie 1]

We are experiencing the same exact issue: EEI on mac has a critical error, "Product not activated."  One if the machines worked itself out but another machine didn't.  Our team has run the gamut on uninstall/reinstall, reboots, and activation tasks - we've been working with ESET support for weeks (case #00515008).  The EEI agent is up-to-date (1.10.2672.0) on the failing machine.

Please patch this ESET or please acknowledge the bug now while you figure out the patch - this way we can stop worrying about it.

Edited May 11, 2023 by dgillespie

[j-gray 35]

On 5/11/2023 at 4:52 PM, dgillespie said:

We are experiencing the same exact issue: EEI on mac has a critical error, "Product not activated."  One if the machines worked itself out but another machine didn't.  Our team has run the gamut on uninstall/reinstall, reboots, and activation tasks - we've been working with ESET support for weeks (case #00515008).  The EEI agent is up-to-date (1.10.2672.0) on the failing machine.

Please patch this ESET or please acknowledge the bug now while you figure out the patch - this way we can stop worrying about it.

We've had a case ongoing since October of last year. Unfortunately, OS X just doesn't seem to be a priority at all.

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

Hello @j-gray

the recently released ESET Inspect version 1.11 contains fixes for the licensing on macOS / Linux, among many others.
Can you please try it with that and provide us with feedback?

Thank you in advance,
Peter

note for us: P_EEI-12927

[j-gray 35]

5 hours ago, Peter Randziak said:

Hello @j-gray

the recently released ESET Inspect version 1.11 contains fixes for the licensing on macOS / Linux, among many others.
Can you please try it with that and provide us with feedback?

Thank you in advance,
Peter

note for us: P_EEI-12927

Hi @Peter Randziak 

Unfortunately, it's quite a mixed bag. Some have been able to activate after the connector upgrade.

A number of others run the connector upgrade task for 24 hours and finally time out, but apparently do successfully install the latest connector. In the past, this was an issue caused when the license was included in the task. We've worked around this issue by running the connector install task without a license specified. Appears to be a recurring issue/bug. I still have to verify if any of these successfully activated.

We still face the issue even after the latest version, where the Connector does not show in the list of ESET installed applications. Still no idea why this is happening. We can find these because they are in the dynamic group where EI Connector is not installed, but they are flagged red due to EI Connector not activated.

The majority of our systems are offline while students and staff are on summer break, so we have a limited set to work with right now.

[j-gray 35]

To sum up, we still find the following issues with OS X:

1. When the license file is specified in the EI Connector install task, the task runs for 24-hours before reporting failed due to time out.
   • The EI Connector does install successfully within a few minutes despite the reported timeout.
2. Activation task still does not activate the EI Connector after upgrading to the latest version.
   • The activation task reports successful completion, but the EI Connector is still not activated.
3. Some clients still do not register the EI Connector in the ESET list of "Installed Applications".
   • Subsequent EI Connector upgrades still do not register the EI Connector under "Installed Applications"

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

Hello @j-gray,

thank you for the feedback provided and the summary.

I hope you have cases with the Support team opened to tackle them together.

When it comes to the #1 it is a think of ESET PROTECT management platform as well as the #3.

 

When it comes to the issues with the EI activation, the support team would need 

1. enable the ECP logging 

2. send the activation task and wait until it finishes; mark the UUID of the activation task

3. collect the logs from a client, where the activation task was sent, but was not activated

4. Update / open a new ticket with the Support team to have it checked.

Peter

[j-gray 35]

5 hours ago, Peter Randziak said:

I hope you have cases with the Support team opened to tackle them together.

Yes, I've had a case open since October of 2022. Right now I've been waiting almost a week for support to provide a location where I can upload more logs.

[Peter Randziak 1,130]

Hello @j-gray,

17 hours ago, j-gray said:

Yes, I've had a case open since October of 2022. Right now I've been waiting almost a week for support to provide a location where I can upload more logs.

Ouch, sad to hear that 😞, can you please provide us with the ticket ID so I can have it checked?

Peter

[j-gray 35]

Thanks @Peter Randziak Case #00444283. Still waiting for a reply so I can upload more log files.