ELA said my license is offline license

[tbsky 11]

hi:

 

I am testing era 6.4 and try to make it production. but when applying license via ERA, I met very strange problems.

 

I have create an offline license and use it for mirror tool, it works fine.

I also use offline license with ERA and try to activate my pc to emulate non-internet environment, it works fine.

finally I import the license to ERA and try to activate my pc to test normal environment, but when I login to ELA for checking, ELA shows red warning and said I am using offline license.

 

I delete all the offline license at ELA. I delete all the licenses at  ERA server and import the license via license key and security admin. I uninstall the antivirus software and reinstall. I use ERA client task to activate the software via dynamic group. but ELA still said I am using offline license.

 

I try to use the license key and security admin to activate directly at antivirus software. both are fine. ELA show my pc immediately.

 

I try to use ERA to activate again and ELA still shows me as offline license.

 

finally I try to use ERA client task to activate my pc directly(not via join dynamic group trigger). and even strange things happened. now I can not see my pc at ELA. ELA did not shows red offline warning and it didn't count my pc as normal license. it seems my pc now is using a ghost license.

 

I don't know how to further debugging the situation. the hard part is I don't know what kind of license I am using. is there method I can distinguish at client side?  I can only see my license ID is "333-8UN-KCA". but online/offline/ghost license shows the same ID.

 

I have another license which can be imported to ERA for testing. but I think maybe I should try to figure what happened.

 

thanks a lot for help!!

 

PS: during the testing, I didn't uninstall/reinstall the agent. I only uninstall/reboot/reinstall the antivirus software for testing all the license situation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MichalJ 434]

Hello tbsky, I will try to explain you the issues you were experiencing.

First of all, some basics about the new ESET Licensing:

1. All of the new business applications needs to be activated. You can activate the product by 3 means (by license key, by security admin account or by offline file)
   1. Activation by license key, is done either directly (license key is typed into the application) or using ERA, where license key is added to ERA, and then used for activation
   2. Activation by security admin account is done either directly (you type in the credentials and choose the proper license) or using ERA, where all licenses present within the account are added to ERA, and then used for activation
      1. Please note, that for both those activation types, internet access (either direct, or via proxy server) is needed on the target Endpoints
   3. Activation by offline file, is done either directly (offline file is generated using ESET License Administrator and copied into the application) or remotely, using ERA (offline file is generated using ESET License Administrator, with a specific ERA Token, imported into ERA, and then used for activation)
      1. Please note, that activation of computers which have internet connection using offline file is not recommended as it would result in the situation described, meaning ELA will report and error, and further operations with offline files will be disabled. If you are using the mirror tool, offline file is needed, but it should be not used for the activation of the clients, if the clients have internet access.

If you are using ESET Remote Administrator 6.4, the new license dialog was redesigned, to fix the confusion "which license I am using". So even upon activating, you see, which license is offline file, which is key and which is security admin account (screenshot below).

 

Here are the results of activation attempts in various scenarios:

1. Online (key / account) with internet = success, client is activated, and visible in ELA
2. Online (key / account) without internet = failure
3. Offline (file) without internet = success, client is activated, not visible in ELA
4. Offline (file) with internet = success, client is activated, alert is displayed in ELA that offline unit has connected, and client is displayed in ELA

We are tracking an improvement request, where the client application will better indicate, if it was activated using offline file.

Hope that this helps.

 

 

 

 

 

[tbsky 11]

Hello tbsky, I will try to explain you the issues you were experiencing.

First of all, some basics about the new ESET Licensing:

1. All of the new business applications needs to be activated. You can activate the product by 3 means (by license key, by security admin account or by offline file)
   1. Activation by license key, is done either directly (license key is typed into the application) or using ERA, where license key is added to ERA, and then used for activation
   2. Activation by security admin account is done either directly (you type in the credentials and choose the proper license) or using ERA, where all licenses present within the account are added to ERA, and then used for activation
      1. Please note, that for both those activation types, internet access (either direct, or via proxy server) is needed on the target Endpoints
   3. Activation by offline file, is done either directly (offline file is generated using ESET License Administrator and copied into the application) or remotely, using ERA (offline file is generated using ESET License Administrator, with a specific ERA Token, imported into ERA, and then used for activation)
      1. Please note, that activation of computers which have internet connection using offline file is not recommended as it would result in the situation described, meaning ELA will report and error, and further operations with offline files will be disabled. If you are using the mirror tool, offline file is needed, but it should be not used for the activation of the clients, if the clients have internet access.

If you are using ESET Remote Administrator 6.4, the new license dialog was redesigned, to fix the confusion "which license I am using". So even upon activating, you see, which license is offline file, which is key and which is security admin account (screenshot below).

 

Here are the results of activation attempts in various scenarios:

1. Online (key / account) with internet = success, client is activated, and visible in ELA
2. Online (key / account) without internet = failure
3. Offline (file) without internet = success, client is activated, not visible in ELA
4. Offline (file) with internet = success, client is activated, alert is displayed in ELA that offline unit has connected, and client is displayed in ELA

We are tracking an improvement request, where the client application will better indicate, if it was activated using offline file.

Hope that this helps.

 

hi:

   I think I understand the license design. but my issue is:

 

 1. I add online license to ERA 6.4 to activate client, but ELA said I am using offline license.

 2. I am using a strange ghost license now(via online license client activated task directly apply to my pc). my PC is activated and connect to internet, but ELA count me neither online nor offline.(ELA didn't notice me at all)

 

 3. how can I check my pc is using online or offline license?

 

I have another different license to test, but I am afraid if I apply it, it will break my ghost license state. I think you guys also don't want ghost license and will debug it? my PLID is 333-8UN-KCA.

 

thanks again for your help!

[tbsky 11]

Hi:

   after testing, I found the problem is ERA 6.4 client task for product activation. (I don't know the situation of previous version).

 

   if I create a client task for product activation, then assign license below:

 

  1. assign an online license -> client activated successful with correct license.

  2. re-assign  another online license -> client activated successful with correct license.

  3. re-assign an offline license -> client activated successful with correct offline license.

  4. re-assign online license at step 1 -> client activated successful, but it use offline license at step 3

  5. re-assign online license at step 2 -> client activated successful, but it use offline license at step 3

 

conclusion: if you assign  an offline license to the client task, it will remember and always use the license to activate the client. even if you delete the license from the system.

 

work-around: just create a new client task if you need to assign an online license, don't modify or duplicate the old task, it won't work if it ever had  an offline license assigned.

 

I think it is a bug and should be fixed?
 

[MartinK 378]

Could you please try to activate endpoint manually using online license - whether it will work correctly when not using ERA for activation? What is the exact version of endpoint product?

Is it possible check (& compare) what used license is reported by ERA, ELA and directly by endpoint?

Edited September 4, 2016 by MartinK

[tbsky 11]

Could you please try to activate endpoint manually using online license - whether it will work correctly when not using ERA for activation? What is the exact version of endpoint product?

Is it possible check (& compare) what used license is reported by ERA, ELA and directly by endpoint?

 

hi:

   in my first post, I had try to activate 3 kind of license locally without ERA. all success. the ERA and endpoint are both the newest 6.4 version. (but ERA is upgraded from 6.3. endpoint is fresh install)

 

   I don't know what  real license ERA and ELA used. the client task sql entry of ERA is binary blob. and of course I can not access internal database of ELA.

  

   I can compare the license at local endpoint. I found it will put a license copy at  C:\ProgramData\ESET\ESET Endpoint Antivirus\License

   so I know I am using online or offline  license.

[MartinK 378]

One last question: when you switched to online license, have you created new activation task, or used the same and modified it so that it will be using different license? Asking because there seems to be problem with modifying this type task -> replacing offline license with online license with the same public ID may not work correctly and only known workaround is to created new activation task instead of editing previous one.

[tbsky 11]

One last question: when you switched to online license, have you created new activation task, or used the same and modified it so that it will be using different license? Asking because there seems to be problem with modifying this type task -> replacing offline license with online license with the same public ID may not work correctly and only known workaround is to created new activation task instead of editing previous one.

 

hi:

   as I said, I use the same client task to switch license. create new client task will be fine. but modify or duplicate old client task will be failed.

 

"replacing offline license with online license with the same public ID may not work correctly".

 

the fact is actually:

 

"replacing offline license with online license will not work, even with different public ID".

 

hope that can be fixed, or at least note it in document. I spent a week for this problem.

[MichalJ 434]

You have basically identified a bug (thank you for that).

The bug is now reported in the bug tracking system, and should be fixed in the next release. Thank you for reporting (and sorry it took so long, to determine the root cause of the problem).

[tbsky 11]

You have basically identified a bug (thank you for that).

The bug is now reported in the bug tracking system, and should be fixed in the next release. Thank you for reporting (and sorry it took so long, to determine the root cause of the problem).

hi:

   that's great. thank again for your kindly help!!