Cannot Read License File - Activated too many times on different machines
Answered
I just got a new VPS provisioned yesterday from my hosting company. I logged into WHM via root with the URL provided to me, accepted the cPanel TOS and tweak changes, then got this message:
Cannot Read License File To access the interface, you must install the license and ensure that the license is active. You can purchase or lease a license directly from cPanel, or from one of our Partners. If you do not currently own a license, register at the cPanel Store and request a trial license. The cPanel license server replied that the license has been activated on too many machines (600). Please contact billing@cpanel.net The exact message was: The license has been activated too many times on different machines.
License verification shows that the license is active.
My question is: on whose end is this issue? cPanel's? or my web host's?
Additional information: my web host's tier 3 support said they were contacting cPanel about this issue. Also, I had stupidly tried changing the server's hostname via my web host's portal a) before successfully logging into WHM first and b) before setting up DNS properly. The change appears to fail, that's when I proceeded to log in to WHM. When I got the license error, I went back to the portal and noticed that the hostname change went through. I then changed it back to what it was when the server was provisioned.
Any insight on this would be appreciated. Thank you.
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Please help, cPRex !
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Hey hey! What happens when you run the license refresh command:
/usr/local/cpanel/cpkeyclt
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Thanks for replying!
Support did not tell me what they did, and I don't have any access to the server to try that, since I can't get into WHM. I assume Tier1 support correctly communicated the issue to Tier 3. I gave them the same screen shot.
Should I ask support that question?
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You don't need access to WHM in order to run commands on the server.
I would hope that whoever you are speaking to for support knows how to refresh the server license, as that is the first troubleshooting step necessary with a license error. The output of the command will determine the next steps on what needs to happen in order to get the system working.
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Do tell! How do I run commands on the server without WHM?
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I just tried using Putty. I don't think I have SSH access at this time. :(
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It's odd that you wouldn't have SSH access as the root user. Did your provider reply with more details yet?
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They're saying the output to the command is: "The license has been activated too many times on different machines."
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cPRex I got in with SSH. Here's what I see:
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Alrighty - if the license is purchased directly through us, you'll need to contact us like it says in the message. There's no other way to fix that error (including me through the Forum, unfortunately).
If the license was purchased through your host, they will need to be the ones to contact us.
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Gotcha. Thanks so much. I just needed to know that my host wasn't missing something they could fix.
My host said they contacted cPanel yesterday, so hopefully they will respond soon.
You're the best, cPRex !
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Locked license issues get emergency priority, so it's also surprising to me that it's taken that long, but hopefully you'll hear from them soon!
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My ticket with my host was all the way at the bottom, not being worked on. Once they figured that out (2 days later), cPanel fixed it within the hour. 🤦🏻
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That's so weird - any license Partner should automatically be getting priority support, and any actual licensing issues get flagged with emergency, so I can't say for sure what happened there.
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It was my host’s fault. Tier 3 support had the ticket, but it wasn’t marked correctly and lost at the bottom of the queue. cPanel did their thing perfectly.
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That makes me feel slightly better, then!
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