Terminal Services could not locate a license server ...

[phoenixdna]

I am getting the following error message on a Citrix Metaframe server.

"The terminial services could not locate a license server. Confirm that all license servers on the network are registered in WINS\DNS, accepting network requests, and the terminal services licensing service is running"

I didn't setup this machine but its been working fine. This same error happened before and I rebooted our 2 DNS servers and this resolved the problem. Maybe it was a fluke or coincidence. (My boss is saying "This couldn't possibly have fixed the problem" ... and yet it did or seemed to).

Before I reboot the DNS servers this time I wanted to ask about this? What is the permanent fix? Why am I seeing this? If rebooting the DNS server resolved this, then why? (My manager is going to give me heat about just rebooting the DNS servers every time this comes up).

Thanks

 

[itsp1965]

Phoenix, I am assuming that this Citrix server is on the domain. It is quite possible that your Terminal services licenses are stored on a domain controller and this is where your Citrix server is looking for them (that's why it is possible that problem goes away after re-booting your DNS server). You may want to look into connectivity issues between the Citrix server and the DC.

 

[Ogi]

Hi,

From your Citrix server, can you ping the Terminal Services Licening Server? If so, add this entry in the registry:-

HKLM\Software\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TermService\Parameters
DefaultLicenseServer STRING "ServerName"

This should help your servers resolve this issue!

Cheers,
Carl.

PS Reboot your Citrix Servers after this addition!

 

[phoenixdna]

Thanks for the info. To be honest I'm not sure which server is our Terminal Services Licensing Server. We don't use Terminal Services except for this one Citrix maching and haven't designated any of our server to be a licensing server like this. If one of our servers is functioning as a Terminal Services Licensing Server I don't know which one it is.

This might be related to an evaluation copy. The user is evaluating it and has more than one evaluation copy. So when one expires he reinstalls the app and registers the new eval. Somehow eventhough he registered the new eval, the old one may still be in the system somewhere and when it expired now the clients can't connect.

 

[phoenixdna]

THE SOLUTION:

The problem was that there was no terminal services licensing server setup. So Citrix will work for 90 days with the license and then stop working. Citrix requires a terminial services licensing server and some CALs. But all we needed to do in order to continue our evaluation was to install the Terminal Services Licensing on the Citrix server and activate it (which is free). Now Citrix works again.

When we are don't evalutating it, then we will of course need to purchase the CALs and etc.