Here is what I got as an explanation from Support when I had this problem the week before WWRUG:
ARServer sends an SNMP call to get the host id from the operating system. It will be looking for all the host ids available and as soon as it will be finding any of the valid host id on which the licenses are issued, it will recognize that license. Hence, the license keys needs to be generated with any of the host ids displaying with the ipconfig /all command. But with Windows 2008 Enterprise, it generates some additional host ids which may not have any resemblance to the actual host ids/MAC Address of the NICs available on the system. Even when you restart the AR Services, the system might show a different host id on the Add Remove Licenses form other than 968A20524153. This is a known behavior with Windows 2008. I got the license regenerated for the host id displayed in the [ command : ipconfig /all ] results for the specific NIC port that I was using (Dell 710's have four), and it has remained a valid license ever since through multiple restarts of the Windows server and/or AR Server service. It is definitely a new "feature" on Windows 2008 R2 - probably 2008 as well, but we never put an AR Server on 2008 to see it. Christopher Strauss, Ph.D. Call Tracking Administration Manager University of North Texas Computing & IT Center http://itsm.unt.edu/ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of Joe D'Souza Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 1:44 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Current Host ID of ARS Server always changing ** This must be a new Windows 2008 bug or design.. It works well with Windows 2003 or Linux or other environments I have had the opportunity to license AR System 7.5 on. Have you guys tried contacting MS and check with them as to why the value of the hostid windows variable changes and how to prevent that? If it is by design for whatever reasons to change it, there must be a way they have designed to prevent the change? Else it would mess up other things too for e.g. the security features on wireless routers to allow known MAC addresses and disallow unknown MAC Addresses. If MS didn't think of things like that before designing that feature I would be surprised - but then again its MS.. :-) Joe -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arsl...@arslist.org]on Behalf Of Rick Cook Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 1:55 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Current Host ID of ARS Server always changing ** Hmmm...I just tried that with both my Ethernet and Wireless card MAC addresses, and BOTH times I put in the ensuing license key, I got an ARWARN 469 saying that the key wasn't valid for this server. After bouncing the service, it still shows that I am running unlicensed. Rick On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 7:52 AM, Kelly Gatewood <kgatew...@itprophets.com<mailto:kgatew...@itprophets.com>> wrote: ** Kali, Here is a KM from BMC on this issue. This is an extract from an article discussion the Host ID issue on a Windows 2008 Server: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ When attempting to license the ARServer 7.5 on Windows 2008, the Current Host ID value reported by the ARServer and displayed in the Add or Remove Licenses form via the User Tool does not match the physical address of any network card in the machine and changes each time the server is rebooted. Therefore, when licensing the machine this may work initially, but upon reboot the Current Host ID value changes and the license will become invalid. The Current Host ID will always take the format of: xxxx20524153 Note: This problem occurs on both physical machines and virtual machines where ARS 7.5 is installed on Windows 2008. The server uses SNMP calls to get the MAC addresses of network adapters in the system and uses the first of these as the hostid. For some reason the SNMP calls used return many more entries than there are physical adapters in the server and the MAC address of most of these are dynamic and change on reboot. Product BMC Remedy AR System Server (version 7.5.00) Environment Windows 2008 Solution The workaround is to ensure that the AR Server is licensed against the MAC address of a physical network card and NOT the Current Host ID shown in the User Tool. The Windows AR Server will consider itself licensed if it has a valid AR Server license for ANY MAC address on the system, even if this is not displayed as the primary one. Therefore, use ipconfig /all from a command line to get the MAC address - eg; Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : VMware Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-50-56-96-38-BD and use this value (removing the - symbols) as the Host ID for licensing the AR Server, in this example it would be 0050569638BD (all letters should be in capitals). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please use this information to request the proper license for your server. After you installed the AR server 7.5 again, license it, apply the user and application licenses, and then install Atrium CMDB and the ITSM suite. Kelly Gatewood Senior Solutions Architect IT Prophets Cell 615-830-5078 www.itprophets.com<http://www.itprophets.com> From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG<mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG>] On Behalf Of Kali Obsum Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 3:34 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG<mailto:arslist@ARSLIST.ORG> Subject: Current Host ID of ARS Server always changing ** Anyone else having problems with the Current Host ID of ARS Server always changing? ARS Server is installed on a virtual Windows Server 2008. Checked the MAC Address of the Windows Server and it hasn't changed. This causes the license to become invalid, thus, we always have to reapply a new one. Regards, Kali NOTICE The information contained in this email is confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not disclose or use the information in this email in any way. If you received it in error, please tell us immediately by return email and delete the document. 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