Server licenses may show "trial period has expired"

Category: Licensing & activation
Date: 01 Feb 2011
Product: SQL Response
Versions: 1.0,1.1

When launching SQL Response, a server or servers may show the current licensing status as "trial period has expired", even though they had been activated previously with a valid serial number.

Once a server has been licensed, the licence should remain in place permanently, provided the hardware information for the server has not changed. If this message appears in your SQL Response client, the root cause may be a failure for the Alert Repository to connect to the SQL Server being monitored due to an error in the ADO .NET data provider. The cause of this error could be a bug in Microsoft's ADO .NET client, which is documented on Microsoft TechNet with an ID of KB948176.

If you are experiencing this problem, it can be fixed by applying a Microsoft cumulative update to the .NET Framework installation on your SQL Response Alert Repository computer. A hotfix is available from Microsoft, but also installing Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 will prevent this from happening. A future version of SQL Response will handle the situation more gracefully.

For more information about the error from Microsoft, and the fix to the .NET Framework, please see this Microsoft KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948609/en-us

If this issue affects your installation, the following information would appear in your SQL Response repository logs:

06:26:00.616|Error |AlertRepository |28 |SqlServerUpMonitor : Failed to get information from SQL Server <servername> (code 0)|System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
   at SNINativeMethodWrapper.SNIOpenEx(ConsumerInfo consumerInfo, String constring, IntPtr& pConn, Boolean fInitSec, Byte[] sspiBuffer, Byte[] instanceName, Boolean fOverrideCache, Boolean fSync)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SNIHandle..ctor(ConsumerInfo myInfo, String serverName, Boolean integratedSecurity, Byte[] serverUserName, Boolean ignoreSniOpenTimeout, Int32 timeout, Byte[]& instanceName, Boolean flushCache, Boolean fSync)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParserStateObject.CreatePhysicalSNIHandle(String serverName, Boolean ignoreSniOpenTimeout, Int64 timerExpire, Byte[]& instanceName, Boolean integratedSecurity, Byte[] serverUserName, Boolean flushCache, Boolean async)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Connect(ServerInfo serverInfo, SqlInternalConnectionTds connHandler, Boolean ignoreSniOpenTimeout, Int64 timerExpire, Boolean encrypt, Boolean trustServerCert, Boolean integratedSecurity, SqlConnection owningObject)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds.AttemptOneLogin(ServerInfo serverInfo, String newPassword, Boolean ignoreSniOpenTimeout, Int64 timerExpire, SqlConnection owningObject)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds.LoginNoFailover(String host, String newPassword, Boolean redirectedUserInstance, SqlConnection owningObject, SqlConnectionString connectionOptions, Int64 timerStart)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds.OpenLoginEnlist(SqlConnection owningObject, SqlConnectionString connectionOptions, String newPassword, Boolean redirectedUserInstance)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnectionTds..ctor(DbConnectionPoolIdentity identity, SqlConnectionString connectionOptions, Object providerInfo, String newPassword, SqlConnection owningObject, Boolean redirectedUserInstance)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOptions options, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection owningConnection)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreatePooledConnection(DbConnection owningConnection, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnectionOptions options)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.CreateObject(DbConnection owningObject)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.UserCreateRequest(DbConnection owningObject)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionPool.GetConnection(DbConnection owningObject)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection owningConnection)
   at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection outerConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory)
   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.Open()
   at g.a(String )
   at l.GetConnection()
   at aw.a(V )
   at az.a()
   at az.RunNow()