30 second stall at checking license

[Anonymous]

Our office (6 people) is using acad 2014 or 2015 standalone version, after opening autocad, the autocad splash screen hangs at "Checking License" for 30-60 seconds. This happens with either 2014 or 2015 versions.

I check the log file and I notice the following two lines of info:

6/17/2015 5:16:29 PM: ICommunicationCenterConnector.SubAwareServiceUrl does not contain valid URL.
Attempting to load from registry

6/17/2015 5:16:29 PM: SubStatus: No or Bad URL defined in registry - Using default: http://cadservices.autodesk.com/subscriptionservice/subservice

Anyone have any ideas?

I have already researched some, and found this thread

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Softwar...

It suggests for a standalone license that I should delete the following file "ADSKFLEX_NUMBERS_TSF.data"

I have done this, with no apparent effect.

I might note that we have just upgraded the server in our office a few days ago, and these delays also started around the same time, but it may just be a coincidence.

Thanks,

Matt

See attached screenshot....

[TravisNave]

Yank the network cable.  Does it still launch slow?

[Anonymous]

Nope! Launchs quick as can be with the network cable unplugged...

what does it all mean?

[TravisNave]

Yeah.  Probably means that you system is still trying to resolve a connection that likely no longer exists due to your server upgrade. 

[Anonymous]

Any ideas on how to make it stop doing that (checking the server for whatever), or tell autocad to look in the proper place?...or some other handy solution?

Thanks, 

Matt

[TravisNave]

Possibly.  Did your server name change? 

Here's what I recommend you do to start:

1.  Disable Digital Signature Icons.  Right-click your Autodesk icon and choose Enable/Disable Digital Signature Icons.  Uncheck the box. (requires logoff)

2.  Clear your %TEMP% folder.  I have a .CMD file that will automate this for you attached.

3.  Add a registry key to ignore broken links, etc.  I have included a .reg file in the same attachment.  I run this on all of my machines. 

4.  Fix any disconnected map drives and offline printers. 

Let me know how it goes. 

[Anonymous]

The server did change names slightly...Is there some avenue I can persue with with this?

I ran the cleaner, and installed the registry edit.... No luck.

I restarted my computer. It still hangs up on checking license.

Any other ideas?

Thanks, 

Matt

[TravisNave]

Yes.  Change your hosts file under C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.  Open hosts in Notepad. 

Add a line for the new servers IP address and then add the hostname for the old server.

So if the new server's IP is 192.168.1.100 and the old servername was OldServer1 then add this:

192.168.1.100      OldServer1     OldServer1.yourdomain.com

Save the file.  Make sure it saves and overwrites without the .txt.  If it adds the .txt (or icon looks like notepad) rename it.  You might have to save to desktop and then move it into the folder.

You should then be able to open a CMD prompt and PING the old servername and get the new servername to respond to it.

This is probably the most efficient way to fix a resolution DNS issue.  This assumes the old servername no longer exists on your network.  You can also accomplish this by making a DNS entry on your DNS server if you are on IT and have access to this.  Your IT will know how to do this if you wanna ask them, btw.

Let me know.

[Anonymous]

I didnt really understand some of that, so I had the network people who installed our new server help me with it.

We tried it, but it still hangs at checking license.

Futher, based on your initial reccomendaiton of unplugging the network cable, he (as a test) created a network rule for the firewall to block all autocad inbound and outbound traffic. This didnt work. It still hangs at checking license.

We also (while in the autocad program folder) used the license transfur utility which unregistered my machine, then re-registered it. No effect.

We also reset the autocad settings to the default, and then reimported them. Still didnt work....

Any other ideas?

I really appreciate your help.

Thanks, 

Matt

[TravisNave]

Doing the hosts file change is the best course of action at this point if
it is a server resolution problem. The lack of network means that the
computer doesn't even attempt it, so it works faster. Gotta resolve that
broken link somehow.

[Anonymous]

TravisNave,

Thank you for your pro advice on this subject.  I am working with steinmanleuvano to get this resolved and we were able to successfully create the entry in the hosts file and tested this by pinging the old server name and got the IP address of the new server.  This did not prevent the lag when checking for license during startup.

In addition we created firewall rules to block both incoming and outgoing traffice of acad.exe.  This did not have an effect either.

Considering that the license of the product on this system is a standalone license, I'm not sure that the application should be looking anywhere for it's license but there is no denying that when the network cable is unplugged it goes as fast as it should.

Do you have any other suggestions that we can try?  Is there somewhere in the application or in a config file somewhere that we can check for any sort of link to the old server?

[dgorsman]

Don't get target fixation on licensing - AutoCAD may be checking for any number of network resources.  For example, the CIP will log user actions with AutoDesk so they can understand whats getting used more than others; most will turn this off but it doesn't hurt to verify that it is turned off.  Don't forget about A360 and Content Center processes, or legacy printers, or drawings in the previously-opened list, either.  Use a logging tool to check precisely what is being looked for duing the delay.

Is this a perpetual stand-alone license, or a Desktop Subscription/rental model?  The former is truly "stand-alone" while the latter requires periodic internet access (every couple of weeks) to verify the license with AutoDesk.

[Anonymous]

It is a perpetual standalone license. We will look at these other
processes to see if they are running and turn them off. Is there a
particular logging tool that you would recommend for this scenario?



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[dgorsman]

Process Monitor is the only one I've had to look for.  Generates a metric ***-load of data to wade through.

[Anonymous]

I treid the process monitor, couldnt find out what the issue was...just too much info.

Fiannally, I decided to just compleatly unistall everything autodesk.

I followed the steps on this website ( http://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/installation-activation-licensing/get-ready/remove-pr... ) I unistalled all the autodesk programs (Autocad, Revit, Navisworks etc etc etc, i deleted the stuff out of the registry as mentioned in the article etc).

I then re-installed acad design suite 2014.  

IT STILL HANGS AT CHECKING LICENSE!!! 

How can this be? 

Thoughts anyone? 

Thanks,  

Matt

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I found this thread on the Autodesk community.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/installation-licensing/long-time-to-start-autocad-2014-amp-revit-2014/...

Using that info we were able to figure out that the local area connection properties for the Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) settings were not set correctly due to our new server being installed.

Our preferred DNS server address for the server was still pointing to our old server, and not the new one.

In order to fix the issue we did the following:

In the control panel, under network and sharing center, for the active network for our office, we clicked the connection "Local area connection", then clicked "properties" button, then clicked "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), then properties button, then at the bottom, under "preferred DNS server" we changed the "Preferred DNS server" to our new server IP address (the old IP address was still listed).

Anyway, I'm no IT guy, but I hope this helps someone else someday.

Matt