Overview

Customers may experience an unusual issue when migrating or adding the appliance to the AppManager, with the message Unable to contact AppManager: 'appliance does not have a valid license.': 

In such cases you may find the following messages in GFI Agent logs:

[WARNING] ... failed to get hasLicense because it failed to create connector. reason: error connecting to appliance: could not fetch session

or

[WARNING] ... Unable to copy /usr/local/gfiagent/GFIAgentInstaller.new to /usr/local/gfiagent/GFIAgentInstaller: open /usr/local/gfiagent/GFIAgentInstaller: read-only file system

Solution

Such errors indicate issues environmental issues leading to configuration corruption, for example, mounting the file system as read-only.

To resolve these issues, follow these steps:

1. Start with the first (preferred) method described in Resetting KerioControl’s connection to GFI AppManager article, especially if you see the read-only file system error.
2. If that doesn't help, it is possible that incorrect configuration values were stuck and you have to attempt the second approach from the above article.
3. If that doesn't help either, and this is the migration or a new appliance addition, you can try a fallback method from Resetting KerioControl’s connection to GFI AppManager article.

In rare cases, the above would not help because the appliance is already installed. This will be indicated in the logs by:

[WARNING] ... appliance: (Kerio-Control, /var/winroute) is already installed with id ... Detected upgrade.

In such cases, it is recommended Removing Appliance from AppManager first or changing the name when registering the device.

If the issue persists, provide GFI support with the information requested in the article Gathering information for troubleshooting AppManager issues.

Summary

When attempting to migrate or add an appliance to AppManager and encountering the error message "appliance does not have a valid license," it often indicates environmental issues such as configuration corruption. This will be indicated in the logs, for example as difficulty creating a connector or an inability to copy necessary installation files due to a read-only file system. To address this, begin by following the reset procedures outlined in the Resetting KerioControl’s connection to GFI AppManager article. If problems persist, consult the Gathering information for troubleshooting AppManager issues article to prepare and share the required debugging information with the GFI support.

FAQ

1. What should I do first if I get an 'appliance does not have a valid license' error in AppManager?
   Start by following the reset procedures in the Resetting KerioControl’s connection to GFI AppManager article, particularly if there's a read-only file system error.
2. What steps should I take if the initial reset procedure does not resolve the licensing error?
   If the initial reset does not work, try the alternative methods provided in the Resetting KerioControl’s connection to GFI AppManager article.
3. Who should I contact if all recommended troubleshooting steps fail to resolve the issues?
   If the issue remains unresolved after trying all suggested steps, gather the necessary information as detailed in the Gathering information for troubleshooting AppManager issues article and contact GFI support for further assistance.