Strategy Server Activation is a licensing technology that ensures that installations of Strategy server products are authentic and have been legitimately licensed. Server Activation registers each Server Installation with Strategy and locks the installation to a specific machine. A unique hardware identifier for each machine is used to lock an installation to that machine. For a windows machine, the unique machine identifier used for activation is the MAC Address of one of the Network Ethernet Cards (NIC). For more details regarding Strategy Server Activation, refer to the Strategy Licensing Site (https://licensing.microstrategy.com).
An activation validity check is performed at the following times:
An unexpected deactivation of Strategy Intelligence Server installation is almost invariably because of one of the following reasons, as detected at the time of the activation validity check:
Following are four common situations where unexpected deactivation of Strategy Intelligence Server installation occurs on a Windows machine, all of which result from the same underlying causes mentioned above:
1. One such situation is explained in the following Knowledge Base technical note:
KB19094 - Automatic Deactivation of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server installation occurs every time after a machine reboot
It is the result of a “timing issue" such that Intelligence Server starts up "too soon", but it may not be enough time for the unique machine identifier (MAC Address of a Network Ethernet Card (NIC) on Windows) to be "visible." Starting up Intelligence Server manually or staggering Intelligence Server startup such that it occurs a few minutes after the machine has rebooted and “settled down” may help resolve the issue.
2. Machine may have multiple NICs and one or more of them may have been disabled in some way. So when Intelligence Server starts-up, it does an activation validity check and when it does not find the MAC address that was used for the present activation, the installation is deactivated.
3. Machine may have a configuration of NICs that have some kind of floating (changing) MAC addresses. So when Intelligence Server starts-up, it does an activation validity check and when it does not find the MAC address that was used for the present activation, the installation is deactivated.
4. NICs have been turned off to save power, which is the default setting when a laptop machine operates in battery mode. Intelligence Server thereby deactivates during the activation validity check. This situation be resolved by doing the following:
First disable all VPN, Bluetooth, wireless, and network connections other than the physical wired LAN connection. Go through the activation process for the Strategy Intelligence Server; this will ensure that the MAC address used for the activation process is from the physical wired NIC card.
After a successful activation, uncheck the power saving option for the NIC being used by the LAN connection: LAN connection > Properties > Configure > Power Management tab > Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power (second check box). This will ensure the MAC Address attached to the activation will always remain available.
For effective troubleshooting of an unexpected deactivation of Strategy Intelligence Server installation, enable the MAQueryEnvironment diagnostic as outlined in the following Knowledge Base technical note:
KB19037 - What kind of diagnostics are helpful in troubleshooting issues pertaining to frequent deactivations of MicroStrategy servers
Third Party Software Installation WARNING
The third-party product(s) discussed in this technical note is manufactured by vendors independent of Strategy. Strategy makes no warranty, express, implied or otherwise, regarding this product, including its performance or reliability.
