Sudden License Fail - ZCentral Sender 20.x on Z-series PC

[CrashManager]

Today ZCentral Sender v 20.x displays a message that it is unlicensed on a particular host. Can anyone advise how to restore function? 

This is on native Z-series HP Hardware, a Z420 that has been running correctly for many months prior. 

After uninstall (preserve user settings), and re-install, Receiver just returns a message that it cannot connect, instead of connecting and showing the unlicensed message. Same for for any 20.0.x, 20.1.x, and 20.3.x. installers. 

The license directory C:\ProgramData\HP\Remote Graphics Software\rgsender is empty. On other working rigs, it has a folder called certs, and a file called rgsender.p12. 

Found some documentation for purchased license troubleshooting, but not for the license that should work on Z-series hardware. 

Upgrade to v22 is suboptimal, given extensive work to upgrade the install base. 

Thanks for any suggestions!

[CrashManager]

HP ZCentral phone support helped get to the root of the problem. tl;dr the system drive had errors, and WMI reset to default values, which is bad. Ultimately Windows will have to be re-installed to function properly, since I don't have a backup or restore point from before the disk errors.  Non-functional WMI makes for all kinds of long-term Windows problems, not just broken ZCentral Remote Boost. 

The reason ZCentral won't run on its standard, Z-class license is that the PC cannot tell what hardware it is on. 

Clue: open a cmd window, enter systeminfo and hit return. Result: Error: invalid class. This points to problems with WMI. Without good WMI function, ZCentral cannot validate the hardware, and so it prompts for a license. 

Clue #2, open wmimgmt.msc, right click on WMI Control (Local). The General pane shows Failed to initialize all required WMI classes. Click on the Security tab, expand Root, and it only shows 8 namespaces. On a configured system, that should be many more. 

Hunted in application event logs for event WMI event id's 28, 65, 5600, 5601, 5614. 5614 showed WMI "unable to locate the repository files. A new repository will be created based on the auto-recovery mechanism." System logs showed disk errors for a couple hours before the new repository event.  

A very helpful page for troubleshooting WMI issues is called WMI: Missing or Failing WMI Providers or Invalid WMI Class by Craig Marcho. 

Thanks to HP ZCentral phone support for noting the dependency on WMI for good license pull for Z-class licenses. 

 

[KellyRGS]

Hello

On HP Z Workstations, Remote Boost will always load the preload license, unless the Z Workstation is setup as a VM, then it will need a license to install Remote Boost.  Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the sender?  Remote Boost V22 will install the same as V20 software, however, on Z Workstations, the preload license will expire in Jan 2023.  You will get a popup on this when you install V22.  If you are trying to install V22 and have a V20 license, you will get a license error.

Kelly

I am an HP employee.