FusionReactor License and Activation Issues

Overview

Several times users have reported issues with installing or activating licenses. In most of these cases FusionReactor has been installed manually and the underlying operating system is either Solaris or a variant of Linux. Problems on Windows have been reported typically when the default runtime user of the ColdFusion server on which FusionReactor has been installed was changed to an account with more limited privileges.

If you have followed the steps described in the Installation Guide when installing FusionReactor there are basically only two possible issues that you might experience (and for both of them we provide a fix):

• On Solaris and Linux installations of Coldfusion8 the default Java 6 VM of the server prevents the license and activation procedure from working correctly. FusionReactor Setup installs a fix for this bug but if you do a manual installation you must apply this fix manually. Read http://www.fusion-reactor.com/support/kb/FRS-168.cfm for more details about this issue.
• Due to bug FR1409 in FusionReactor 3.0.0 a license can only be activated if the computer has a connection to the Internet. This bug has been already fixed and will be included in the next minor patch release of FusionReactor. If you experience problems activating a system which is not connected to the internet, please request a patched version of the FusionReactor Java library (fusionreactor.jar) together with installation instructions from support@fusion-reactor.com.

Problems and how to fix them

Typical problems

In the following section, we list the most often reported problems with the FusionReactor license and activation process as seen from the user's perspective. The typical causes of these problems are discussed subsequently, along with the steps necessary to solve them.

1. Restarting the server expires a trial license or activation period immediately
2. Attempting to activate a license with an expired activation period redirects to the login page (but the license was not activated)
3. Installing a license shows an error page saying Can not upload license: null
4. Installing a license silently fails (you get redirected to the login page but the license was not installed)

Typical causes

1. Insufficient privileges of the server account when trying to write to the Java System Preferences Backing Store.
2. A Java6 VM on Linux or Solaris that has no fix for SUN JVM bug 6519088
3. Firefox browsers occasionally corrupting the license during the upload
4. Trying to activate a license without a connection to the Internet (bug FR1409).

How to fix it

Insufficient privileges

The runtime user of the server on which FusionReactor is installed requires read/write access to the Java System Preferences Backing Store. Depending on the operating system, the location of this data store is different. On Windows the data is stored in the registry hive HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs, the data belonging to FusionReactor is in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\intergral\fusionreactor.
Page 14 of the FusionReactor Installation Guide provides you with instructions how to adjust the permissions of this store.
On Linux and Solaris the data is typically stored in the directory /etc/.java/.systemPrefs as a hierarchy of directories containing XML files. The data belonging to FusionReactor is in the directory /etc/.java/.systemPrefs/com/intergral/fusionreactor. To set the necessary permissions execute the following command as user root:

chmod -R 777 /etc/.java/.systemPrefs

Alternative locations of the System Preferences Backing Store

Some JVMs try to create the System Preferences Backing Store in the directory $JAVA_HOME/.systemPrefs as a fallback solution if the directory /etc/.java/.systemPrefs cannot be created where $JAVA_HOME denotes the directory where the JVM itself is located (e.g. /opt/coldfusionmx/runtime/jre ).

We strongly recommend you to use /etc/.java/.systemPrefs as the one and only location of the System Preferences Backing Store. In case there is already data from other applications in $JAVA_HOME/.systemPrefs you should move it to /etc/.java/.systemPrefs and delete $JAVA_HOME/.systemPrefs afterwards (after you have adjusted the permissions of /etc/.java/.systemPrefs properly).

Clear the System Preferences Backing Store

If you attempt to install a license and you get the error message mentioned before:

Can not upload license: null

then you should clear the content of the Java System Preferences Backingstore and restart the server.
On a Windows machine run the registry editor (regedit.exe or regedt32.exe) and then delete the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Prefs\com\intergral\fusionreactor

On a UNIX machine as user root delete the directory

/etc/.java/.systemPrefs/com/intergral/fusionreactor

If the permissions are configured correctly uploading a license and activating it will work properly afterwards.

SUN Java 6 VM bug 6519088

This bug has been introduced with version 6 of the Linux and Solaris SUN Java VM and unfortunately has not been fixed even in the recently released version 6.0_05. We have a technote available at http://www.fusion-reactor.com/support/kb/FRS-168.cfm which provides you with detailed instruction how to apply a fix for this bug.

Bypassing problems with Firefox

If you upload a license with Firefox and nothing seems to happen (except that you have to login again) check the reactor-0.log file for the typical error message (see also http://www.fusion-reactor.com/support/kb/FRS-45.cfm) shown below

...
javax.crypto.IllegalBlockSizeException: Input length must be multiple of 8 when
decrypting with padded cipher
at com.sun.crypto.provider.SunJCE_h.b(DashoA12275)
at com.sun.crypto.provider.SunJCE_h.b(DashoA12275)
at com.sun.crypto.provider.SunJCE_ae.b(DashoA12275)
at com.sun.crypto.provider.PBEWithMD5AndDESCipher.engineDoFinal(DashoA12275)
at javax.crypto.Cipher.doFinal(DashoA12275)
...

If multiple retries of uploading the license file again do not change this try to upload the license from a different browser and/or computer. If this does not help neither manually copy the license file to FusionReactor/license/license.lic and restart the server.

Applying a fix to make the manual activation process work

As mentioned in the overview of this document there is a hotfix available that fixes the bug FR1409 in FusionReactor 3.0.0 where a license can only be activated if the computer has a connection to the Internet. To get this hotfix please send a mail to support@fusion-reactor.com and we will supply a ZIP file containing a new version of the FusionReactor Java library (fusionreactor.jar) together with instructions how to apply the fix.

Further Reading

License installation and activation procedure

In case you are still having problems please send us the reactor-0.log file and the Coldfusion logs from the runtime/logs directory (or jrun/logs for Multiserver installs) so that we can have a closer look.