License import errors in Specops Password Policy

Following a Specops Password Policy installation (and in some cases an upgrade), you will need to import your license. The process is pretty seamless, but there are some errors you may encounter. In this blog post, we’ll walk through some of the troubleshooting steps.

License exceeded

If you’re seeing a license exceeded message, and the users in scope do not exceed the number of seats, you will need to check your license type. The counting mechanism varies depending on the type of license being used.

• Affected: The system counts the actual number of non-disabled user objects that are affected by GPOs containing Specops Password Policy settings.
• All: The system counts the total number of non-disabled user objects in the entire domain.
• Subscription: The system counts the actual number of non-disabled user objects that are affected by GPOs containing Specops Password Policy settings.
• Trial: No counting, licenses are irrelevant. You have access to an unlimited amount of licenses until the license key has expired.

Ensure that the assigned license type is meeting your organizational needs. If necessary, email your accounts representative for a new license file.

Invalid license file

If the license import fails, you may see an invalid license file error. If this is the case, you may need to perform one, or all of the below troubleshooting steps.

1. Run the Domain Administration tool as Administrator, even if you are logged in as domain level admin OR temporarily disable User Account Control (click here for steps).
2. Rename in SYSVOL, as the SYSVOL directories on the DC’s may be out of sync:
   a. Close the Domain Administration tool.
   b. Go to SYSVOL\<domain>\Policies\SpecopsPassword folder.
   c. Rename SOPWDFLT.INI to SOPWDFLT.OLD.
   d. Open the Domain Administration tool and re-add the license file.

If you have downloaded the license file on a different computer and are copying its contents to a new .txt file, you may need to:

1. Add a carriage return after the last character on the last line.
2. Ensure that Unicode is selected from the Encoding drop-box when saving the file.