License Server Release Notes
Virtual GPU License Server Release Notes
Release information for all users of NVIDIA virtual GPU License Server.
These Release Notes summarize current status, information on supported platforms, and known issues with NVIDIA vGPU software License Server, version 2021.07.
If the version of your current license server software is 2015.12 or earlier, you must uninstall any previous version of NVIDIA vGPU software License Server before installing this release. For details, see Upgrade installation does not operate correctly.
Installed NVIDIA vGPU software licenses are not retained across an uninstallation followed by reinstallation. You must reinstall your licenses after reinstalling the license server software.
All releases of the License Server are compatible with all releases of NVIDIA vGPU software.
1.1. Supported Platforms
1.1.1. Operating Systems Supported
This release of NVIDIA vGPU software License Server has been tested on several releases of the Windows and Linux operating systems.
Support for installation in console mode on Windows and Linux was introduced in license server release 2018.06. It is not supported in earlier license server releases. The license server installer for earlier releases must be run in a graphical desktop environment. Installation in silent mode is not supported in any release.
1.1.1.1. Windows Operating Systems Supported
- Windows 10 64-bit
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2012 R2
On Windows, the license server supports only the English locale.
1.1.1.2. Linux Operating Systems Supported
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4, 8.3, 8.2, and 8.1 64-bit
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.9, 7.8, and 7.7 64-bit
- CentOS-8 (2105), CentOS-8 (2004), and CentOS-8 (1911) 64-bit
- CentOS 7.9.2009, 7.8.2003, and CentOS 7.7.1908 64-bit
1.1.2. Java Runtime Environment Requirements
NVIDIA vGPU software License Server requires one of the following Java Runtime Environment (JRE) versions:
- Oracle Java SE JRE version 1.8.282 or 11.0.10
- OpenJDK JRE version 1.8.282 or 11.0.10
For information about the licenses under which these JRE releases are provided, see Oracle Java SE Licensing FAQ.
JRE should be installed before the License Server installer package is run, as described in the Virtual GPU License Server User Guide.
1.1.3. .NET Framework Requirements
On Windows platforms, NVIDIA vGPU software License Server requires .NET Framework 4.5 or later.
1.1.4. Apache Tomcat Server Requirements
The License Server’s management interface requires Apache Tomcat version 9.x. An Apache Tomcat package is included with the License Server installer package for Windows. For Linux, Tomcat should be installed before running the License Server installer package, as described in Virtual GPU License Server User Guide.
1.1.5. Web Browser Requirements
The license server’s web browser–based management interface supports the following browsers:
- Google Chrome versions 47 and later
- Microsoft Edge version 38.1
- Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 10 and 11
- Mozilla Firefox versions 43 and later
1.2. Changes in this Release
This release addresses the issues that caused NVIDIA vGPU software license server release 2020.11 to be withdrawn. It also reinstates changes introduced in release 2020.11 that were not included in release 2020.05 Update 1.
1.2.1. Changes in this Release Relative to Release 2020.05 Update 1
New Features in this Release
- Additional information about licensed clients and licensed features such as Start Date and Client Alias is available in the license server management interface.
- The time zone in the timestamps in license server log files can be set.
- A new version of the Apache Struts library (2.5.26) is included in the license server.
- An updated Apache Tomcat version (9.0.50) is included with the license server installer package for Windows.
- Security updates are included in this release.
- Miscellaneous bugs have been fixed.
Platform Support Introduced in this Release
The following operating systems are now supported:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4, 8.3, and 8.1 64-bit
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.9, 7.8, and 7.7 64-bit
- CentOS-8 (2105) and CentOS-8 (1911) 64-bit
- CentOS 7.9.2009, 7.8.2003, and CentOS 7.7.1908 64-bit
Platform Support Withdrawn in this Release
- The following Linux operating system releases are no longer supported:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 64-bit
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 64-bit
- CentOS 7.6 64-bit
- CentOS 7.3 64-bit
- Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit
- Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit
1.2.2. Changes in this Release Relative to Release 2020.11
New Features in this Release
- A new version of the Apache Struts library (2.5.26) is included in the license server.
- An updated Apache Tomcat version (9.0.50) is included with the license server installer package for Windows.
- Security updates are included in this release.
- Miscellaneous bugs have been fixed.
Platform Support Introduced in this Release
The following operating systems are now supported:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 64-bit
- CentOS-8 (2105) 64-bit
1.3. Security Updates
A new version of the Apache Struts library (2.5.26) is included in the license server.
Only resolved issues that have been previously noted as known issues or had a noticeable user impact are listed. The summary and description for each resolved issue indicate the effect of the issue on the NVIDIA vGPU software license server before the issue was resolved.
Resolved Issues that Affected Release 2020.05 Update 1 and Release 2020.11
Bug ID | Summary and Description |
---|---|
200689065 | The primary and secondary license servers report different client expiration times The primary and secondary license servers in a high availability (HA) configuration report a different license expiration time for the same client. This issue occurs because the primary license server fails to synchronize its license usage records with the secondary server. |
3052765 | The primary and secondary license servers report different numbers of licenses being used The primary and secondary license servers in a high availability (HA) configuration report a different number of licenses that are being used. This issue occurs because the primary license server fails to synchronize its license usage records with the secondary server. |
Resolved Issues that Affected Release 2020.11 Only
Bug ID | Summary and Description |
---|---|
- | The
The |
- | The secondary server in an HA configuration consumes excessive CPU and memory The secondary server in a high availability (HA) configuration consumes excessive CPU and memory. As a result of this issue, pages in the license server management interface load slowly or are unavailable. |
200679971 | License files with MAC addresses in lowercase cannot be installed Any letters in the MAC address of a license server on the NVIDIA Licensing Portal must be in uppercase. If you specify lowercase letters in a MAC address while creating a license server on the NVIDIA Licensing Portal, any attempt to install the license file downloaded from the server fails. |
3.1. nvidialsadmin -licenses -verbose fails with a large number of clients
Description
When the nvidialsadmin -licenses -verbose command is run on a license server that has a large number (more than around 300) of clients, the command fails with the error Server responded with a 429 and an error message of:key='unknown'message=''arguments=[]
. This issue occurs because the command submits more requests than the maximum number of requests per second that the license server can handle.
When this issue occurs, the following message is writent to the license server log files:
Request throttled - rate exceeded.
Workaround
Run the nvidialsadmin utility with a different option depending on the information that you want to list.
- To list the features installed on the license server, run the nvidialsadmin -features command.
- To list the details of all licensed clients, run the nvidialsadmin -clients command.
The nvidialsadmin -licenses -verbose
command is concatenation of the preceding commands. It also shows the number of used and available features on the license server.
Status
Not a bug
Ref. #
200700529
3.2. The license server installer cannot run in graphical mode on some Linux operating systems
Description
The license server installer cannot run in graphical mode on some Linux operating systems, for example, CentOS-8 (2004), and falls back to console mode.
When this error occurs, the license server installer displays the following error message:
graphical installers are not supported by the VM The console mode will be used instead
Workaround
Complete the installation in console mode.
Status
Open
Ref. #
200680616
3.3. License feature usage reports a negative number of available licenses
Description
For a license server configured for high availability, license server feature usage sometimes reports a negative number of available licenses on the secondary license server. This issue occurs after failover of the primary license server because the primary license server can no longer synchronize the secondary license server with its state information.
This issue does not affect the actual number of licenses that users can check out.
After failover of the primary license server, the secondary license server fulfills license checkout requests from clients. However, by design, the primary license server is not updated with information from the secondary server about licenses that were served while the primary license server was out of service.
As a result of this design, the counts of available and checked out licenses on the primary and the secondary license servers might be different. For example, the counts of available and checked out licenses are different if the clients served by the secondary license server are different than the clients served by the primary license server when it returns to service after a failure. How long the counts are different depends on the synchronization interval or the license borrow period.
Workaround
In most situations no action is required. This issue should resolve itself over multiple synchronization operations either when the clients renew their licenses or the licenses that are causing the difference in counts are released or expire.
If this issue does not resolve itself, reset the secondary license server without disrupting the primary license server by performing the following sequence of tasks on the secondary license server only:
- Delete the trusted storage database.
- Start the flexnetls-nvidia service.
- Reinstall your licenses.
For information about how to perform these tasks, see Virtual GPU License Server User Guide.
After the secondary license server comes online, its first successful synchronization with primary license server causes the license counts to be the same on both servers.
This issue might persist if the known issue reported in index.html#bug-3052765-primary-secondary-servers-different-number-licenses-used causes the primary license server to fail to synchronize its license usage records with the secondary server.
Status
Not a bug
Ref. #
2778609
3.4. License server installer unexpectedly quits during upgrade on Windows
Description
During an upgrade of an existing license server installation, the installer might quit unexpectedly, throwing an InvocationTargetException.
![license-server-quits-unexpectedly-error.png](https://docscontent.nvidia.com/dims4/default/ac443b5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/412x155+0+0/resize/412x155!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fk3-prod-nvidia-docs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fdita%2F00000190-50e5-d242-a7b3-f2e798660000%2Fgrid%2Fls%2F2021.07%2Fgrid-license-server-release-notes%2Fgraphics%2Flicense-server-quits-unexpectedly-error.png)
The application exception details are as follows:
C:\Users\lsuser\AppData\Local\Temp\I1559058258\Windows_Pure_64_Bit\resource\iawin32.dll not found
at Flexeraaw7.af(Unknown Source)
at Flexeraaw7.aa(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.init(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.executeApplication(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.Main.main(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.launch(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.main(Unknown Source)
This error occurs if you attempt to install the 64-bit license server software for Windows on a host where a 32-bit license server with 32-bit JRE is installed. Because the 64-bit license server installer requires a 64-bit JRE, the installer fails if a 32-bit JRE is installed.
Workaround
Uninstall and reinstall the license server and associated software as explained in Virtual GPU License Server User Guide.
Installed NVIDIA vGPU software licenses are not retained across an uninstallation followed by reinstallation. You must reinstall your licenses after reinstalling the license server software.
Status
Not a bug
Ref. #
2609471
3.5. On Windows, upgrading the License Server removes HTTPS configuration
Description
If you are upgrading from a 64-bit license server and your earlier version of the license server was configured to use HTTPS, the HTTPS configuration is removed during the upgrade.
- Files for configuring HTTPS for connections between the management interface are stored in a subfolder of the license server installation folder. The installer deletes the entire contents of any existing license server installation folder, including files that were added after the license server software was installed, such as the SSL certificate that the license server was configured with.
- The HTTPS connector for connections from a web browser to the license server management interface is defined in the Tomcat configuration file server.xml. The installer overwrites the existing server.xml file and any custom configuration specified in the file is lost.
Workaround
- Before installing the new version of the license server software, copy the files that are necessary to re-instate the configuration after the upgrade.
-
If HTTPS is configured for connections between the management interface and the license server, copy the SSL certificate that the license server was configured with.
Note:Copying an SSL certificate might corrupt it. To determine if the certificate is corrupted, run this command:
$JAVA_HOME/bin/keytool -list -keystore certificate-file-name.jks -storepass certificate-password
If the certificate is corrupted, contact the CA that issued your certificate to obtain a new certificate.
-
If HTTPS is specified for connections from a web browser to the license server management interface, copy the Tomcat configuration file server.xml.
-
- After installing the new version of the license server software, re-create the HTTPS configuration as explained in Virtual GPU License Server User Guide.
Status
Not a bug
Ref. #
- 200500532
- 200521319
3.6. Apache Tomcat Servlet/JSP Container Default Files Vulnerability (Nessus ID: 12085)
Description
The License Server requires an Apache Tomcat server. On Windows, Apache Tomcat is included with the License Server installer package. On Linux, Apache Tomcat must be installed separately.
By default, files such as documentation, the default index page, example JSP files, and example servlets are installed on the host where the Apache Tomcat software is installed. These files may help an attacker uncover information about the Apache Tomcat installation or the host where the Apache Tomcat software is installed. Furthermore, the files may themselves contain vulnerabilities that might allow attacks such as cross-site scripting attacks.
Mitigations
- Review the files and delete the files that are not needed.
- Provide a custom error page for common HTTP errors such as error 404 or 500.
See Also
- Securing Tomcat from the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)
- How do I get a customized error page? in Miscellaneous FAQ on the Tomcat wiki
3.7. Time stamps in the License Server Management Interface and log files are inconsistent
Description
The time shown in the Client Expiry field on the Client Details page is inconsistent with the time stamps in the license server log files.
For example, the log files might show these time stamps:
-
License acquired time is - Wed May 30 16:18:23 2018
-
Borrow interval is 1440 mins
From these time stamps, the expected client expiry time is 2018-05-31 16:18:23
. However, on the Client Details page, the Client Expiry field shows 2018-05-31T10:48:59.999Z.
This inconsistency occurs because the time of day in the license management interface is given in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), not the local time of the license server host.
Status
Not an NVIDIA bug
Ref. #
200418046
3.8. Deleting a license reservation deletes the entire reservation group
Description
When the management UI is used to delete a single entry from the Reservation page, all entries on the page are deleted because the management UI supports operations only on reservation groups, not individual reservations, specifically:
- Deleting an existing reservation group. Deleting individual reservations within a reservation group is not supported.
- Adding reservations to a new reservation group. Adding reservations to an existing reservation group is not supported.
Workaround
To add or delete reservations in an existing group:
-
Delete the existing group.
-
Re-create the group with the set of reservations that you want:
- Include the existing reservations that you want to keep and any new reservations that you want to add.
- Exclude any reservations that you want to remove.
You can re-create the group by using the Add Reservation page or by importing reservations from a JSON file. For instructions, see Virtual GPU License Server User Guide.
Note:If you are importing reservations from a JSON file, ensure that the
name
attribute of each array of reservations is set to a non-null value. Although thename
attribute is optional, any imported reservation groups for which thename
attribute is not set cannot be deleted through the management UI.
Status
Not a bug
Ref. #
200418787
3.9. Sudden shutdown of the license server can cause database corruption
Description
If the license server is shut down suddenly and cannot be shut down cleanly, the trusted storage database may become corrupted. If the database is corrupted, it cannot be read and the flexnetls-nvidia service cannot start.
When the flexnetls-nvidia service cannot start because the database is corrupted, messages similar to the following examples for each platform are written to the license server log file:
-
On Windows:
org.h2.message.DbException: General error: "java.lang.IllegalStateException: File corrupted in chunk ${chunk_number}, expected page length ${page_length}, got ${actual_page_length}" [50000-193] org.h2.message.DbException: General error: "java.lang.IllegalStateException: Reading from nio:C:/Windows/ServiceProfiles/NetworkService/flexnetls/nvidia/flexnetls_licenses.mv.db failed; file length ${file_length} read length ${read_length} at ${index}"
-
On Linux:
org.h2.message.DbException: General error: "java.lang.IllegalStateException: Reading from nio:/var/opt/flexnetls/nvidia/flexnetls_licenses.mv.db failed; file length ${file_length} read length ${read_length} at ${index}"
On Windows, event 6008 may be written to the event viewer log indicating that the license server was shut down abruptly and could not be shut down cleanly.
Workaround
Restore the database from a backup as explained in Virtual GPU License Server User Guide.
If the database remains corrupted after it is restored, the backup that you restored it from may also be corrupt. In this situation, delete the trusted storage files, start the flexnetls-nvidia service, and reinstall your licenses. For instructions for performing these tasks, see Virtual GPU License Server User Guide.
Status
Not an NVIDIA bug
Ref. #
2104881
3.10. The logging threshold can only be uppercase
Description
The logging threshold under Logging properties on the Configuration page accepts input only in uppercase. When a valid logging threshold value in lowercase is entered, an error message similar to the following message is displayed:
The value "error" for "Logging Threshold" is not valid. [Logging Threshold, error]
Workaround
Enter logging threshold values in all uppercase.
Status
Not an NVIDIA bug
Ref. #
200334630
3.11. License Server upgrade fails
Description
An attempt to upgrade from License Server version 2015.12-0001 to the current version fails with the following error:
One or more newer versions of the product are installed. An update is not available.
Version
This issue affects upgrades from version 2015.12-0001.
Workaround
- When the error dialog box opens, click Abort to abandon the upgrade.
- Cleanly uninstall License Server version 2015.12-0001.
- Install the current version of the License Server software.
Status
Closed
Ref. #
200301811
3.12. Log files can exhaust local disk space
Description
A long-running license server may fail because the license server log files flexnetls.log and access.log have exhausted the disk space on the server. Although the license server rotates log files by opening a new log file each day, it does not automatically delete old log files.
Workaround
Delete old log files when they are no longer required. On Linux, you can use a cron job to delete files that are more than a specific number of days old.
Status
Open
Ref. #
1932568
3.13. Client in time zone ahead of license server may fail to check out a license close to its expiry time
Description
A client located in a time zone that is ahead of the license server’s time zone may fail to check out a license, if the license expiration time has passed in the client’s time zone.
Platform
All
Workaround
Locate the license server in a time zone proximate to the clients it will serve.
Status
Open
Ref. #
1685774
3.14. Upgrade installation does not operate correctly
Description
If the license server is installed on a platform on which license server software version 2015.12 or earlier is installed, the license server installer is incorrectly executed. The upgrade installation is not indicated to the user and, on Windows, the Apache Tomcat installer is erroneously rerun.
Platform
All
Version
This issue affects upgrades from version 2015.12 or earlier.
Workaround
Before installing this release of the license server, uninstall the previous license server software and, on Windows, uninstall the Apache Tomcat software.
Installed NVIDIA vGPU software licenses are not retained across an uninstallation followed by reinstallation. You must reinstall your licenses after reinstalling the license server software.
Status
Closed
Ref. #
1713544, 1713532
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