License issue after cluster failover in Netwrix Password Secure

Products Password Secure Discussions & Questions
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Version: Netwrix Password Secure 9.3.0.33526
OS: Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Standard 10..0.20348 Build 20358

Hello everyone,

we are operating our Netwrix Password Secure database in a clustered environment to ensure redundancy. The cluster performs an automatic failover during weekends or whenever a service becomes unavailable.

After such a failover, we consistently experience the following issue:
The license check fails and the database becomes deactivated. The following error message is displayed:

Error message:
Could not decrypt license: Hardware changed, you have to apply for a new license

The issue is only resolved after we manually log on to the affected server and reconnect to the database via the Server Manager. Once this is done, the license is retrieved successfully and the database becomes active again.

Our questions are:

  • Is this behavior known when running Netwrix Password Secure in a clustered environment?

  • Is there a recommended way to ensure that the license validation works correctly after a failover?

  • Is running the Netwrix Password Secure database in a cluster officially supported, or should the database be excluded from failover scenarios?

Thank you in advance for your support and any guidance you can provide.

Best regards,
Niko

2

Hello Niko,

thank you for reaching out and for the detailed description of your setup and observations.

Running the Netwrix Password Secure database in a clustered environment is generally supported. However, the behavior you are describing is a known limitation related to license validation in failover scenarios. During a failover, certain hardware- or system-related identifiers can change from the perspective of the application, which may cause the license check to fail temporarily with the message you observed.

To address this properly, the license needs to be adjusted to explicitly support SQL cluster and failover scenarios. Once this is done, license validation will continue to work correctly after a failover without requiring manual intervention via the Server Manager.

Please either create a support ticket or send me a direct message including your current license details. I will then ensure that SQL cluster support is added to your license accordingly.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and I look forward to resolving this for you.

Best regards
Tobias

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