LexFloatServer and network time synchronization

Floating Licenses
1

Hi,

We’ve faced an issue with LexFloatServer instance we use for testing purposes. It’s installed on Windows 7 x64 VM instance, which is running 24/7. The problem is that after certain period of time it starts declining lease requests with the following error in logfile:

System Time Modification Detected: 1369

The only assumption I have why this is happening is that LexFloatServer probably doesn’t handle network time synchronization properly.

Could you pls, explain why this could happen and how to overcome this? Thank you.

Best regards,
Alex

2

Alex,

Are you sure the VM is running 24/7, it happens when your machine sleeps, which pauses the LexFloatServer clock and hence it goes out of sync from your local clock.

3

We’ll check this, thank you.

4

Now we started to get the following error message every 5 seconds in our log:

2017-04-04, 16:04:19 Error: Service control interrogate message by service manager

Any idea what is this about?

5

It means your pc want’s to shutdown the server during starting. It should only appear in the beginning if your machine is slow.

6

Also we’ve ensured that VM is not getting to sleep mode and the time modification problem hasn’t gone. Then we tried to install LexFloatServer on a dedicated hardware, and the issue appeared again in a few hours. Logfile contains the following entries:

2017-04-05, 09:43:59 License Request from: 10.10.101.64
2017-04-05, 09:43:59 System Time Modification Detected: 215
2017-04-05, 09:44:04 License Request from: 10.10.101.64
2017-04-05, 09:44:04 System Time Modification Detected: 215
2017-04-05, 09:47:21 Error: Service control interrogate message by service manager
2017-04-05, 09:47:21 Error: Service control interrogate message by service manager
2017-04-05, 09:47:21 Error: Service control interrogate message by service manager
2017-04-05, 09:49:25 License Request from: 10.10.101.64
2017-04-05, 09:49:25 System Time Modification Detected: 216

Please note how seconds counter (?) increases by one in 5 minutes.

Any idea what could cause this? Thank you.

7

It means your pc want’s to shutdown the server during starting. It should only appear in the beginning if your machine is slow.

Unfortunately it appears every 5 seconds infinitely since some point of time - not from the start.

Here is the logfile: Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

8

The error logged actually doesn’t affect LexFloatServer. It was recently added to check the issue of LexFloatServer not starting on startup. The service manager on your computer is trying to stop the service, it sometimes occurs due to firewall issues.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/04c8676b-2a85-4949-8e28-8bd5c4d4b4a9/when-running-my-service-the-service-receives-the-request-servercontrolintegoratte-from-service?forum=winserverfiles

9

Ok, will check the firewall and see if the problem goes away. Thank you.

And what about the time modification problem? The hardware we use never hibernates…

10

If your machine sleeps Lexfloatserver and your machine would go out of sync in time. That’s the only reason.

11

Please have a look on the following screenshot: Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

This is the event log of the machine where LexFloatServer runs. I’ve filtered out everything but two event sources - Kernel-Power and Power-Troubleshooter - to get list of sleep/awakening/shutdown events (Logging power events (sleep & wake up) to the event log - Microsoft Q&A). This screenshot shows you that the last time server restarted was 2017-04-09 16:03. There are no sleep/awakening events logged at all.

Now look at the LexFloatServer log: Dropbox - Error - Simplify your life

It contains the following line:

2017-04-09, 16:21:48 Info: Starting Floating License Server …
Which is the last time LexFloatServer started - just after the last restart event logged in the event log.

A bit later the following happens:

2017-04-10, 10:07:32 System Time Modification Detected: 134
… and on the next day…
2017-04-11, 10:59:54 System Time Modification Detected: 326

So this proves that:

  1. Machine with LexFloatServer is running since 2017-04-09 16:03 without any interruptions.
  2. LexFloatServer starts reporting system time modification error from 2017-04-10, 10:07.
  3. A difference (in seconds?) between system clock and internal LexFloatServer clock is constantly increasing over time.

Apparently that’s all I can do to investigate the problem on my side - now I would really appreciate thorough investigation on yours.

Thanks for your help!

12

Thanks for your investigation, will look into it and keep you posted.

13

Hi,

Can you share your email address so that we can share a build with you containing the fixes as the bug is not replicable on our end.

14

It’s alexander.solonchenko_at_lacimagroup.com

15

Hi! Is there any news? Still haven’t received anything from you.

16

The download link for the build has been mailed to you.

17

It seems that the issue is fixed in the build you provided.

Would you pls. include the fix in the next official release of LexFloatServer?

Thank you.

18

Are you still receiving

2017-04-05, 09:47:21 Error: Service control interrogate message by service manager

error in the logs

19

Unfortunately yes, this error hasn’t gone.

20

Gentlemen, I’ve installed last LexFloatServer and run:

LexFloatServer.exe -version

and got:

Floating License Server v2.7.0

But I was expecting version v2.8.0 like the API page says.