Errors "Setting site role for user to <role> failed" or "Insufficient licenses" or "Exceeds limit for Creator role"

Issue

When attempting to add a new user or assign a site role to a user on Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud, one of the following error messages might occur:

Setting site role for user <username> to '<siterole>' failed

Insufficient licenses. Setting user roles to '<siterole>' failed.

Exceeds limit for '<siterole>' role.

Environment

Tableau Server
Tableau Cloud

Resolution

Tableau Cloud

Log in to Tableau Cloud as a Site Administrator and verify the total number of seats available for each site role on the Users page (For each site role type, the number on the right is the number of purchased licenses on your site for that role, the number on the left is the number of users currently assigned that role).
If a certain site role exceeds the limit, convert the existing users to the desired site role or unlicense the users to free up seats of the desired site role.
If the desire is to purchase additional seats because demand has increased, please visit the Tableau website to buy more licenses.

Tableau Server on Windows 2018.2 And Newer Versions, Tableau Server on Linux

Verify that all license keys are activated by visiting the Tableau Customer Portal and selecting the "Keys - Server Only" report. Run the TSM Licenses List command to compare the keys activated with the total keys report. For information on adding product keys, see Add Capacity to Tableau Server.
Ensure that all license keys are refreshed with an active maintenance date. For more information, see Refresh Maintenance Date for the Product Key.
Restart Tableau Server using the following commands to synchronize Tableau Server with the Trusted Storage.
Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the Tableau Server bin folder, located by default at C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\packages\bin.<version> on Windows or /opt/tableau/tableau_server/packages/bin.<version> on Linux.

tsm stop
lmreread
tsm start

In a multi Site Tableau Server Environment:

If Tableau Server is reflecting the correct number of licenses available on an individual site, but still unable to add a new user:

Select Manage All Sites and review the full list of users.
Confirm that the number of users on All Sites does not exceed the number of license seats.

Tableau Server on Windows 2018.1 And Older Versions

Verify that all interactor keys are activated within Manage Product Keys. For more information, see Add Capacity to Tableau Server.
Ensure that all interactor keys are refreshed with an active maintenance date. For more information, see Refresh Maintenance Date for the Product Key.
Restart Tableau Server using the following commands to synchronize Tableau Server with the Trusted Storage.
Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the Tableau Server bin folder, located by default at C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau <Version>\bin.

tabadmin stop
lmreread
tabadmin start

In a multi Site Tableau Server Environment:

If Tableau Server is reflecting the correct number of licenses available on an individual site, but still unable to add a new user:

Select Manage All Sites and review the full list of users.
Confirm that the number of users on All Sites does not exceed the number of license seats.

Cause

When attempting to add a new user or assign a site role to a user on Tableau Server, the Tableau Server environment has reached or exceeded the total number of available seats.

Tableau can be demoting roles to fulfill a request for a new user. For example, there may be no Creator seats available because a request for a new Explorer took the available Creator role. The License usage page would look something like this:

Creator 4/5 Explorer 1/0 Viewer: 15/15

Additional Information

Check the number of seats assigned to determine if the Explorer role is over capacity and thus taking from the available Creator role. Creator licenses can be used to fulfill the Explorer role and Explorer seats can be used to fulfill the Viewer role. Creator seats can't be used to fulfill the Viewer role.

See the Tableau Community Blog - Unable to Assign Roles on Tableau Server with Available Licenses