Errors: "Unidentifiable license" or "The cluster is above its license capacity" After Attempting to Start Tableau Server

Issue

After configuring your distributed environment and attempting to start Tableau Server, you may see one of the following error messages:

[5960]ERROR [MM-DD 00:00:00: CriteriaCheck::GetMatched License: could not retrieve a valid license because Activation ID is: “Unidentifiable license.”

Or

*** The cluster is above its license capacity, some workers may be unlicensed. Please run 'tabadmin licenses' for details.

Note: The tabadmin licenses command returns the following: Cores used: 0 of <number-of-cores>

Environment

Tableau Server
Distributed environment

Resolution

Tableau Server uses ports 27000-27009 and an additional port for all licensing communication between the primary and worker machines. By default, the additional port that Tableau Server needs is chosen dynamically. If this dynamically chosen port is blocked or you prefer that Tableau Server uses the same port each time, you must specify a fixed port to avoid this error. Although you can specify any port that is not listed in the TCP/IP Ports topic in the Server Online Help, Tableau suggests that you specify port 27010 as your fixed port to keep all licensing ports close to each other.

Note: A procedure in this article requires you to make changes to the tableau.lic file. Changes to the tableau.lic file do not persist across upgrades and are not saved during backup. This means that you must modify this file after each upgrade. You may also have to modify the tableau.lic file after restoring a backup, depending on where you are restoring the backup to.

Specify a fixed port

Step 1

Navigate to the tableau.lic file located in the Tableau “bin” folder. For example. C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\<version>\bin.

Note: If you installed 32-bit Tableau Server on a 64-bit operating system, the path may be C:\Program Files (x86)\Tableau\Tableau Server\<version>\bin. Replace <version> with the version number of Tableau Server that you are running.

Step 2

Open the tableau.lic file with a text editor.

Step 3

Next to VENDOR tableau, type port=27010 as show in the example below.

Step 4

Save and close this file.

Step 5

Click the Start button, and in the search box, type services.msc. Right-click services.msc and select Run as administrator.

Step 6

Right-click tablicsrv and select Restart so that port 27010 takes effect.

Verify the changes

Step 1

Navigate to the tablicrv.log file located in the Tableau “logs” folder. For example,

C:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau Server.

Step 2

Open tablicsrv.log with a text editor to confirm that port 27010 has been configured.

Cause

This issue occurs because the worker machines are unable to communicate with and retrieve the licensing information from the primary machine. The worker and primary machines are unable to communicate with each other because of blocked ports. Ports on the primary machine can be blocked for a number of reasons. One reason ports may be blocked is due to specific IT rules or security policies. Another reason ports may be blocked is because they are opened only on an on-demand basis.