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Finding out unlicensed devices
Overview
When ordering a license for Nexthink, you must specify the number of end-user devices on which you want to deploy the Collector. From that total, you allocate the maximum number of devices to each Engine. If the number of devices reporting to an Engine is actually higher than the maximum number of allocated devices for that Engine, the Engine issues a system alert and discards the devices in excess. No data are stored for these unlicensed devices and, therefore, they are not visible in the Finder or the Portal.
Learn here how to find out unlicensed devices from the Engine log, so you can adapt your license or your allocation strategy accordingly.
The operations described in this article should only be performed by a Nexthink Engineer or a Nexthink Certified Partner.
If you need help or assistance, please contact your Nexthink Certified Partner.
Reaching the maximum number of devices
When the Collector is installed in a device, it soon starts sending information relative to the device to its configured Engine. At that point, the Engine realizes that the device exists. When the Engine identifies a new device in the network, it increases its count of devices and checks its maximum number of allocated devices, according to the distribution of the license. If the count is within the limit, the Engine keeps the device and accepts the data coming from the Collector. On the other hand, if the count is above the limit, the Engine discards the device and any other data coming from the Collector.
When the Engine discards a device because it exceeds the maximum number of allocated devices, it logs the following message:
machine <Name>|<MAC>[|<MAC>]* out of license
The message states the name of the device followed by its detected MAC addresses. While the Engine is running, it logs the message only once per device, even if the Collector in the device may keep sending information. If the Engine is restarted, it logs the message again as soon as it receives data from the offending Collector.
Note that if you choose to ignore a particular device by setting its storage policy to none or remove , the device will never appear in the log as unlicensed.
Looking for unlicensed devices in the log
To extract the list of unlicensed devices from the Engine log, look for messages matching the format shown above.
If the Engine has been running for a long time, the information about unlicensed devices in the log may be outdated (you may have removed some Collectors and installed some others in the meantime or the log file may have rotated). To make sure that you get up-to-date information regarding unlicensed devices from the Engine log, restart the Engine previous to examining the log file:
Log in to the CLI of the appliance hosting the Engine.
Stop the Engine:
sudo systemctl stop nxengine@1Make a backup of the log file:
sudo cp /var/log/nexthink/engine.log /var/log/nexthink/engine.log.bkReset the log file:
sudo truncate -s 0 /var/log/nexthink/engine.logStart the Engine:
sudo systemctl start nxengine@1Wait for the Collectors to send information.
After waiting for a reasonable amount of time (one full day, for instance), examine the Engine log as described below:
Type in the following command to retrieve the list of out of license messages:
sudo grep -E ".+machine.+out of license" /var/log/nexthink/engine.logOptional: Count the lines of the previous result to get the total number of devices in excess:
sudo grep -E ".+machine.+out of license" /var/log/nexthink/engine.log | wc -l
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