Description
Symptoms:
Dashboard displays a "!" beside Windows VM:
Scrolling over the "!" beside Windows VM, you may see:
OR
Logs may also display:
"Could not activate all the VM images with given keys. Please reburn other valid keys or reboot after changing your environment/network settings"
"Windows VM are not activated or initialized. ERROR: Could not activate all the VM images with given keys. Please reburn other valid keys or reboot after changing your environment/network settings ."
OR
"Windows VM are not activated or initialized. ERROR: Could not create the virtual hosts for base VM images. Please check the environment settings and reboot ."
What triggers Windows activation?
When the Windows VM packages are updated, activation will occur automatically after boot up.
In 1.x, Windows activation will occur when a factory reset is performed. This does not happen in 2.x.
If the hard disk is formatted or the command vm-purge is run, this will trigger Windows activation
What causes activation and initialization errors?
Each time activation is triggered, the FortiSandbox will attempt to initialize the VMs after boot up. You will typically see a log message as follows:
Solution
There are several causes of failed activation and initialization:
1. Errors due to Internet connection or failure to contact the Microsoft servers
When port3 is not configured, activation on Windows will fail. The error may look like this in the logs:
2. Errors due to outdated Windows VM packages
Sometimes new Windows VM packages are released to fix problems or update host configurations. Occasionally these packages are released along with a new firmware. When a new firmware is updated on a FortiSandbox but the old Windows VM packages are still running, this may cause the VMs to not initialize correctly, as observed in some 2.0.0->2.0.1 upgrades.
To identify and update outdated Windows VM packages, please review these separate KB articles:
FD36229: Log Reference: Troubleshooting FortiSandbox Windows VM package activation and initialization issues through logs
FD36069: Technical Note: Updating the Windows VM on the FortiSandbox
3. Errors due to Windows being activated too many times
It may happen that Windows 7 fails to activate, with the following error messages:
"Start activation WIN7X64VM with key xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"
"Failed to activate WIN7X64VM with key xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"
"Failed to activate WIN7X64VM message="Installation ID: yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Error: 0xC004C008 The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used" "
"Could not activate all the VM images with given keys. Please reburn other valid keys or reboot after changing your environment/network settings"
If the above 2 scenarios passed verification, and this problem occurs, it is likely the license has exceeded the activation limit. In this case, please contact Fortinet Support for assistance.
Symptoms:
Dashboard displays a "!" beside Windows VM:
Scrolling over the "!" beside Windows VM, you may see:
OR
Logs may also display:
"Could not activate all the VM images with given keys. Please reburn other valid keys or reboot after changing your environment/network settings"
"Windows VM are not activated or initialized. ERROR: Could not activate all the VM images with given keys. Please reburn other valid keys or reboot after changing your environment/network settings ."
OR
"Windows VM are not activated or initialized. ERROR: Could not create the virtual hosts for base VM images. Please check the environment settings and reboot ."
What triggers Windows activation?
When the Windows VM packages are updated, activation will occur automatically after boot up.
In 1.x, Windows activation will occur when a factory reset is performed. This does not happen in 2.x.
If the hard disk is formatted or the command vm-purge is run, this will trigger Windows activation
What causes activation and initialization errors?
Each time activation is triggered, the FortiSandbox will attempt to initialize the VMs after boot up. You will typically see a log message as follows:
"FortiSandbox
system is up. Start initializing Sandbox VMs."
Generally, the FortiSandbox will attempt to activate Windows XP
first, rotating through 3 different keys if the activation failed
on the first 2 keys. If the activation is successful on XP, it will
attempt to activate Windows 7.
Solution
There are several causes of failed activation and initialization:
1. Errors due to Internet connection or failure to contact the Microsoft servers
When port3 is not configured, activation on Windows will fail. The error may look like this in the logs:
"Failed to activate WINXPVM1 message=" [Online]0x80041016:Invalid operation " "
For activation to occur, you must configure port3 with an outgoing Internet access as described in the Admin Guide. When the FortiSandbox detects this connection is working, it will display an up arrow in the System Information widget on your dashboard.If port3 is configured but you are still
getting the same errors, try changing the DNS server from the
default Fortinet servers to a different server.
2. Errors due to outdated Windows VM packages
Sometimes new Windows VM packages are released to fix problems or update host configurations. Occasionally these packages are released along with a new firmware. When a new firmware is updated on a FortiSandbox but the old Windows VM packages are still running, this may cause the VMs to not initialize correctly, as observed in some 2.0.0->2.0.1 upgrades.
To identify and update outdated Windows VM packages, please review these separate KB articles:
FD36229: Log Reference: Troubleshooting FortiSandbox Windows VM package activation and initialization issues through logs
FD36069: Technical Note: Updating the Windows VM on the FortiSandbox
3. Errors due to Windows being activated too many times
It may happen that Windows 7 fails to activate, with the following error messages:
"Start activation WIN7X64VM with key xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"
"Failed to activate WIN7X64VM with key xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"
"Failed to activate WIN7X64VM message="Installation ID: yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Error: 0xC004C008 The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used" "
"Could not activate all the VM images with given keys. Please reburn other valid keys or reboot after changing your environment/network settings"
If the above 2 scenarios passed verification, and this problem occurs, it is likely the license has exceeded the activation limit. In this case, please contact Fortinet Support for assistance.
When contacting
support, please collect relevant GUI and log outputs as described
in this article.
Finally, the logs reference for troubleshooting the above scenarios can be found in the article “Log Reference: Troubleshooting FortiSandbox Windows VM package activation and initialization issues through logs”, available under the Related Articles section.
Related Articles
Technical Note: Updating the Windows VM on the FortiSandbox
Effects of uninitialized Windows VM on a FortiSandbox
How to activate Windows 7 license after exceeding the activation limit
