"invalid format string" when changing license role

[Michael]

I did this successfully on two RedHat based systems; but when trying to change from a master license server (the default config) on now four (4) Windows servers (2008) to point to the master server (yes, Enterprise license, etc.) I get a red banner just above the "Change master association" window that says: "invalid format string"

I'm entering the URI as:
https://server:8089

...also tried the FQDN, also tried http://, also checked/confirmed the management port is set to 8089.

No firewall in the way. In fact, running tcpdump on the target system (the "master") I don't see a connection attempt.

Ideas?
Thanks!

[yannK]

You are encountering a know bug for splunk 4.3.0 and 4.3.1 on windows (reference SPL-48993).
This is caused by the fact that the timezone of your splunk user (probably admin) has been changed in his profile.

It should be fixed in 4.3.2, but until version 4.3.2 is shipped, the workarounds are :

• change the timezone in the user account to "default system timezone"
• or add the license-master manually in the file $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/server.conf [license] active_group = Enterprise master_uri = https://server:8089

[yannK]

Michael, you are the pioneer who discovered the issue with the license manager.

[Michael]

Thank you!
Gosh that would have been nice if it came up when I did a search on "invalid format string" in the first place.

[MarioM · Accepted solution]

did you try or check splunk\etc\system\local\server.conf ?

it should have :

[license]
active_group = Enterprise
master_uri = https://server:8089

[Michael]

Will check. Wouldn't be surprised, you can do the same thing on 10 different Microsoft installs and get 10 different results... 😉 thanks.

[MarioM]

it might be something with ntfs security...do your splunk services have full rights on splunk folder and sub folders?

[Michael]

Nope, didn't do that...stand-by...

Hey it worked! Thanks!

OK, now: WTF? Shouldn't have to do this work-around Splunk engineers...