Troubleshooting Tip: Getting license invalid error when registering VM

Description

This article describes how to troubleshoot an issue when receiving a 400 error code upon uploading the license.

Scope

FortiGate.

Solution

If the error message 'Invalid license file' is received after uploading the correct VM license file.

This is an example of the errors in the update debug logs:

2021-08-05 12:38:32 upd_pkg_verify_setup_rsp[1115]-Unexpected setup rsp code 400 
2021-08-05 12:38:32 upd_act_setup_with_action[220]-Received invalid setup rsp

1. Ensure that the VM is registered under the correct FortiCare account associated with the license
   
   

2. Disable FortiGuard Anycast:
   
   

config system fortiguard
    set fortiguard-anycast disable
end

If it does not work with the configuration above, try enabling the UDP protocol:

config system fortiguard
    set protocol udp
    set port 8888
    set sdns-server-ip 200.91.112.220 208.91.112.220 173.243.140.53 210.7.96.53
end

3. Check that the default authentication certificate is set to 'Fortinet_Factory' using the following command:

config sys global
get | grep auth-cert
auth-cert: Fortinet_Factory

4. Verify internet connectivity and DNS resolution to the FortiGuard servers by running the following commands:

execute ping service.fortiguard.net
execute ping update.fortiguard.net 
execute ping guard.fortinet.net
execute ping fds1.fortinet.com
execute ping directregistration.fortinet.com

Allow up to 4 hours for the changes to take effect, then check whether the license status has updated to valid.

If the issue persists after completing these steps, collect the debug logs and the output of the commands below and provide the information to Fortinet Support:

diagnose debug disable
diagnose debug reset
diagnose debug application update -1
diagnose debug enable 
execute update-now

Wait for 2-3 minutes before stopping the debugs: 

diagnose debug disable
diagnose debug reset

Related article:

Technical Tip: FortiGate-VM license management, validation, and troubleshooting