MDS: The Microsoft SQL Server license has expired

When installing Master Data Services (MDS) in SQL Server 2012 or installing SQL Server 2012 sp1 (and possibly a CU), you might see the message “The Microsoft SQL Server license has expired” when trying to pull up the MDS web UI. The page is redirected to ‘/MDS/EvaluationExpired.aspx’ with the title “Evaluation period expired”. If you turn on trace logging you will see:

MDS Error: 0 : Error 193 (0x000000c1). Unable to load sqlboot.dll from path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Shared\sqlboot.dll

This problem only seems to happen on a server that has SQL Server 2008 R2 installed, even if SQL Server 2008 R2 has been un-installed.

The solution is:

Rename the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Shared\sqlboot.dll to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Shared\sqlboot.dll.x64
Copy the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Shared\sqlboot.dll to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Shared\sqlboot.dll
Start and stop the MDS Application Pool

Then it will work!

More info:

MDS Error: 0 : Evaluation period has expired

MDS: The Microsoft SQL Server licence has expired – CTP upgrade

Comments

MDS: The Microsoft SQL Server license has expired — 7 Comments

Kevin Hough on January 9, 2013 at 8:04 pm said:

Hi James,
This got me past a nasty problem! Keep the tips coming.

Kevin Hough

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Michael Gyekye on March 28, 2013 at 5:33 pm said:

MDS is a 64 bit application,so its application pool should be set such that only 64bit web application is allowed.
To do this , open IIS Manager -> MDS Application Pool -> Advanced Settings .
Look for Enable 32 bit Applications Setting (under General). Set it to false and recycle application pool.
This is how I managed to solve the problem: “host:8080/EvaluationExpired.aspx” error.
I hope this helps.

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- Min on May 25, 2016 at 9:36 pm said:
  
  In my case, it doesn’t work. the setting Enable 32 bit Applications Setting is already set to false since web site installed. Copy and paste sqlboot.dll does not work either.
  In log ,MDS Error: 0 : LogError : The Microsoft SQL Server license has expired.
  
  Does it really Server license expired matter?
  
  Reply ↓
  - Juha Suhonen on June 29, 2016 at 7:31 am said:
    
    I have the same problem:
    “Evaluation period has expired.”
    and
    “The Microsoft SQL Server license has expired.”
    
    Copying the .dll didn’t help and 32 bit Application Setting is set to false. I’m facing this with the SQL Server 2016 Development Edition/MDS…and the license isn’t expired.
    
    Did you manage to solve this Min? I’m grasping at straws here.
    
    Reply ↓
Andrew Notarian on May 21, 2013 at 11:52 am said:

Michael is 100% correct on this. Setting the App Pool to not allow the fallback to 32-bit mode is the permanent solution to the problem. If you leave the x86 sqlboot.dll in place you will have issues with other SQL Server components and be unable to install services packs or other updates.

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Bala on August 3, 2015 at 5:15 am said:

For the MDS issue ‘The Microsoft SQL Server license has expired’
As per james instruction we did the above process. Now MDS working fine But SSIS jobs are getting fialed. When i rollback the changes ,ssis packages are working fine..But Still the original MDS isssue is there.
What changes needs to be do for working both MDS application and SSIS job should work.

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Cody on October 7, 2016 at 12:27 am said:

Chiming in that James’s solution worked – but I rolled it back and changed the application pool to not enable 32-bit applications – and this also worked.

I checked other servers and not enabling it is the default. So someone must have broken this in the past.

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