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No license error when compiling cobol as another user inside a docker container in RHEL8.

  • March 20, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views
A

In our dockerbuild file, we are installing the visual cobol setup for docker and installing the license.

# installing Cobol Devhub and License
RUN /opt/DevHub/setup_visualcobol_devhub_for_docker_8.0_redhat_x64 -IacceptEULA
RUN /var/microfocuslicensing/bin/MFLicenseAdmin -install /opt/Licenses/VC1_Visual_COBOL_Linux_Docker.mflic 

As root , it is able to run cob -u.  But when we switch to another user ,  we are getting a no license error.

This container used to work on a RHEL7 host, but when we moved the container to a RHEL8 host, that is where we started getting the license error.



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Aldous Carlos
Rocket Forum Shared Account
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    2 replies

    Blair McDonald
    • Blair McDonaldModerator
    • Moderator
    • 292 replies
    • March 21, 2025

    In our dockerbuild file, we are installing the visual cobol setup for docker and installing the license.

    # installing Cobol Devhub and License
    RUN /opt/DevHub/setup_visualcobol_devhub_for_docker_8.0_redhat_x64 -IacceptEULA
    RUN /var/microfocuslicensing/bin/MFLicenseAdmin -install /opt/Licenses/VC1_Visual_COBOL_Linux_Docker.mflic 

    As root , it is able to run cob -u.  But when we switch to another user ,  we are getting a no license error.

    This container used to work on a RHEL7 host, but when we moved the container to a RHEL8 host, that is where we started getting the license error.



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    Aldous Carlos
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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    As a guess, does the other user have access to the folders under /var/microfocuslicensing? 



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    Blair McDonald
    Lead Technical Support Specialist, AMC
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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    A
    • Aldous Carlos
    • Author
    • New Participant
    • 1 reply
    • March 25, 2025

    As a guess, does the other user have access to the folders under /var/microfocuslicensing? 



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    Blair McDonald
    Lead Technical Support Specialist, AMC
    Rocket Forum Shared Account
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    Hi Blair,

    Yes, the non-root user has read+write+execute access to the /var/microfocuslicensing  folder.  

    We finally solved the mystery of this. 
    In 2023,  we were using docker libraries on RH7  hosts to run the container on.   When just recently the RH7 hosts were replaced with RH8,  and instead of using docker libraries , they were using podman instead to manage the containers.   

    We had to build a test environment to use RH8 hosts and install docker libraries , and voila , the non-root user was able to perform cobol compilation and the "no license error" no longer appeared.

    Moral lesson here, never do upgrades without thorough testing :) 

    Thanks.



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    Aldous Carlos
    Hcl Australia Services Pty. Ltd.
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