Q100526: "Invalid SystemID" and "Wrong host for license" error messages

Jake

Updated: August 25, 2026 10:11

Created: March 22, 2019 10:35

SUMMARY

A license will only work if the SystemID it is generated for is a valid SystemID for the machine it is installed on.

MORE INFORMATION

Attempting to use a license with an invalid SystemID will produce an error message in the application or prevent a license server from running.

The Foundry Licensing Utility (FLU) will only install licenses for SystemIDs that are valid for the machine it is running on.

Error message within an application

If an application can only find a license with an invalid SystemID, it will fail to launch and show an error message saying "wrong host for license" in the Status window of the applications licensing dialog.

Error message from the Foundry Licensing Utility (FLU)

If you try to install a license with an invalid SystemID the FLU with report that the license is invalid due to having a different SystemID.

If you pass the FLU multiple licenses to install it will install any valid licenses (such as those with valid SystemIDs) and produce a warning message for any invalid licenses.

Error message from RLM Server log

If you try and float a server license for an invalid SystemID the server log will include a message that the license is "not on this host".

06/07 15:20 (foundry) Settings from RLM Version 10.1BL2 for ISV "foundry"
06/07 15:20 (foundry) Server architecture: x64_m1

Copyright (C) 2006-2017, Reprise Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

RLM contains software developed by the OpenSSL Project
 for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit (http://www.openssl.org)
 Copyright (c) 1998-2008 The OpenSSL Project. All rights reserved.
 Copyright (c) 1995-1998 Eric Young (eay@cryptsoft.com) All rights reserved.

06/07 15:20 (foundry) ****************************************
06/07 15:20 (foundry) /Library/Application Support/TheFoundry/RLM//foundry_float.lic: not on this host

NEXT STEPS

If you encounter one of the error messages above, it is most likely due to one of the following scenarios:

Your license is supposed to work on your machine, but your SystemID has changed.
You are attempting to install your license on a different machine than the license was generated for.

In both of these scenarios, the first thing to do is to check what your SystemID is on the machine you're attempting to install the license on. The easiest way to check your SystemID is to use the FLU, which you can download from here:

https://www.foundry.com/licensing/tools

We discuss how to locate your SystemID in more detail here:

Q100002: What is the System ID and how do I find it?

Once you have found what your SystemID is, you will now need to cross-reference it with your license. If the SystemIDs don't match, then please see the following steps:

Firstly, please try to disable randomized MAC addresses following this article:
Q100704: Disabling randomized MAC addresses for Foundry licenses

Please note that you will have to restart your machine for this to take effect. After restarting, please try to install your license again.
If this did not work, you may have to transfer your license's SystemID to your machine's SystemID. To begin this process, please see the following article:
Q100001: How can I transfer my license to another machine, change license types or migrate to Login licensing
If you continue to encounter issues, please raise a support ticket. Please attach a diagnostic file from the FLU on your machine to the support ticket so that we can check the licensing setup of the machine.
Q100105: How to generate a license diagnostic log via the FLU for troubleshooting license issues
Q100064: How to raise a support ticket