WHMCS Licensing error - Response Code: 429 (cloudflare throttling)

[Jade D]

Sorry for posting here but I do have a ticket open and it seems responses are some what delayed today.

We've seen a number of failures on whmcs over the last 12 hours or so where the admin section becomes completely unresponsive and then fails with a licensing error.

We've checked all firewall rules relating to the server, ran packet captures to confirm that nothing is getting dropped.

WHMCS license check debug tool now reveals that all requests to the licensing servers are being hit with a Cloudflare 429 error which indicates throttling on Cloudflare.

Ticket TBO-527441 for reference

[Jade D]

As per docs, we're being hit with the attached error

https://help.whmcs.com/m/troubleshooting/l/758213-troubleshooting-licence-connection-error

[WHMCS JoshQ]

Hi @Jade D,

I have responded to your ticket, but just wanted to follow up here so there's an answer if anybody else comes across this.

The underlying issue here is that your web server was advertising a domain other than that registered for your license. This causes the license cache in your install to be invalid, and so your install needs to check in with our licensing infrastructure to validate your license.

Since the details we held about your license were different to those being advertised by your web server, your install kept making a request to our licensing API. We rate limit all requests made to our licensing infrastructure to ensure stability thereof for all our customers. If your server sends too many requests, it will be temporarily blacklisted as part of this rate limit.

To resolve this, make sure that your web server is only advertising the server_name that we have listed in your Valid Domains. Wait for 30 minutes or so and the rate limit will be removed, then your install will get a response back from the licensing servers that your license is valid and access will be restored.

If anybody is unable to get to the bottom of this, please reach out to our support team and we can help!

[Jade D]

Thank you Josh! Appreciate the speedy response and technical explanation 

[WHMCS JoshQ]

1 minute ago, Jade D said:

Thank you Josh! Appreciate the speedy response and technical explanation 

You're more than welcome!

[Jade D]

Hi @WHMCS JoshQ & @WHMCS John

Please can you check ticket TBO-527441 for updates, we're being blocked by your cloudflare rules and desperately need to get this resolved.

Any assistance is appreciated.