Can not start my server (max slot limit reached)

[Rikku]

Can you share your server log and your Client Log pls?

[XnIcRaM]

It look like license problem. I have free license for 512 o 1024 slots (don’t remember) for non commercial. How can I get back to work my server?

[XnIcRaM]

I don’t have ts3server.ini (or I can’t locate it) and licensekey.dat are exist and is empty. I read that I probably can’t recreate licensekey.dat for non profit old free license (I have my serar I think almost 10 years) I even don’t remember how I got it, is it possible that I have it on e-mail? I do some backups in this years but only ts3server.sqlitedb.

If is not possible to get back my license key file then is it possiblilty to edit ts3server.sqlitedb to get back server settings, users?

[TS.ChrisR]

You edit the server with Server query to reduce the slots.

Can not start my server (max slot limit reached)

No. You reduce the slots of the server to fit your license. Example how to do it with ServerQuery commands login serveradmin yourpassword use 1 -virtual serveredit virtualserver_maxclients=128 use 0 serverstart sid=1 You make sure license is not in use somewhere else.

[Sollys]

I have an issue, I had a license that expired after 1 year and my server died, I had an issue that i didn’t know it’s a license issue and i reinstalled my VPS but I had a backup anyways of the teamspeak.

Now when I run the new teamspeak server it works, but when I try to backup the old server it still doesn’t work even tho I don’t include licensekey.dat in the backup.

I tried to backup only (ts3server.sqlitedb) and it doesn’t work and the server doesn’t connect, if i restore it to the new server (ts3server.sqlitedb) works fine.

Anyone can help me understand why this is happening and how to get back my old server? I have the full folder backed up.

[Gamer92000]

Most likely you increased the slot limit so without a vid license the virtual server won’t start. The log files should tell you more though.
As long as the server itself starts you can connect to the query and decrease the slot limit again.

[Sollys]

yes the server starts,

how do i connect to the query and do that? I’ve never done that before and what are the needed tools

[SkyRunnerNick]

Probably the simplest GUI query program is YaTQA.
If you directly want to use Telnet, then I recommend you to download PuTTY, assuming you are on Windows, and to follow this amazing guide.

[Sollys]

After doing everything you said and I connected with telnet to the query, I found out that the max slots is set to 32 and not like you said, since I haven’t edited it manually.

so issue still exist and I’m not sure why…

virtualserver_maxclients=32

[TS.ChrisR]

Are you sure you checked the right server and not the template?

What is the server log telling you about the license part.

[Sollys]

This is when I check on the systemctl status:

How to check on the log itself?

systemctl status teamspeak -l

• teamspeak.service - TeamSpeak3 Server
  Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/teamspeak.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
  Active: active (running) since Tue 2022-04-19 09:27:18 UTC; 26s ago
  Process: 703 ExecStop=/opt/ts3server/ts3server_startscript.sh stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 716 ExecStart=/opt/ts3server/ts3server_startscript.sh start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Main PID: 723 (ts3server)
  CGroup: /system.slice/teamspeak.service
  `-723 ./ts3server daemon=1 pid_file=ts3server.pid

Apr 19 09:27:18 servername systemd[1]: Stopped TeamSpeak3 Server.
Apr 19 09:27:18 servername systemd[1]: Starting TeamSpeak3 Server…
Apr 19 09:27:18 servername systemd[1]: Started TeamSpeak3 Server.
Apr 18 09:03:23 servername ts3server_startscript.sh[11107]: ts3server.pid found, but no server running. Possibly your previously started server crashed
Apr 18 09:03:25 servername ts3server_startscript.sh[11151]: Starting the TeamSpeak 3 server
Apr 18 09:03:27 servername ts3server_startscript.sh[11193]: Starting the TeamSpeak 3 server
Apr 18 09:03:29 servername ts3server_startscript.sh[11234]: Starting the TeamSpeak 3 server
Apr 18 09:03:31 servername ts3server_startscript.sh[11275]: Starting the TeamSpeak 3 server
Apr 19 08:49:10 servername ts3server_startscript.sh[6406]: Starting the TeamSpeak 3 server

I think this is what you’re looking for:

2022-04-19 09:27:18.799813|INFO |ServerLibPriv | |TeamSpeak 3 Server 3.13.6 (2021-06-09 10:22:37)
2022-04-19 09:27:18.822347|INFO |ServerLibPriv | |SystemInformation: Linux 4.9.0 #1 SMP Thu Apr 22 16:18:59 MSK 2021 x86_64 Binary: 64bit
2022-04-19 09:27:18.822386|WARNING |ServerLibPriv | |The system locale is set to “C” this can cause unexpected behavior. We advice you to repair your locale!
2022-04-19 09:27:18.822411|INFO |ServerLibPriv | |Using hardware aes
2022-04-19 09:27:18.823360|INFO |DatabaseQuery | |dbPlugin name: SQLite3 plugin, Version 3, (c)TeamSpeak Systems GmbH
2022-04-19 09:27:18.823409|INFO |DatabaseQuery | |dbPlugin version: 3.11.1
2022-04-19 09:27:18.823683|INFO |DatabaseQuery | |checking database integrity (may take a while)
2022-04-19 09:27:18.900514|WARNING |Accounting | |Unable to open licensekey.dat, falling back to limited functionality
2022-04-19 09:27:18.900668|INFO |Accounting | |Licensing Information
2022-04-19 09:27:18.900692|INFO |Accounting | |licensed to : Anonymous
2022-04-19 09:27:18.900709|INFO |Accounting | |type : No License
2022-04-19 09:27:18.900731|INFO |Accounting | |starting date : Thu Oct 1 00:00:00 2020
2022-04-19 09:27:18.900748|INFO |Accounting | |ending date : Tue Nov 1 00:00:00 2022
2022-04-19 09:27:18.900763|INFO |Accounting | |max virtualservers: 1
2022-04-19 09:27:18.900777|INFO |Accounting | |max slots : 32
2022-04-19 09:27:20.229955|INFO | | |Puzzle precompute time: 1305
2022-04-19 09:27:20.230353|INFO |FileManager | |listening on 0.0.0.0:30033, [::]:30033
2022-04-19 09:27:20.243041|INFO |Query | |Using a query thread pool size of 2
2022-04-19 09:27:20.316803|ERROR |VirtualSvrMgr | |loading VirtualServer(1) failed to start, error: max slot limit reached
2022-04-19 09:27:20.317177|INFO |Query | |listening for query on 0.0.0.0:10011, [::]:10011
2022-04-19 09:27:20.317478|INFO |Query | |listening for ssh query on 0.0.0.0:10022, [::]:10022
2022-04-19 09:27:20.317629|INFO |Query | |listening for http query on 0.0.0.0:10080, [::]:10080
2022-04-19 09:27:20.317740|INFO |CIDRManager | |updated query_ip_allowlist ips: 127.0.0.1/32, ::1/128,

How does it say max limit reached when on the query it says 32 slots

Edit: I used YATQA and I had to start the server virtually and edit the max slots back to 32 and it worked, but I still wanna understand why this happened and how come when I connected to the query it still said 32

[TS.ChrisR]

In that case server with ID 1 tried to start with more than 32 slots.
You said the server has 32 slots set but this can not be when the message above appears.

Make sure you did set the right slots and not just the reserved slots as an example.

Can not start my server (max slot limit reached)

You just could have logged via ServerQuery as Fake mentioned and gave an how to and change the slots. It’s not needed that the voice server started. The use 1 -virtual as an example allows to select the voice server as long the server instance is running. Then you could’ve performed command serveredit virtualserver_maxclients=32 followdy by serverstart sid=1 – Threads merged

[kbarny23]

I encountered a weird problem, tried to look for a place to open a support ticket, but couldn’t find it, so hope someone will be able to help me here. I’m hosting my own TS for a while and during the current license renewal phase I switched to a license with less slots (64 slots).

I configured the virtualserver according to the new slot amount:

serveradmin> serverinfo
virtualserver_unique_identifier virtualserver_name=[edited]
virtualserver_welcomemessage=Welcome\sto\sTeamSpeak,\scheck\s[URL]www.teamspeak.com[/URL]\sfor\slatest\sinformation
virtualserver_maxclients=60

But for whatever reason, the server fails to start. According to the logfile:

2023-05-19 19:29:36.396401|INFO |Accounting | |Licensing Information
2023-05-19 19:29:36.396450|INFO |Accounting | |licensed to : [edited]
2023-05-19 19:29:36.396467|INFO |Accounting | |type : Activation License
2023-05-19 19:29:36.396489|INFO |Accounting | |starting date : Wed May 17 00:00:00 2023
2023-05-19 19:29:36.396505|INFO |Accounting | |ending date : Fri May 17 00:00:00 2024
2023-05-19 19:29:36.396520|INFO |Accounting | |max virtualservers: 1
2023-05-19 19:29:36.396534|INFO |Accounting | |max slots : 64
2023-05-19 19:29:36.995521|INFO | | |Puzzle precompute time: 574
2023-05-19 19:29:36.995895|INFO |FileManager | |listening on 0.0.0.0:30033, [::]:30033
2023-05-19 19:29:36.998060|INFO |Query | |Using a query thread pool size of 2
2023-05-19 19:29:37.038831|ERROR |VirtualSvrMgr | |loading VirtualServer(1) failed to start, error: max slot limit reached

All ideas / hints are appreciated!

[Rikku]

Hello @kbarny23.

Maybe you will find the Solution in this Thread:

Can not start my server (max slot limit reached)

after a server attack (ddos + Server crashing) the server can no longer be started with the license without the license it is possible but with the license the server crashes after a few seconds. Serverlogs: Log1: 2020-06-27 17:18:26.101187|INFO |ServerLibPriv | |TeamSpeak 3 Server 3.12.1 (2020-03-27 10:38:47) 2020-06-27 17:18:26.101284|INFO |ServerLibPriv | |SystemInformation: Linux 4.19.0-9-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.118-2+deb10u1 (2020-06-07) x86_64 Binary: 64bit 2020-06-27 17:1…

[TS.ChrisR]

My guess.

The problem is (or was when log told you about slots)that the server wasn’t shut down the supported ways and had no chance to deregister running servers and their slots. Never kill the process.

Issue should be resolved already when you waited a bit more than 2 hours. Then the old servers got timed out from accounting.

Can not start my server (max slot limit reached)

The error came after 1 minute. Means the server started to communicate with accounting service. And in accounting slots are already registered. Or wasn’t server 1 started the same time? Can not see it from log 0. So it could be that you killed the process or forget to shutdown your old instance. Search for other any other tsserver process on your systems. Or your license is in use on another machine or someone else in case you did send it to someone in the past. Reminder: Make sure y…

[kbarny23]

Hey, @TS.ChrisR and @Rikku, thanks for your help! Sadly, it’s not the case. I never kill the process, rather than I use the “official” way.

root@voip:~# cat stopts.sh
#!/bin/bash
sudo -u teamspeak1 /home/teamspeak1/teamspeak3-server_linux_amd64/ts3server_startscript.sh stop

Also, I gave it some time to “timeout” and just to be sure, set the server properties again, but still no dice.

serveradmin> serveredit virtualserver_maxclients=64 serverstart sid=1
error id=0 msg=ok

serveradmin> serverinfo
virtualserver_unique_identifier virtualserver_name=[edited] virtualserver_welcomemessage=Welcome\sto\sTeamSpeak,\scheck\s[URL]www.teamspeak.com[/URL]\sfor\slatest\sinformation virtualserver_maxclients=64

serveradmin> serverstart sid=1
error id=2816 msg=virtualserver\slimit\sreached

root@voip:/home/teamspeak1/teamspeak3-server_linux_amd64/logs# grep “max slots” ts3server_2023-05-20__20_44_09.240737_0.log
2023-05-20 20:44:09.328872|INFO |Accounting | |max slots : 64

Any ideas?

[TS.ChrisR]

@kbarny23

Any ideas?

There is still a server running with your license.

But the serveredit command also is strange to me.

Please do following commands in order (not combined as one command).

To ensure that mentioned virtual server isn’t running in that server instance

serverlist

To change the slots on not running virtual server

use 1 -virtual
serveredit virtualserver_maxclients=64
use 0
serverstart sid=1

If above still doesn’t work, then ,y first sentence counts and you must find that server where license is running.

[kbarny23]

Hey, thanks, problem is fixed! As it turned out, the problem was the following (and you were right in your last post):

• I was running the server with 128 slots license before (which allowed 2 virtual servers).
• Then I switched to 64 slots license (which allowed 1 virtual server) last week.
• As it turned out, I had an abandoned, tiny TS virtual server configured literally years ago. I deleted it, then my “main” TS virtual server started.

However, -if I may add-, you should fix the error message, because several times during my troubleshooting both of my virtualservers were literally fitting into the 64 slots and the problem wasn’t the number of slots (as it was included in both the error messages and logfiles), rather than the number of concurrent virtual servers started/online.

Either way, thanks for the help again, much appreciated!