Error: The trial period for this product has expired.

Problem

Follows are the troubleshooting steps taken in order to resolve the following message that appeared when connecting to a SharePoint 2010 farm site collection using a standard AD user account:

Error: The trial period for this product has expired

The solution to this problem was unexpected and thus documented here.

Farm is SharePoint 2010, version 14.0.7015.1000 (SP2), with topology : SQL1, APP1, WFE1 and WFE2.  New installation.

Troubleshooting Steps

1. Remoted directly into a farm server, as system administrator, and then connected to Central Administration.  Was able to connect to CA.
2. Using the same browser, opened tab to connect to site collection.  Successful: site collection home page was displayed.
3. On workstation, under normal account, opened a new browser and again connected to site collection.  Unsuccessful: same error message displayed.
4. As systems administrator, remoted into another farm server, opened a browser, and then connected to the site collection.  Unsuccessful: experienced same error.

   Apparently, by first logging into CA and then connecting to the site collection, I was able to bypass the issue causing the problem.  Conclusion:  the root cause of the issue was somehow related to permissions and was not related to a product key that was a trial version and not the fully-licensed enterprise version.
   .

5. Performed psconfig -cmd secureresources on all farm servers, per reference [1], logged in as the farm administration account. Results were successful on APP1and WFE1, but failed on WFE2 with the following error displayed in the same command prompt used to run the command on WFE2:

   ...
   Successfully secured the SharePoint resources.
   Performing configuration task 4 of 5
   Upgrading SharePoint Products...
   Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products.
   An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUpdatedConcurrencyException was thrown. Additional exception information: An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPUpgradeSession Name=Upgrade-20140102-075746-95 was updated by [FarmAdministrationAccount], in the PSCONFIG (736) process, on machine [WFE2]. View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.
    ...

6. After executing this command, performed IISRESET on all machines.
7. Attempted to again connect to the farm site collection, but still experienced the error.
8. Checked machine logs and found the following in the Application log:

   Event ID 100: Configuration of SharePoint Products failed. Configuration must be performed in order for th is product to operate properly. To diagnose the problem, review the extended error information located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS\PSCDiagnostics_1_2_2014_7_57_34_563_1728581215.log, fix the problem, and run this configuration wizard again.
   
   Event ID 104: Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products. An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUpdatedConcurrencyException was thrown. Additional exception information: An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPUpgradeSession Name=Upgrade-20140102-075746-95 was updated by [FarmAdministrationAccount], in the PSCONFIG (736) process, on machine [WFE2]. View the tracing log for more information about the conflict. Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUpdatedConcurrencyException: An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPUpgradeSession Name=Upgrade-20140102-075746-95 was updated by [FarmAdministrationAccount], in the PSCONFIG (736) process, on machine [WFE2]. View the tracing log for more information about the conflict. at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.StoreObject(SPPersistedObject obj, Boolean storeClassIfNecessary, Boolean ensure) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPConfigurationDatabase.Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.ISPPersistedStoreProvider.PutObject(SPPersistedObject persistedObject, Boolean ensure) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPPersistedObject.BaseUpdate() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPUpgradeSession.Update() at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPUpgradeSession.ContinueOnLocalThread(Guid id, Boolean consoleOutput) at Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPManager.ContinueSessionOnLocalThread(Guid id, Boolean consoleOutput) at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.UpgradeTask.Run() at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()
   ...

9. Performed psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force on WFE2, under the farm administration account. This failed with the following error displayed in the command prompt:

   ...
   Performing configuration task 3 of 4
   Upgrading SharePoint Products...
   Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products.
   An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPUpdatedConcurrencyException was thrown. Additional exception information: An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action. The object SPUpgradeSession Name=Upgrade-20140102-075746-95 was updated by [FarmAdministrationAccount], in the PSCONFIG (736) process, on machine [WFE2]. View the tracing log for more information about the conflict.
   ....

10. Reviewed Upgrade Status in Central Administration.  Showed as Failed.
11. Performed stsadm -o setproperty -pn command-line-upgrade-running -pv No on WFE2, per reference [2], under the sharepoint farm administration account.  This operation completed successfully.
12. Performed psconfig -cmd secureresources on WFE2 again, followed by IISRESET, under the farm administration account.  Failed with same error as previously.
13. Reviewed Upgrade Status in Central Administration. Showed as Failed.
14. Performed psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force on WFE2, under the farm administration account. This failed again, but it failed at a point further along the upgrade process:

    ...
    Performing configuration task 3 of 4
    Upgrading SharePoint Products...
    100.00%
    Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products.
    An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPUpgradeException was thrown. Additional exception information: Upgrade completed with errors. Review the upgrade log file located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\LOGS\Upgrade-20140102-081022-697.log. The number of errors and warnings is listed at the end of the upgrade log file.
    ...

15. Reviewed the log file indicated in the error message and found the following:

    ...
    [PSCONFIG] [SPUpgradeSession] [ERROR] [1/2/2014 8:11:06 AM]: CanUpgrade [SecureStoreServiceDatabase Name=SecureStoreDatabaseName] failed.
    [PSCONFIG] [SPUpgradeSession] [ERROR] [1/2/2014 8:11:06 AM]: Exception: Cannot open database "SecureStoreDatabaseName" requested by the login. The login failed.
    Login failed for user 'FarmAdministrationAccount'.
    ...

16. Reviewed the SecureStore database logins and found that the farm service account was not mapped to this database. Mapped the farm service account as DBO to this database.

    This database had been created using the manual PowerShell method for creating the service application.  Apparently, this method did not grant the farm administration account any permissions to the database.  Checking other service application databases found the same.  Conclusion: the upgrade, while run under the farm administration account, could not be completed because this account did not have permission to update this particular database.

17. Performed psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force on WFE2, under the farm administration account. This time, successful.
18. Reviewed Upgrade Status in Central Administration. Showed as Succeeded.
19. On workstation, opened new browser and connected to farm site collection.  This time no error.

Lessons Learned

May not have performed Psconfig on WFE2 during installation of WFE2.

References

1. The trial period for this product has expired. Trial Period? WTH?
2. Configuration wizard failed “An update conflict has occurred, and you must re-try this action.”
3. Share Point- The trial period for this product has expired
4. the trial period for this product has expired. sharepoint foundation 2010
5. Psconfig command-line reference (SharePoint Server 2010)
6. SharePoint 2010: The trial period for this product has expired