After upgrade to 8.5 from 8.0.1 I get the following on partition servers on SLES10:
An error occurred during license use management initialization. Ensure that you are running Domino with a valid license file.
IBM knowledge base “Domino 8 server startup fails with 'An error occurred during license use management initialization” tells to reinstall server or to ensure that domino8.lic and nodelock files are present. Files are present and reinstall does not help.
Subject: Maybe you installed the server with the 8.5 demo?
The demo versions are time-bombed. I have upgraded several versions to 8.5 but removed everything but the nsf files so did some kind of a fresh install. It worked for me.