I am running a code that uses arcpy.sa.ExtractByMask but it returns:

    ExecuteError: Failed to execute. Parameters are not valid.
    ERROR 000824: The tool is not licensed.
    Failed to execute (ExtractByMask)

I know i have spatial analyst licensed and the tool works fine within arcmap itself.  Anyone ever come across this?

Edit:

arcpy.CheckExtension('Spatial')

returns 'Available'