How do I enable license key auto-renewal?

By enabling license key auto-renewal for a network function, the CLM will automatically generate and deploy license keys to the network function.

Note: This functionality is not required for 7x50 SR/XRS network functions.

Note: If you change the entitlements for a network function that has auto-renewal enabled, a new license key is not automatically generated when you save your edits. You must manually deploy a new license key, and potentially restart the network function for the changed entitlements to take effect.  If you do not perform this process, the network function may never apply your changes.

Pre-requisite

  • “Perform automated license key deployment?” is set to true in the network pool key details.

The duration of an auto-renewal key is displayed by the “Auto-renewal License Key Duration in Days” of the network pool key details.

Procedure
 
1 

Sign in as a user with read/write access to CLM.

2 

Using the main menu, navigate to Centralized License Manager, Network Functions.

3 

Click on a network function for which you want to configure automated license key deployment and click png4.png (Table row actions), Enable License Key Renewal then click ENABLE. The Auto-renewal Status column displays the new Managed state.

The CLM attempts to generate a license key, deploy the license key to the appropriate license repository, and then set the BOF of the network function to use the new license key.

4 

When a network function is first set to the auto-renewal Managed state, you may be required to reboot the network function before it will use the new license key.

When subsequent license keys are automatically generated by the auto-renewal process, the network function does not need to be rebooted on installation of the new license key as long as you have not changed any entitlements (see Note at the beginning of this topic).

After enabling license key renewals:

  • If errors are encountered during the deployment, notifications are raised.

  • If an auto-renewal network function has notifications, at periodic intervals the CLM still attempts to generate and deploy a new license key to the network function to ensure the network function always has a valid license key.  Once the problems that are causing the notification are resolved, the CLM will successfully deploy a new license key.

See How do I manually generate and deploy a license key? for information about the deployment steps and possible failure reasons.

Note: If the CLM is reporting the ‘LICENSE_KEY_NOT_SET_ON_SR’ notification for an auto-renewal network function, it means the BOF of the 7x50 SR/XRS network function is not pointing to the license key file CLM thinks it should, which could be caused by such things as:

  • Rejected deploy due to Version mismatch

  • An operator changing the BOF

If you encounter this notification for a network function:

  • Determine the cause of the problem and rectify it.

  • Select the ‘Deploy License Key’ option for the network function you had the original problem with.

These actions will cause the CLM to immediately generate and deploy a new license key to the network function.  If the network function accepts the new license key, the notifications will disappear and the normal CLM auto-renewal process will resume.

End of steps