Introduction : This article explains the configuration and verification steps to enable centralized licensing on Aruba controllers in a master-local (one master and multiple local controllers) cluster.
Feature Notes :
- The master controller becomes the license server
- The standby master, if any, automatically becomes standby license server
- The local controllers automatically become license clients.
- Local Controllers cannot be configured as a License server.
Environment : This article applies to all the controller models running AOS version 6.3.0.0 or higher.
Network Topology :
1 Master controller hosting 1 Access Point
1 Local controller hosting 1 Access Point
1 Standby Master controller
Configuration Steps :
Once you enable centralized licensing on the master controller under global license profile, the master controller becomes the license server, standby master automatically becomes the standby license server, and all other local controllers automatically become the license clients.
Through WebUI
We only need to enable centralized licensing feature on the master and the local controllers automatically become license clients.
- Navigate to Configuration> Controller> Centralized licenses
- Check “Enable Centralized Licensing” knob
NOTE: In the above screenshot, you will notice the ‘VRRP ID’ and ‘Peer IP address’ fields under License Redundancy are pre-filled and greyed out meaning we cannot make any changes to those fields. This is because, in our example setup, the master controller has a backup master configured and so the backup controller automatically becomes the backup license server as well without any additional configuration.
Through CLI
Execute the command “centralized-licensing-enable” under the global licensing profile only on the master controller:
Verification : NOTE: In our test scenario we have,
- One Master controller hosting one Access Point. No in-built AP license.
- One Local controller hosting one Access Point. 4 in-built AP license.
- One Standby Master controller
The local controller has 4 in-built licenses that do not participate in centralized licensing meaning those licenses cannot be shared by other controllers. It can only be utilized by the local controller that has those licenses.
To verify if centralized licensing is enabled-
On License server:
To verify if there is any license server redundancy configured:
On License server:
To check the total aggregate licenses collected by the license server from the license clients total number of licenses consumed:
On License server:
In the output of “show license server-table” above, the “Remaining Lic” filed do not take into account the built in licenses on individual controllers.
When we execute the command “show license client-table” on all the license clients, the “Remaining Lic” filed takes all the remaining built-in AP licenses plus the free licenses in the centralized pool into consideration as shown below. However, it never exceeds the system limits irrespective of the number of licenses available in the centralized pool. License server acts as a license client to itself. So this command can be executed on the server as well.
On License server:
On local controller:
It shows that the Remaining Lic field do no exceed the system limit.
On standby-master: