• Licensing and Registration Key Information
• Installing the F5 Monitoring Pack
• Troubleshooting Issues with Licensing/Activation

Note: This documentation was adapted from the F5 Managment Pack Wiki hosted on DevCentral (http://devcentral.f5.com/wiki/MgmtPack.HomePage.ashx). Certain links or context described in this document may refer to content originally created on the Wiki.

Licensing and Registration Key Information

This procedures documents the process of obtaining registration keys and licensing your copy of the F5 Networks Monitoring Pack.

Getting the Registration Key

Request the registration key from your support representative.

Running the Licensing Wizard

You will need to start up the "Update License Wizard". The easiest way to launch the wizard is to open a command prompt and type the following:
"%F5MPPATH%f5mpgui.exe" /UL

NOTE: The quotation marks are mandatory, as your installation path may contain spaces

This will launch the wizard so you can begin the rest of the registration process. Once the wizard is open, you will want to enter the registration key you received inside the email response from above. If you have any Add-On keys, you can enter those one at a time as well. The following section describes the options available in the registration process.

Automatic Registration

You will want to choose this option if your management servers have an active internet connection and are not blocked by any firewalls. Just select Next and the licensing process will happen in the background. You may reach the EULA page, where you will want to read the EULA and accept it. Once you have done this, you will see your license on the next page and your registration will be complete.

Manual (Copy/Paste Text)

You will want to choose this option if your management servers have an active internet connection, but may have the licensing port blocked by a firewall. In the next page of this option, you will see a box at the top filled with an encrypted dossier string. Click the Copy to Clipboard button and then click on the link to the left to pull up the F5 Licensing website. Follow the instructions given on that page, which is typically just pasting the dossier string into the empty box and clicking Next. On the next page, you will want to read and accept the EULA. Your license should then be generated by the server and displayed on the final page. Copy and paste the license information back into the Update License Wizard. Click Next and your license will be validated and your registration complete.

Manual (Download/Upload File)

You will want to choose this option if you have your management servers on a private network that has no access to the internet. On the first page of this option, you will want to click the Download Dossier File button and choose a location to download the dossier string into a file. It's recommended you store this file on a portable media device, such as a thumb drive or even one of those ancient floppy disks. You will then need to go to any computer that has internet access, connect your media device, and then visit the F5 Licensing website: "https://activate.f5.com/license". Near the bottom of the page is a Browse... button which will allow you to locate the dossier file you just saved. Once you have located it, click Next and then read and accept the EULA. On the last page you will want to download the license file back to the same portable media device and return to the management server you are trying to license. Back inside the Licensing Wizard, you will want to Browse... for the license file you just downloaded and then click Next. Your license should then be validated and your registration complete.

Note: If you previously installed the product and canceled during the licensing section, you may have to go manually start the F5 Monitoring Service before you can actively discover devices or use any features of the product.

Troubleshooting issues with Licensing / Activation

One of the problems that may occur during the license registration process is related to the way the cryptographic services are configured on the management server(s) where the F5 Monitoring Pack is being activated. The error would basically point to the encryption algorithm (used by the licensing wizard) not being FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) compliant: "This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms".

The F5 Monitoring Pack Licensing Wizard attempts to create an MD5 hash of a local dossier file, created during the licensing/setup process, which is sent out to the F5 Licensing Server for storing it with the license key. When the MD5 hash is being attempted by the Licensing Wizard, the call into the underlying cryptographic service provider (MD5CryptoServiceProvider) handled through the .NET base class libraries would fail. In most cases this problem is caused by a local security policy on the management server, enforcing FIPS compliance for encryption algorithms. This could be verified either by:

• checking the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\fipsalgorithmpolicy registry key (value 1 produces FIPS compliance), or
• checking the Local Security Policy > Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > System Cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing and signing.
  

Because local security policy restrictions prevent you from disabling FIPS, the workaround for the error in this case:

1. Go to Services Control Manager and stop the F5 Monitoring Service;
2. Go to the F5 Monitoring Pack installation folder (by default Program Files\F5 Networks\Management) and edit the f5mpsvc.exe.config file. Scroll down to the bottom of the file, and BEFORE the closing tag, insert the following XML snippet:
   
   <runtime>
   <enforceFIPSPolicy enabled="false"/>
   </runtime>
   
   
3. Save the *f5mpsvc.exe.config* file.
4. Using notepad.exe create the following file in the F5 Monitoring Pack installation folder (by default Program Files\F5 Networks\Management): *f5mpgui.exe.config*. Make sure the file is named exactly as suggested here, and doesn't have a trailing .txt extension (as normally would occur when creating a new file through notepad.exe).
5. Paste the following content into the *f5mpgui.exe.config* file:
   
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
   <configuration>
   <runtime>
   <enforceFIPSPolicy enabled="false"/>
   </runtime>
   </configuration>
   
   
6. Save the *f5mpgui.exe.config* file.
7. Re-run the F5 Monitoring Pack licensing wizard.
8. Restart the F5 Monitoring Service.

Installing the software

You can install the F5 Monitoring Pack in one of two ways: from the command prompt, or through the Windows Server graphical interface.

Note: In order to deploy the software across multiple management servers, you must first install the F5 Networks Monitoring Pack onto the Root Management Server. From that point, you can install the suite in any order onto any or all of the existing management servers.

Note: The following instructions describe how to install a version 3.x.x release of the F5 Monitoring Pack onto existing systems running Microsoft System Center Operations Manager. The software for F5 Monitoring Pack is available on http://downloads.f5.com.

Installing the F5 Monitoring Pack for Operations Manager

This procedure describes how to install the F5 Monitoring Pack through the Windows Server 2003 graphical interface.

1. From Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the F5Networks.ManagementPack.Setup.exe file from downloads.f5.com.
2. To start the installation, double-click the file.
   The F5 Networks Monitoring Pack Setup Welcome screen opens.
3. On the Welcome screen, click Next to move to the SQL Configuration screen.
4. On the SQL Setup screen, for SQL-Server, type the name of the SQL Server where our Operations Manager Database resides, then select the SQL credentials option.
5. For SQL credentials, type the User name and Password for accessing the SQL server.
6. Ensure that the Enable autogrow for Microsoft Operations Manager databases option is checked.
7. On the Configure Service Account screen, type the credentials for an Active Directory account that has the rights to log on as a service.
8. Click Next to validate the account information.
9. On the F5 Monitoring Pack is ready to Install screen, review the settings and click Install.
   If the installation is successful, an OK prompt appears. If errors were encounters, the system directs you to check the installation log.

When deploying in a clustered RMS environment, the F5 Monitoring Pack should be installed on each RMS cluster node. The RMS cluster node should be active, when installing the F5 Monitoring Pack. By default the F5 Monitoring Service is stopped on the RMS cluster node. If management servers are present, always install the F5 Monitoring Pack on the RMS cluster nodes first.

Contacting F5 Networks

For additional information, please visit http://www.f5.com.