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Manual Chapter : License Management

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BIG-IQ Cloud and Orchestration

  • 1.0.0
Manual Chapter
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Overview: Licensing options

You can centrally manage BIG-IP® virtual edition (VE) licenses for a specific set of F5 offerings (for example, BIG-IP LTM® 25M, BIG-IP LTM 200G, and BIG-IP LTM 1G). When a device is no longer needed, you can revoke the license instance and assign it to another BIG-IP VE device. This flexibility keeps operating costs fixed, and allows for a variety of provisioning options. Pool licenses are purchased once, and you assign them to a number of concurrent BIG-IP VE devices, as defined by the license. These licenses do not expire.

About pool licenses

Pool licenses are purchased for a particular product offering for a fixed number of devices, but are not permanently tied to a specific device. As resource demands change, you can use BIG-IQ® Device to revoke and reassign those licenses to other BIG-IP® VE devices as required. Pool licenses do not expire.

Automatically activating a pool license

You must have a base registration key before you can activate the license pool.
If the resources you are licensing are connected to the public internet, you can automatically activate the license pool.
  1. Log in to BIG-IQ® Cloud with the administrator user name and password.
  2. Hover over the Licenses header, and click the + icon when it appears.
    The New License screen opens.
  3. In the License Name field, type the name you want to use to identify this license.
  4. In the Base Registration Key field, type or paste the BIG-IQ registration key.
  5. In the Add-on Keys field, paste any additional license key you have.
  6. For the Activation Method setting, select Automatic.
    The End User Software License Agreement (EULA) displays.
  7. To accept, click the Accept button.
    The system reads your license key and adds the activated license to the License panel.

Manually activating a pool license

You must have a base registration key before you can activate the pool license.
If the BIG-IQ® Device you are licensing is not connected to the public internet, you can activate the pool license manually.
  1. Log in to BIG-IQ® Cloud with the administrator user name and password.
  2. Hover over the Licenses header, and click the + icon when it appears.
    The New License screen opens.
  3. In the License Name field, type the name you want to use to identify this license.
  4. In the Base Registration Key field, type or paste the BIG-IQ registration key.
  5. In the Add-on Keys field, paste any additional license key you have.
  6. For the Activation Method setting, select Manual and click the Get Dossier button.
    The BIG-IQ system refreshes and displays the dossier in the Device Dossier field.
  7. Copy the text displayed in the Device Dossier field, and click the Access F5 manual activation web portal link.
    Alternatively, you can navigate to the F5 license activation portal at https://activate.f5.com/license/.
  8. Click Activate License.
    The Activate F5 Product page opens.
  9. Paste the dossier into the Enter your dossier field, and then click the Next button.
    After a pause, the license key text displays.
  10. Copy the license key.
  11. On BIG-IQ Device, into the License Text field, paste the license key.
  12. Click the Activate button.
    If the license does not display as activated in the Licenses panel after several minutes, click the arrow next to the license to contract the list, then click it again to expand. The screen should refresh and display the license as activated.

Manually activating offering licenses

Before you can activate the individual offering licenses, you must first activate the license itself.
Activating the offering licenses makes them available for assignment.
  1. Log in to BIG-IQ® Cloud with the administrator user name and password.
  2. At the top of the screen, click Provisioning.
  3. On the Licenses panel, click the arrow next to the license you previously activated.
    The list expands to display the license offerings associated with this license.
  4. Hover over an offering license and click the gear icon when it appears.
  5. Copy the text displayed in the Device Dossier field, and click the Access F5 manual activation web portal link.
    Alternatively, you can navigate to the F5 license activation portal at https://activate.f5.com/license/.
  6. Paste the dossier into the Enter your dossier field, and then click the Next button.
    After a pause, the license key text displays.
  7. Copy the license key.
  8. On BIG-IQ Device, into the License Text field, paste the license key.
  9. Click the Activate button.
    If the license does not display as activated in the Licenses panel after several minutes, click the arrow next to the license to contract the list, then click it again to expand. The screen should refresh and display the license as activated.
You can now assign this offering license to a BIG-IP® VE device.

Assigning a pool license to a BIG-IP VE

Before you can assign a pool license to a BIG-IP® VE device, you must activate the license on the BIG-IQ® system and discover the BIG-IP VE device to which you want to assign the license.
Pool licenses provide you with the flexibility to easily manage resources and operating costs. Use this procedure if you have activated a pool license, but have not yet assigned it to a BIG-IP VE.
  1. Log in to BIG-IQ® Cloud with the administrator user name and password.
  2. At the top of the screen, click Provisioning.
  3. On the Devices panel, expand the device group that contains the device you want to license by clicking the arrow next to it.
    The panel expands to display the list of devices contained in this group.
  4. Click the gear icon next to the device you want to license, and then click License Device.
  5. In the Name field, type a name for this license.
  6. From the Licensing list, select Use a Pool License.
  7. From the Pool License list, select the pool license you want to assign to this device.
  8. Click the Deploy button.
  9. To confirm that the license was successfully deployed, click the gear icon next to the license you deployed, click Properties, and then click Assignments.
    The device you licensed displays with the license status and the last contact from the BIG-IQ system.

Revoking a pool license from a BIG-IP VE

If traffic decreases to the applications on some of your managed BIG-IP® devices, you can use BIG-IQ® Device to revoke those licenses and assign them to other resources as needed.
  1. Log in to BIG-IQ® Cloud with the administrator user name and password.
  2. At the top of the screen, click Provisioning.
  3. On the Devices panel, expand the device group that contains the device for which you want to revoke a license by clicking the arrow next to it.
  4. Click the gear icon next to the device for which you want to revoke a license, and then click License Device.
  5. From the Licensing list, select Revoke a License.
  6. Click the Deploy button.
You can now assign this license to another BIG-IP® device.
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