License Use Management

High Availability Licensing (HAL) is a unique feature of LUM for license availability improvement.
High-availability licensing eliminates the risks for License Server single point of failure, increasing the chances for concurrent licenses to be available, even in the case of a network breakdown.
In order to use HAL, your software vendor will have to provide you with a HAL-specific Enrollment Certificate File. Before you decide to use HAL for a product, make sure that such a Certificate is available from the product's vendor.

For HAL to work for a particular product, the product vendor must supply a password tied to a cluster rather than to an individual target server. HAL is in fact based on the concept of license server Cluster.

A Cluster is a group of 3 to 12 network license servers that jointly serve vendor-managed concurrent licenses that are enrolled on the cluster rather than on an individual server.

While some of the servers in the cluster are actively serving licenses, one or more servers remain quiesced yet ready to take over should an active server fail.

Each active license server serves an equal share of the licenses enrolled on the cluster. When a license server becomes unavailable and another server takes its place, responsibility for the licenses is automatically redistributed among active servers.
The customer is responsible for creating and administering a cluster and the related licenses, this can also be done remotely.
A network license server that is a member of a cluster can serve licenses that are bound to the server, and participate as a member of a cluster at the same time.

High-availability licensing is recommended for users who are already experienced with managing individual license servers and who already have a stable licensing environment working.

HAL setup

Identify the servers of the cluster

A number of servers need to be identified as part of the cluster. It is important to understand the rules for the cluster composition regarding the initial number of servers, the max number of servers that can be added after the cluster creation, the number of servers that must be activated etc. These rules are described in details in the LUM documentation.

A cluster is composed of a number of servers that may be in several different status:

• Activated
  • Serving
    Running, Serving licenses
  • Waiting
    Server is ready but cluster is in incomplete or inactive status
  • Unavailable
    Either down or unreacheable.
  • Reserve
    Ready to take over a failing server
• Not activated
  Defined as a member of the cluster but not yet activated or momentarily deactivated. This server, although part of the cluster has no active role within it.

The cluster itself may be in different states as follows:

• Active
  Running serving licenses
• Incomplete
  The cluster does not have the minimum number of members activated
• Inactive
  The cluster has enough members but too many are unavailable
• Change pending
  A change currently is being made to the cluster

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Install LUM on the servers and launch the license servers

Each member of the cluster needs to be configured as a LUM license server. This can be done either through the command line (i4cfg -script) or the GUI. As part of the license server configuration it is important to define in the local direct binding list *all* the ip addresses/host name of the servers that are going to be part of the cluster.
The license servers must be started (i4cfg -start) before the cluster can be created.

Create HAL Cluster

The creation of the HAL cluster takes place normally on one of the servers of the cluster being defined (e.g. Svr1) either via the i4blt command or the GUI.
The i4blt command HAL parameters are:
i4blt -H

• c Cluster creation
• a Add or activate a member in the cluster
• s Displays status of server or cluster
• d Deactivate a server in the cluster
• -T x x: Initial number of members in the cluster
• -n 'x y z' List of cluster members
• -N W Name of cluster

Example: i4blt -H c -N mycluster -T 3 -n "Svr1 Svr2 Svr3" {Creation of a cluster named "mycluster" with 3 initial members}
The first server specified in the list ("Svr1") will be automatically activated and cannot be removed from the cluster.

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Activate each member of the cluster

After the Cluster creation, which automatically activates the first server in the list, all remaining servers in the cluster must be activated.
Continuing with the example above:
i4blt -H a -N mycluster -n Svr2 {Svr1 is activated automatically during the cluster creation}
i4blt -H a -N mycluster -n Svr3
Please note that in this cluster configuration made up of three servers, Svr3 by being activated as the last in the cluster, is automatically put in "reserve" status.

The following diagram shows the cluster and the members status upon the different steps taken

Please note that:

• Initial number between 3 and 10 members.
• Date/Time on Cluster members must be synchronized within 2 minutes.
• If cluster is deleted and created again the previous keys are invalid on the new cluster, due to the Cluster ID Change.
• If cluster contains AIX and Windows members then LUM 459 is prerequesite

Get HAL Enrollment Certificate File (ECF)

In order for your SW Vendor to generate a HAL ECF for you, you must provide him with the corresponding Cluster ID (and other information). The Cluster ID is automatically generated at Cluster creation time and can be retrieved at any time by issuing a "display status" via the i4blt -H command.

Information needed by the Vendor (e.g. IBM KMS) for the HAL key generation.

• Specify this is a HAL key.
• Product Name
• Quantity
• Target ID (Server where cluster licenses will be enrolled)
• Target Type
• Cluster ID (Case sensitive)
• Number of licenses (Quantity of users)

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Enroll the certificates

The enrollment of HAL ECF takes place in the same way of "regular" certificates, by using the GUI or issuing a i4blt command.
Upon enrolling a HAL ECF the Cluster switches to "Change Pending" Status because of the replication activity that takes place among the servers of the Cluster.

Configure client WS

Each LUM client needs to be configured in order to be able to contact a license server. When using the "Direct Binding" option it is important to specify all the ip addresses/host names of *all* the servers that are part of the cluster. The order in which they are specified determines the order in which the client tries to contact a license server.

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Recommendations

• Start a pilot test
  • Check Validity of the solution.
  • Get the expertise.
  • Train administrators.
  • Write procedures.
  • Refine technical choices.
• Technical considerations
  • Network is critical.
  • Cluster members need to stay on permanently.
  • Cluster members on the same geographical site.
  • Select cluster members in the same network if possible.
  • Cluster members of same type (eg: all AIX or ALL Windows 2000): easier to manage.
  • Configure on each client direct binding by choosing appropriate order in server names: balance workload for the servers.