Network-Wide Domain Licensing on SBC SWe Cloud

NWDL Overview

SBC SWe cloud deployments support a domain-based licensing model referred to as network-wide domain licensing (NWDL). In contrast to node-locked licensing, a domain license is tied to an administrative domain rather than the hardware ID for a specific host server or the UUID for a specific node instance. A domain license is bound to the domain through public/private key-pairing and it defines the features and capacity allowed for all nodes within the domain. NWDL provides flexibility in cloud environments where the number and placement of nodes sometimes varies. Contact your Ribbon representative for more information on available licensing options and to complete the ordering process that is required prior to implementing NWDL.

NWDL is implemented using license management capabilities within the Insight Element Management System (EMS). The EMS provides the public key used to bind the license to the local domain and is responsible for pushing license data to eligible nodes. The basic steps to implement domain licensing are as follows:

• Log into the EMS system that will manage the SBC SWe clusters in the domain and copy the public key generated by the EMS.
• Submit the copied public key, along with the order details, to the self-service licensing portal to generate a license bundle file that incorporates the domain public key.
• Install the license bundle on the EMS.
• Use the EMS License Management user interface to assign feature licenses to the Headend SBC. 

Refer to the License Management section in EMS documentation for specific procedures to locate and copy the public key, install a license bundle, and associate feature licenses with SBC nodes.

After these preparations are completed on the EMS, enable domain-based licensing on the SBC cluster by configuring the license mode as "domain" on the Headend SBC. Save and activate the configuration. The EMS then propagates the updated configuration (including the license data) to the nodes in the SBC cluster. Based on the license details, each SBC node reads the license definition and then enables or disables features and sets maximum capacity.

Adding License Capacity

In domain licensing mode you can add to your existing license definition following the same process to load another license bundle file onto the EMS, and assigning the additional features licenses to the Headend SBC. The updated license capabilities are pushed to the remaining nodes through a configuration save and activate action. The resulting set of licenses features and capacity for the cluster is the aggregate of the existing license and the added license.

Full-Capacity Licensing Option

When configured for NWDL, the SBC supports a "full-capacity" option in which the counts for individual, counted license features are no longer used to limit activity on the SBC. When the full-capacity feature is enabled, all counted licenses are shown with a count of 999999 in the License Feature Status table, effectively enabling use up to the capacity of the node. Actual license usage is reported to Ribbon using EMS statistics.

The full-capacity feature requires the SBC-CAPACITY license key in the license file. Contact your Ribbon representative for more information on the use of the full-capacity licensing option.

Restricting Licensed Capacity on a Node

The SBC provides a mechanism to restrict specific node instances to a subset of a domain's licensed capacity if needed. To define such restrictions the SBC reuses the License Required table (/system/licenseRequired/). Entries in the License Required table are optional when using NWDL and, when present, the entries specify limits on the license capacity allowed for the node. By default no limits are configured; the absence of entries in the License Required table indicates that the node is entitled to use the entire capacity assigned to the SBC cluster.

If you choose to specify any restrictions then you must configure appropriate limits for all counted features and also include entries in the License Required table for any on/off features you want to enable. If the License Required table contains a limit for any feature, any other features that are not included in the table are treated as having a license count of 0 and are effectively disabled. If you are using the full-capacity licensing option enabled by the SBC-CAPACITY license key, then any maxCount values you specify in License Required table entries are ignored.

Configuring NWDL Options

Use the SBC CLI or access SBC Configuration Manager UI from the EMS to enable domain license mode and optionally specify license capacity limits for a node. Configuration changes should be made on the Headend SBC for the cluster. Refer to Configuring an SBC SWe Cluster using the EMS.

Enabling Domain License Mode

Use the following CLI commands to place the SBC in domain (NWDL) license mode:

% set system licenseMode mode domain
% commit

Or, in the SBC Configuration Manager UI:

1. Go to All > System > License Mode  The License Mode window opens.
2. In Mode, select Domain.
3. Click Save.

Specifying License Capacity restrictions for a Node (Optional)

Use the following CLI command to add entries in the License Required table to specify limits on the license capacity allowed for a node on a per-feature basis. If you specify a limit for any feature, you must include an entry in the licenseRequired table for each feature you want to enable, including features that are not counted (on/off features) or counted features that you do not want to limit. For features that you want to enable but do not need to restrict, it is not necessary to specify the maxCount parameter because its default value is unlimited. 

% set system licenseRequired <licensed feature key> maxCount <2-1000000, or "unlimited">
% commit

Or, in the SBC Configuration Manager UI:

1. Go to Administration > System Administration > License Management > Network License Settings > Required License. The Required License window opens.
2. Click New Required License. The Create New Required License window opens.
3. Select a feature from the Feature Name list.
4. Enter a numeric limit in Max Count. Do not enter a value in Min Count.
5. Click Save.

Displaying Domain License Bundle Information

Use the following command to output information on the domain license bundles loaded into the system.

 > show table system licenseDomainBundleInfo 

Or, in the SBC Configuration Manager UI:

Go to All > System > License Domain Bundle Info  The License Domain Bundle Info window opens.

The following license information is output:

• activeLicenseMode – The licensing mode currently in use by the SBC
• bundleName – License bundle name
• expirationDate – License expiration date
• featureName – license keys for each licensed feature
• generationDate – The date the license was generated
• installDate – The date the license was installed
• licenseId – License ID
• lineId – The line ID for the license feature entry
• purchaseOrderId – The purchase order ID specified when the license was generated
• usageLimit – Usage limit for the licensed feature