The recommended configuration for a licensing server is a hot/cold environment between two or more licensing servers. A hot/cold configuration is required, only when a PCS license server is RMA'd or if the license server is offline for more than 10 days.
IMPORTANT FACTS TO KNOW:
- If the backup license server is not up and running within 10 days, licenses leased to the license client will expire (10 day grace period is allowed if license client cannot reach the license server).
- Once the backup license server is up and running, licenses installed from the previous device are will be active on the backup device, but set to a 90 day grace period to allow enough time to complete the RMA and license generation process. After the 90 day grace period, licenses will expire and can no longer be used.
Implementation considerations:
In a hot/cold licensing server environment, there are a few issues to be considered during implementation:
- All PCS devices should be configured to synchronize the system time with a NTP server. A difference in time between the license server and clients will cause the leasing to fail.
- As the leasing configuration is stored in the configuration, the latest system and user configuration must be imported to the cold licensing server, prior to placing it in production. It is recommended to configure the PCS device to take daily backups of the user and system configuration of the active licensing server for this particular scenario.
The backup licensing server can import the system and user backup from the primary licensing server with an exception of importing the primary license server’s network configuration and it should still be good to work with all licensing clients, once their server configuration is updated with the new IP address for the licensing server.
This would import all general leasing information and the respective licenses on the backup licensing server from the primary licensing server.
- You need to be sure that the DNS for name resolution points to the new backup license server, which has a different IP address on the PCS clients and vice versa for the License server DNS name resolution that points to the PCS clients .
- If the configuration is stale or outdated after the failover, the client may generate an error in the event log:
Major Major LIC30523 2011-11-11 09:06:04 - ive - [127.0.0.1] Root::System()[] -
License Server Protocol Error: Code=(0x32) Error="Stale Lease Id"
If no backup's are available, the licensing server and clients must be reconfigured and all licenses must be leased again.
