4.12. Licenses

As discussed earlier, there are licenses for various features. The licenses for the Steelhead appliances can be found on the Riverbed Support website, except for the SSL license.

There are several reasons why the Steelhead appliance would need to be reconfigured with the licenses:

If the assets can't be found on the Riverbed Support website, please contact the Riverbed TAC for assistance. If the license required is an SSL license, then the application forms on the Riverbed Support website should be followed.

The following licenses are available on Steelhead appliances:

The following licenses are available on Steelhead Mobile Controllers:

The following licenses are available on Central Management Console:

The following licenses are available on the Interceptor appliance:

4.12.1. Licenses and tokens

In the xx20 series models, there were no licenses to upgrade between models. In the xx50 series models, there are licenses to upgrade between the different configurations inside the same model, but the appliances coming out of the manufacturing plants still had the distinction between if it was a 1050L, 1050M or 1050H model.

In the newer CX and EX series, the appliances coming out of the manufacturing plants will be the basic models like a 755 or 760 model, but not with licenses to make it a 755L or 755H configuration.

4.12.1.1. Licenses and tokens on the CX and EX series

When obtaining a new CX or EX series model, the configuration first needs to be activated. This can be done by going to the Riverbed Licensing website at https://licensing.riverbed.com/. You will be asked for your name, email address, phone number and device serial number. Next you will be asked what the base level is you want to make for it, for example an L or an M or an H model.

Once activated, the licenses are generated and available for download when the Steelhead appliance is powered up:

Figure 4.24. Automatic fetching of licenses at the startup of a new CX series model

SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Attempting automatic license retrieval 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Next automatic license retrieval attempt in 81002 seconds 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.NOTICE]: Installing new license 'LK1-MSPECCX755H-0000-0000-1-72D2-F \
    FCA-9FBC' 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Starting database commit 

After that the optimization server gets started and the Steelhead appliance will start optimization new TCP sessions.

Of course there are various network related problems which can occur.

  • DNS lookup failures for the licensing server: Can the DNS server resolve external hosts?

  • Unable to connect to the licensing server: Does the traffic need to go through a web proxy?

Figure 4.25. Failure of automatic fetching because of a DNS related failure

SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Attempting automatic license retrieval 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.WARNING]: Automatic licensing server api.licensing.riverbed.com is  \
    unreachable: Couldn't resolve host name 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Next automatic license retrieval attempt in 300 seconds 

Once access to the licensing server has been fixed, the command license autolicense fetch can be used to force an update of the licenses.

Figure 4.26. Manual update of the licenses with "license autolicense fetch"

SH cli[9572]: [cli.INFO]: user admin: Executing command: license autolicense fetch 
SH cli[9572]: [cli.INFO]: user admin: Command license autolicense fetch authorized 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Attempting automatic license retrieval 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Next automatic license retrieval attempt in 81571 seconds 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Skipping already installed license 'LK1-MSPECCX755H-0000-000 \
    0-1-72D2-FFCA-9FBC' 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Skipping already installed license 'LK1-MSPECCX755M-0000-000 \
    0-1-6799-DA37-1EF7' 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Skipping already installed license 'LK1-SH10BASE-0000-0000-1 \
    -E32A-DC6A-E50F' 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.INFO]: Skipping already installed license 'LK1-SH10CIFS-0000-0000-1 \
    -8BD2-4668-8EDA' 
SH mgmtd[5156]: [mgmtd.NOTICE]: Installing new license 'LK1-SH10EXCH-0000-0000-1-211C-36AC \
    -455C' 

4.12.1.1.1. SSL licenses

The SSL licenses will be distributed in this way too, but they are only generated once a day and will not be available immediately.

4.12.1.2. Licenses and tokens on the virtual appliances

When purchasing a virtual appliance, you will get a License Request Token. Once the virtual machine has been created and the appliance software has been installed in the virtual machine, you will enter this License Request Token in the GUI and it is converted to a license Request String. This License Request String contains some unique information about the virtual machine like the UID and the MAC address. The License Request String can be redeemed on the Riverbed Licensing website and the licenses will be generated. After that the license can be installed manually or automatically fetched by the appliance.