About Licensing
Click here to see this page in full context

Landslide Performance Test System – Release 24.3 September 2024

About Licensing

Landslide applications, features, session capacities, activation rates as well as test server types and quantities are controlled by a locally installed license file on the TAS.  

Table of contents:

Overview

 

Use the TAS Manager Console or the TAS Manager Web UI when you need to install a system license in order to change the system's capacity or to access new software features. A test system installed for evaluation may contain a license with an expiration date and time. In that case, a warning message displays to notify you of the number of days and hours (with an accuracy of +/- 2 hours) remaining until the expiration when you log in to the system during the last 7 days of the evaluation period. Alternatively, installing a license can be performed by Command Line Interface Commands or the RESTful API - Landslide Home Page  TAS Manager API. 

To install a license - Installing a License. For TAS to License Server Networking Requirements Click here - Deployment Guidelines. For additional details on license expiration, click here - License Expiration

When logging into the Landslide Client, if a changed license has been detected, a warning popup to the user will be displayed : "The License has changed, restart the client to fully update (choose yes to exit)". Select yes to exit to restart the Client to use new license or No to continue to use the previous license.

There are two licensing methods available: Fingerprint and License Server.  Both require a Spirent generated license file to be installed locally on the TAS via the TAS Manager.  

  1. Fingerprint licensing is based on a unique TAS ID (fingerprint) generated by the TAS (See display-tas-id to view TAS ID). Fingerprint licensing requires the TAS ID, encoded in the license, to match the unique TAS ID of the TAS before the system is allowed to start.
  2. License Server licensing uses a Spirent deployed license server in the cloud or an E10 corporate license server deployed in the customer’s network to control whether the TAS is allowed to run with the currently installed license.  The license server DOES NOT control features and applications for the TAS; these are still controlled by the local license file installed on the TAS via the TAS Manager.  The IP address of the license server is encoded in the license file generated by Spirent and installed locally on the TAS via the TAS Manager.  No additional configuration of the TAS is necessary.  When a TAS attempts to start, it communicates with the license server to confirm whether it is allowed to run with the locally installed license.  If the license is confirmed, the TAS continues with the startup process. License Server User guide - Landslide_License_Server_R4.8_User_Guide.pdf

License server licensing is required for all virtual TAS configurations.  It can also be used to allow multiple TAS to share the same license (Multi-TAS).  

License Server (Multi -TAS) License

The License Server was developed to allow multiple TASs to run a common license (Same License Number / ID). The License Server will receive secure "checkout" requests from each TAS. It will ensure that the total number of TASs running a given license are within the licensed count and it will provide licensing checkout / check in service for TASs.

This will also serve a secondary purpose of allow VM TASs to not require a fingerprint for licensing. Instead you can deploy/run a single TAS using this same type of license, and it can run anywhere on any system. The License Server will ensure that only one of them is running at any given time.

The user has the ability to configure the auto_checkin_timeout_mins property, via Edit Settings auto_checkin_timeout_mins . The valid Range : 30 to 4320 (3 days) in minutes and the default value is 30 minutes.  This will control how long the TAS still runs and how long a license seat is maintained after loss of communications with the license server or an outage of the license server.  If you only have a fixed set of TASs using the license (3 TASs for a license that supports 3 TASs, never switching), set this value to the max of 3 days.  If you have multiple TASs that share the license, each running at different times, you will want to set a much lower value so that if your issues is only with one TAS, it doesn’t affect the others.      

While the TAS is running it will contact the license server on a regular basis, continuing to checkout the license. When the TAS is gracefully stopped it will check-in the license, releasing that "seat" for another TAS to use. If your TAS dies ungracefully, then the license server will still think it is checked out, for up to the auto_checkin_timeout_mins. To properly release the "seat", the TAS should be restarted and gracefully shutdown to check-in the license and release the license.  E.G. if you set the auto_checkin_timeout_mins to 1 day, that seat will be considered in use by the license server for an entire day after the TAS stops communicating with the License Server. WARNING:  If the TAS is not gracefully shutdown, the License Server will assume it is still running and hold it's license(s) in use. If a TAS is to be shutdown, be sure to do it via the tastop, or system shutdown commands and not a power off or VM kill.  

For TS-Days license (when Consumption Licensing is enabled), the license server based licensing model tracks and limits the number of TS Days that are used by a license. On the System Status window, the user can see their running totals for their License, as reported by the License Server. Checkouts are done every 5 minutes, and TSs that already reached their DAY can still run tests while in WARNING state. As TS-Days are reached, the TAS will log RT Log Messages, which will show up in the TS Admin Info/Warnings too: "TS-Day threshold reached".

The TAS will go to Locked state after being disconnected from License Server for the auto_checkin_timeout_mins . 

When the TAS receives any License Rejection response from the License Server, the TAS goes to a LOCKED state. 

Other possible error - If the license server has some sort of internal issue, it may return a "Internal License Server Exception" response to the TAS. The TAS will treat this as if no response was received at all and follow the standard pattern of first transitioning to the WARNING state. This allows tests to continue to run according to the specific rules of the License Type.

If the TAS is unable to reach the license server, another auto_checkin_timeout_mins (CHECKIN_TIMEOUT), the TAS will shutdown.

      

While the TAS is in the LICENSE WARNING state, full operations will be allowed. But once it is in the LICENSE LOCKED state, you will no longer be able to start any tests. All existing tests will continue to run, but once the LOCKED period has ended, the TAS will be shutdown. Any tests that are still running will be lost. At any time if the connection to the license server is restored, it will return to the full RUNNING state. On the System Status window, you can view the License Server Status, Last Checkout as well as some additional statuses. 

There will be many Notifications and System (Real-Time) Logs throughout the WARNING and LOCKED states:

You get one notification and System (Real-Time) log message, when you enter the LICENSE WARNING state or go back to the RUNNING state.

Some of the message are listed below:

License Server Redundency

License Server Redundency allows for continuous License Server accessibility when one License Server is offline (due to power outage / network outage / etc) by having 2 License Servers in sync and having TAS's licenses installed included on both addresses. 

When the TAS switches from Primary to Secondary (From the TASs perspective) the following happens:
#1 Real-Time Log on the TAS.
#2 SNMP Trap on the TAS 
#3 Log in a License Server when it receives a checkout from TAS where the checkout counter > 1 and TAS indicates the License Server is Secondary but the previous checkout was NOT from this License Server.
#4 Email Notification in the License Server to go with #3.

When TAS switches back from Secondary to Primary (From TASs perspective) the following happens:
#1 Real-Time Log on the TAS.
#2 SNMP Trap on the TAS 
#3 Log in a License Server when it receives a checkout from TAS where the checkout counter > 1 and TAS indicates the License Server is Primary but the previous checkout was NOT from this License Server.
#4 Email Notification in the License Server to go with #3.

When TAS switches to the Secondary it should automatically attempt the Primary License server after 15 minutes by default. TAS-Setting (Edit Settings) lic_srv_primary_switchback_mins. TAS Setting  lic_srv_redundant_flip - Value ON will use the secondary License Server configured in license as the primary.

License Server - Multi-TAS Licensing Options : 

 

Multi-TAS Limit by TAS licensing can be used to allow a single license (applied individually to each TAS being controlled) to apply the same application, feature, and test server configuration to one or more TAS systems.  This can be useful in a virtual environment where a customer might need to run multiple TAS systems with identical application, feature, and test server configurations  simultaneously. The License Server will only be enforcing that no more than the MAX Number of TASs are running at the same time.  

Example: If a Multi-TAS Limit by TAS license is configured to support 2 TAS with 4 Virtual Small test servers. Each TAS would be able to provision and run tests on 4 Virtual Small test servers for a total of 8 Virtual Small test servers.

Multi-TAS Limit by TS licensing can be used to share a provisioned maximum number of active test servers across multiple TAS systems with a single license file.  The single license (applied individually to each TAS being controlled) allows the same application and feature configuration to be used on each TAS.  The type of test servers defined is also the same for each TAS in this case as well.  Each TAS can add and configure up to the maximum number of test servers allowed for the TAS type defined.  However, the license server monitors the number of active test servers across all TAS using the common license file and limits the number of test servers allowed to run concurrently to the Total Licensed TS value provisioned in the license. On the System Status window, the user can see their running totals for their License, as reported by the License Server. 

Example: If a Multi-TAS Limit by TS license is configured to support 2 TAS with Total Licensed TS provisioned to 4, each TAS would be able to add and configure the maximum number of test servers allowed on the given TAS platform, but would be limited to running no more than 4 test servers at a time across both TAS systems.

Multi-TAS Limit by TS Type can be used to allow the License to limit TS's by type and by TS Processes Limit across multiple TAS's. The license server monitors the number of active test servers across all TAS using the common license file and limits the number of test servers by type allowed to run concurrently to the Total Licensed TS value provisioned in the license.  Limit by TS Type also provides the ability for each TAS to Offline Reserve a number of TS types, so the TAS will automatically reserve TS if/when it goes offline from the License Server.   Once a TAS goes offline, it will reserve as many TSs as are available up to the Offline-Reservation-Count. If the license is configured for 4 C100 M4 Ultra Extreme TS's and 3 TAS's are pointing to the same license, two TAS's could run a test with two C100 M4 Ultra Extreme TS's and the 3rd TAS would see an error message "Licensed running test servers limit reached" if it attempted to run a test on a C100 M4 Ultra Extreme TS.  On the System Status window, the user can see their running totals for their License, as reported by the License Server for both TSs allowed and TS Processes allowed. 

Multi-TAS Limit by TS Days is a consumption license model that is based on test server usage. The single license (applied individually to each TAS being controlled) allows the same application, feature, and test server configuration to be used on one or more TAS systems.  Each TAS using the common license file is limited to a maximum Licensed TS per TAS and the license server monitors the number of TS Days used.  Once the TS Days used reaches the TS Days Limit provisioned in the license, the license server will prevent additional tests from being run. On the System Status window, the user can see their running totals for their License, as reported by the License Server. 

Auto-Download License - is a mechanism where the TAS can automatically query / retrieve the license from a single location thus removing license file dependency. This option prevents the need to have to manually install a new license on each of the TASs anytime there is an update. Available with License Server licensing on Cloud License Server only. Additional details provided in Auto-Download License section.

 

Offline License Operation -This feature allows the configuration of a set number of TS per type that will be reserved when the License Server is determined to be offline/unreachable. To better handle License Server connectivity outages on TS-Type Licensing, we support the ability for TASs to pre-reserve a number of TS-Licenses for offline use. Each TAS can request up front a number of TSs per TS Type to be automatically reserved when the TAS goes offline from the License Server. Once a TAS is determined to be offline, the License Server will treat the number of offline-reserved TSs as being IN-UE/Reserved while the TAS is offline. Without this feature, when TASs go offline, they can only run tests on TSs that were already in the RUNNING state.  This can severely limit testing if the outage occurs before testing has started. On the System Status window, the TS Admin+ level users are able to configure a set number of TS per type that will be reserved (if available per remaining counts) when the License Server is determined to be offline/unreachable.

 

To view license information:

License Expiration

To view your license expiration date to The TAS Manager Menu - Select System > Show License Info to retrieve the currently installed license file.

Indications a license is about to expire: 

A system-wide license expires at midnight on the expiration day.. E.G. if you set to expire 07/01, you wouldn’t be able to start the TAS on 07/01, and if it was already running, you wouldn’t be able to run any tests. You can still login after it expires, but you will get this notification: "Application License Has Expired:". If you attempt to open a test session, run a test, etc you will see this error : "License Has Expired". 

When a system has a license with individual subscriptions and/or trials, by rule the system will also expire as a whole (TAS) at some point after the last subscription or trial expires. Each time you login to Landslide Client within 7 days of the expiration, you will get a warning that Your license will expire in X day(s) Y hour(s). 

For warnings of expirations, there are notifications enabled at the 90-day and 30-day points. The notifications are done once daily on a user-account-login, system-wide notification and system (real-time) log. If you have multiple subscriptions and trials all expiring at different times, you just get one notification based on the first item to expire. Once that expires, it will be based on next one.

For example the first time each day that user ABC logs in to the system after the 90-day point, they will get a message:  "One or more features will expire within 90 days, on MM/DD/YY"

Within 30 days of expiration, the first time they login each day the message will change to this:
"One or more features will expire within 30 days, on MM/DD/YY"

These daily messages are logged at midnight to system (real-time) log and as a system-wide notification. Expiration: Apps/Feats/TSs expire at midnight on the expiration day just like the system does. Both a system notification and real-time log messages will be sent when that occurs.

When TS Licenses expire, any TSs that are using the expired license will be immediately set to "Standard" license and recycled. For Applications and Features, any tests already running will continue to run. But any client that is logged in will be unable to start any more tests until they log and login to refresh their license, you will get this message: "Licensing has changed, client must logout and login"
Once you logout and login you will no longer have access to the Applications, Features, or TS-Licenses that expired.

 

 

Related Topics

  1. Starting the TAS Manager
  2. System Maintenance Tasks
  3. About the System Status Window

 

© 2024 Spirent Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved.