Understanding the Unlimited Licensing Model

  • 7000769
  • 27-Jun-2008
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell NetWare 5.1
Novell NetWare 6.0
Novell NetWare 6.5

Situation

The licensing model has changed. In the old model, we had a whole gamut of licenses to choose from (MLA, CLA, VLA, Redbox, etc). We are now moving toward a more simplified model: unlimited licenses only.
This will affect NetWare 5.1, 6.0, and 6.5 (including OES).
NetWare 5.0 will use 500 User Connection licenses.

The new licenses are true MLA licenses that allow an unlimited number of users to get a licensed connection. There are no user connection licenses- just a server license. It can be installed multiple times throughout the tree. Keep in mind that a server only walks up  the tree in search of a license. This means you could just install it once at the top of the tree. However, this is not recommended as that would cause a lot of tree-walking amongst your servers and you would have a single point of failure. A better solution would be to install it in several containers across the tree.
If you already have stratified NetWare licenses in your tree, you will see licensing objects similar to the following:
     Novell NetWare 6 Server + 650
     Novell NetWare 6 User + 650
Underneath each of these objects, you will see the license objects (SN:xxxxxxxxx)
Understanding the Unlimited Licensing Model

Resolution

To install a new unlimited license into a tree where stratified NetWare licenses already exist, there are a couple steps to follow:

If you have only one version of the NetWare operating system in your tree (i.e. NetWare 6.5 servers only), you will need to first remove all stratified licenses, this includes both user and server licenses:

1) Load iManager (https://ip address/nps/servlet/webacc). 
2) Select Licenses
3) Select Delete a License
4) Browse for a license and delete it. All previously installed licenses, both user and server, need to be removed. The new unlimited licenses cannot coexist in the tree with stratified licenses.

If you have a mixed tree, you will need to remove all stratified licenses for whichever operating system your additional user licenses entitle you to. For example, let's say you have several NetWare 5.1 servers with licenses that service 250 users, a couple NetWare 6.0 servers with licenses for 100 users, and several NetWare 6.5 servers with 500 user licenses. You just ordered and received a quantity of 1-User licenses for NW6.5. You received a certificate for those users and an unlimited NW6.5 license.  You do not need to worry about the NetWare 5.1 or 6.0 licenses. You will, however, need to remove all licenses for NetWare 6.5 before the unlimited licenses will work properly.

Hint: If you have a large number of licenses to delete, you might want to use the old NWADMIN32.EXE to delete them, as it is much quicker than iManager (which requires that you search for, and delete, one license at a time). However, it is recommended that you do all licenses installations from within iManager.
Now you need to install the new licenses:
1) Load iManager (https://ip address/nps/servlet/webacc). 
2) Select Licenses
3) Select Install a License
4) Click Browse and search for the license file (*.NLF)
5) Select Next
6) Check the box next to the license you want to install (UNLIMITED UNIT NetWare 6 Server LICENSE - SN:xxxxxxxx) and hit Next
7) Then you must browse for the location in the tree where you want the license installed
8) Click Install 

You should see a message stating the installation was successful.  In order for the new license to be consumed, the server(s) will need to be rebooted.

Additional Information

Formerly known as TID# 10100768