How to Check for an Update to an Exinda License/ Unable to get license

Summary

An Exinda can automatically 'phone home' and contact the licensing servers to routinely check for updated licenses that might have been generated for the unit.This prevents the need for manual input of a new license key.

Overview

Any Exinda appliance has the ability to contact the Exinda Licensing Server built into the firmware. This automatic check can be done on a schedule as long as everything is set up properly on the Exinda. The Exinda uses the management port (most likely eth1, depending on the model) to conduct this check, so eth1 needs to be fully configured to access the outside world. This can be accomplished through 2 methods:

• Ensuring DHCP is set for the management port
• Statically configuring the management port

The Exinda, by default, attempts to use DHCP once it is first connected, having the management port seek out a DHCP server to obtain an IP, gateway and DNS information. If it cannot find a DHCP connection, it defaults to use the IP of 172.14.1.157, but nothing else is set up, such as gateway or DNS. The IP is set to that default to allow a connection from the LAN to that IP for the initial configuration of the Exinda.

To Contact the License server, the following information is needed (whether it is supplied manually or by DHCP):

• Management IP address (Configuration > System > Network, the "IP Address" tab)
• Default gateway (Configuration > System > Network, the "IP Address" tab)
• DNS Servers (Configuration > System > Network, the "DNS" tab)

Once all three of those are set up, to test the connection, go to Configuration > System > Setup, under the "Licenses" tab. Near the bottom of the page, there is a link called "Check for License Online". Clicking that will have the Exinda attempt to contact the license server and pull any updated information.

If you get a response of "Connection Failed. Check Network Settings", it means that there is a problem with the the connection between the Exinda and the licensing server. If this occurs, double check to ensure that there is an IP associated with the management port, there are name servers populated in the list on the DNS tab, and whether there is a default route set up under Configuration > System > Network, the "Routes" tab; this should be using your default gateway. If one of these three parameters are not set, the connection will not work.

If those parameters are set and the error is still seen, try the following troubleshooting:

• Configuration > System > Tools, under the "DNS Lookup" tab, do a lookup for license.exinda.com. If a response is not obtained, the DNS servers set up on the box cannot resolve that name to an IP; try adding different DNS servers statically
• Configuration > System > Tools, under the "Ping" tab, ping license.exinda.com. If this does not work (and the resolution from the name to the IP has worked), the following could be a culprit:
  • The Exinda Licensing Server is offline; try again at another time
  • A firewall is in the way blocking ICMP traffic
  • A firewall is blocking all traffic to license.exinda.com.
• Configuration > System > Tools, under the "Console" tab, log in to the Exinda CLI and do the following commands:
  • en
  • telnet license.exinda.com 80