License operations using pxctl

This document explains how to manage your Portworx licenses with pxctl license. The CLI lets you add, activate, and transfer licenses. It also gives details about the installed licenses, and it shows what features are available within a given license.

Overview

Here's how to get the list of the available subcommands:

pxctl license --help

Manage licenses

Usage:
  pxctl license [flags]
  pxctl license [command]

Available Commands:
  activate    Activate license from a license server
  add         Add a license from a file
  list        List available licenses
  setls       Set license server
  transfer    Transfer license to remote PX cluster

Flags:
  -h, --help   help for license

Global Flags:
      --ca string            path to root certificate for ssl usage
      --cert string          path to client certificate for ssl usage
      --color                output with color coding
      --config string        config file (default is $HOME/.pxctl.yaml)
      --context string       context name that overrides the current auth context
  -j, --json                 output in json
      --key string           path to client key for ssl usage
      --output-type string   use "wide" to show more details
      --raw                  raw CLI output for instrumentation
      --ssl                  ssl enabled for portworx

Use "pxctl license [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Now, let's have a closer look at these commands.

List available licenses

You can use pxctl license list to list installed licenses as follows:

pxctl license list

DESCRIPTION             ENABLEMENT  ADDITIONAL INFO
Number of nodes maximum         1000
Number of volumes maximum       100000
Volume capacity [TB] maximum          40
Storage aggregation          yes
Shared volumes               yes
Volume sets              yes
BYOK data encryption             yes
Resize volumes on demand         yes
Snapshot to object store [CloudSnap]     yes
Cluster-level migration [Kubemotion]     yes
Bare-metal hosts             yes
Virtual machine hosts            yes
Product SKU             Trial       expires in 6 days, 12:13

LICENSE EXPIRES: 2019-04-07 23:59:59 +0000 UTC
For information on purchase, upgrades and support, see
https://docs.portworx.com/knowledgebase/support.html

As you can see, the command gives details on the features allowed under the current licenses and it also lists the SKU.

Activate a license

The easiest way to activate a license is to get an activation id from Portworx, Inc.. Next, run the following command on your Portworx node:

pxctl license activate <activation-id>

note

You can also execute the pxctl license activate command inside a Pod as follows:

PX_POD=$(kubectl get pods -l name=portworx -n kube-system -o jsonpath='{.items[0].metadata.name}')
kubectl exec $PX_POD -n kube-system -- /opt/pwx/bin/pxctl license activate <activation-id>

However, there are cases where the servers are configured without access to the Internet. Such customers should request an offline-activation license file, and install it like this:

pxctl license add <license file>

Connect to a license server

You can connect a Portworx cluster to a license server using the pxctl license setls command.

info

To establish a connection with the license server, it is essential to use the original configuration of the main license server in the pxctl license setls command. This means providing either its IP addresses or hostnames, as initially set up. For reliability, avoid using load balancers, virtual IPs, or alternating between IP addresses and symbolic hostnames.

To see the list of available flags and example usage, enter the --help flag:

pxctl license setls --help

Set license server

Usage:
  pxctl license setls [flags]

Examples:
  pxctl license setls http://hostname:7070/fne/bin/capability

Flags:
      --add feat1[,feat2,...]   add license features (feat1[,feat2,...] format)
      --ca-path files           extra root CA files (/usr/share/ca-certificates/extra/root-corp.crt[,/path2/lvl2-corp.crt] format)
  -h, --help                    help for setls
      --import-unknown-ca       auto-import self-signed root CA certificate
  -i, --interval .M.w.d.h.m.s   license borrow interval (.M.w.d.h.m.s [e.g. 1w15m] or number)

Global Flags:
      --ca string            path to root certificate for ssl usage
      --cert string          path to client certificate for ssl usage
      --color                output with color coding
      --config string        config file (default is $HOME/.pxctl.yaml)
      --context string       context name that overrides the current auth context
  -j, --json                 output in json
      --key string           path to client key for ssl usage
      --output-type string   use "wide" to show more details
      --raw                  raw CLI output for instrumentation
      --ssl                  ssl enabled for portworx

Connect your Portworx cluster to a license server by entering the pxctl license setls command with the following:

• Optional: The --add option with a comma delimited list of additional feature licenses you want to add. This will add any of the specified feature licenses, as long as the license server has enough available feature license seats.
• The license server endpoint.

pxctl license setls --add <feature-license>,<feature-license> <license-server-endpoint>