Elevate Flexible Licensing Overview

ePMP Elevate Flexible License Server Overview

Beginning with Software Release 3.5, there are two types of ePMP Elevate license management mechanisms available on the ePMP device – Flexible (Beta feature) and Fixed, as described below:

Flexible Licensing and Accounts – Process Overview

To begin utilizing Flexible Licensing, a Cambium Support Account and Company Account (identified by a Cambium ID) must be created to establish an association between you (the end user) and the license entitlements.

A Cambium Support Account will allow you to:

  • Manage license keys and extended warranties
  • Join discussions, make suggestions and get help from the Cambium Community
  • Join the Open Beta program for early access to preview releases
  • Download new firmware for your Cambium equipment

A Cambium Company Account:

  • Is used for Flexible Licensing, cnMaestro, and Cambium Care.
  • Is identified by a Cambium ID which must be between 6 and 60 characters consisting of letters, numbers and underscores. Once created, the Cambium ID cannot be changed.
  • May have multiple email accounts associated.

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From a high level, to begin using Flexible Licensing please follow this procedure:

Configuring Flexible Licensing, Server and Access Point

Flexible License Generation Procedure

Procedure:

Follow this procedure to set up the Cambium Networks licensing portal to host ePMP Elevate licenses:

1

Purchase the desired license product Entitlements from your Cambium Networks distributor (C050900S510A – 10 ePMP Elevate licenses)

2

Cambium Networks will email your Entitlements to the provided email address.  An example of the email is displayed below:

3

Log into support.cambiumnetworks.com/licensekeys and navigate to Activate Entitlements.  Enter your provided Entitlement ID in the Check Entitlements section and click the Check button.  Entitlement details are listed in the dialogue below.  Click Activate to activate the Entitlement’s corresponding licenses.

4

Select Use Flexible Licensing.

5

Click Activate on the resulting page to activate your company account.

6

On the resulting dialogue, enter the number of licenses to activate then click Activate.

7

The recently-activated license keys are displayed, click Details to display the corresponding license key information.

8

To use licenses from the pool, enter the corresponding Cloud Licensing ID on the AP’s License Management page. 

 Caution

Keep your Cloud Licensing ID secret to avoid unintended license pool usage!

ePMP AP Flexible LIcense Management

The following section discusses relevant Flexible Licensing AP implementation and parameters, as well as procedures for enabling Flexible Licensing at the AP.

The AP’s License Management page is used to:

  • Install licensing for ePMP Elevate subscriber access allotments
  • Convert the AP from Lite (10 subscriber) to Full (120 subscriber)
  • Configure the Country Code ETSI-locked devices

Country Code configuration for ETSI locked device and Full Capacity Keys for AP Lite devices are available only via Fixed License Management.  Elevate is available via Fixed or Flexible License Management.

AP web management interface Flexible Licensing parameters:

Attribute

Meaning

Flexible License Management

License Server Agent

Disabled:  No communication with the License Server is established

Enabled:  Enables License Server functionality to obtain the number of allowed ePMP Elevate SMs to be connected to the AP

Cloud Licensing ID

This field represents a Cambium Networks customer identification used for AP identification on the License Server.  This identifier is generated upon License Entitlement activation at the Cambium Networks web-based Support Center.

Connection Status

The Connection Status displays the License Server process state when License Server Agent is Enabled.  This status may also be referenced on the device Home page.

Refresh Requests Failed

The number of failed refresh (polling) requests to the License Server.  The ePMP Elevate Subscriber Module Limit resets to 1 after the 3rd failed refresh request.

Update Requests Failed

The number of failed update (licensing information transfer) requests to the License Server.  The ePMP Elevate Subscriber Module Limit resets to 1 after the 5th failed updated request.

NTP Status

Represents whether or not the current time and date have been retrieved from the configured NTP server

ePMP Elevate Subscriber Module Limit

The number of ePMP Elevate devices allowed to register to the AP

AP Flexible Licensing Procedure:

Follow this procedure to configure the ePMP Access Point to retrieve Elevate licensing information from the Flexible license server.

1

Follow the steps in section Flexible License Generation Procedure on page 1 to activate the applicable licenses on the Cambium Networks Support Center

2

Copy the Cloud Licensing ID generated on the Support Center website

 Caution

Keep your Cloud Licensing ID secret to avoid unintended license pool usage!

 Caution

Keep your Cloud Licensing ID secret to avoid unintended license pool usage!

3

Log into the ePMP AP and navigate to Tools > License Management

4

Set License Server Agent to Enabled

5

Paste the Cloud Licensing ID from Step 2 into the Cloud Licensing ID field

6

Verify the license server connection in with field Connection Status

7

Verify the enacted licensing in field ePMP Elevate Subscriber Module Limit

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The following scenarios give examples of system operation if the AP loses Internet Connection:

  1. AP loses Internet connection while ePMP Elevate subscribers are registered:  In this case, the AP retains Elevate subscriber regsitration for one hour (including three licensing server poll requests every 20 minutes).  After one hour with no connection to the license server, the Elevate subscriber connection is dropped by the AP.  Upon restoration of the AP's Internet connection, the AP statistic Refresh Requests Failed resets to 0 and registrations are  re-initiated.
  2. AP loses Internet connection while ePMP elevate subscriber is attempting registration:  In this case, the AP attempts to connect with the license server for twenty minutes to enable Elevate subscriber registration (including four licensing server update requests every 5 minutes).  After twenty minutes with no connection to the license server, the Elevate subscriber registration request is denied by the AP.  Upon restoration of the AP's Internet connection, the AP statistic Update Requests Failed resets to 0. and registration requests are re-initiated.

The AP always retains the Cloud Licensing ID independed of the status of the AP Internet connection.  



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