Cluster Master FailOver Licensing Issue and Workaround (8.2..fixed in 8.3)

Product Line: VERDE

The Cluster Master is used to redeem a license key with the Management Portal. Upon successful redemption the Management Portal sends licensing information (e.g., number of seats, type, duration, etc.) to the Cluster Master. The Cluster Master then encrypts and saves that licensing information to a local database.

This local database is not visible to cluster master failover candidate servers. In fact, the data is encrypted in a way that only the Cluster Master can read. Therefore, even if the database is exposed to failover candidate servers it could not decrypt the data. This method was implemented to prevent possible licensing abuse.

We have some ideas of how to resolve this issue and it will be included in 8.3.

In the meantime, as a temporary workaround we can provide the customer with another license key for the appropriate number of seats for a limited duration (e.g., 6 months). This license key should be redeemed by the failover candidate so it has it's own licensing information. Then, if the Cluster Master fails and the failover candidate assumes the main functionality it will already have licensing. Let me know if you would like a license key for this - need to tell me the number of seats required.

Alternatively, the customer (or you) can always reallocate licenses in the Management Portal from the failed Cluster Master to the registered failover candidate. However, this implies that there is not instant functionality of the failover candidate as it requires human intervention to allocate licenses.