Module 5: License Management

A software license is specific to F5 product services (for example, BIG-IP LTM, BIG-IP APM, and so forth), and is organized in a license pool. From BIG-IQ Centralized Management, you can easily manage licenses in those pools for numerous devices. That means you don’t have to login to each individual BIG-IP VE device to activate, revoke, or reassign a license.

After you activate your subscription or ELA registration key for a pool license from BIG-IQ, you can assign the license to a managed, or unmanaged, BIG-IP VE device. If you assign a license from a license pool to a BIG-IP device and later decide you don’t need that device licensed, you can revoke the license and assign it to another BIG-IP VE device. This process is similar to a library, where you loan (assign) a license to a BIG-IP device when it is required, and check the license back into the license pool on BIG-IQ (revoke it from the device) so it is available to assign to another BIG-IP VE. This flexible licensing model helps keep track of the licenses, and manage your operating costs.

There are 3 types of devices you can manage licenses for:

  • Managed BIG-IP devices: Managed BIG-IPs are included in BIG-IQ’s inventory of trusted devices. This means BIG-IQ can perform operations on these BIG-IPs such as licensing, backups, upgrades, and configuration management. To assign a purchased pool license to a managed BIG-IP, you can provide the name of the pool and the discovery address of the BIG-IP. The discovery address is the address used to add the BIG-IP to BIG-IQ.​
  • Unmanaged BIG-IP devices: Unmanaged BIG-IPs are BIG-IPs that BIG-IQ communicates with solely for licensing purposes. Because these BIG-IPs are not actively managed using device trust, you must provide user credentials when assigning a license to an unmanaged BIG-IP.​
  • Unreachable devices: For devices that BIG-IQ does not have network access to, a third-party computer or program communicates with BIG-IQ through API call to get a license from BIG-IQ and assign it to the BIG-IP device by a method of your choosing. The third party makes a similar API call to BIG-IQ for revoking a license.

In this lab, we will see the difference between the various types of license pools and how to license a Managed BIG-IP Virtual Edition (VE) using BIG-IQ as a License Manager.