Reducing License Allocation In Your NetBrain System

Overview

Sometimes it is necessary to reduce the number of node licenses in a NetBrain Platform. Reasons for this may be because a license has been split to allocate some of the purchased licenses to a different platform or because the size of the network has reduced and a Subscription license is being renewed with a smaller node license count. When a NetBrain Platform has its license refreshed with a smaller node license it is important to ensure that the number of nodes allocated to all Tenants is less then or equal to the number of node licenses in the new license before the license is refreshed. If a NetBrain Platform is refreshed with a license that is not sufficient for the number of nodes allocated to Tenants and Domains then this would cause a license violation that results in users being unable to use the NetBrain Platform until a new, larger, license is applied. It is not possible to reallocate Domain and Tenant node allocation once a license violation has occurred. This article covers the steps required to reduce the node allocation in your NetBrain platform and apply a new license with a lower license count.

Solution

Identify the Current License allocation to the System, Tenants and Domains

1. Log into the NetBrain System Management User Interface with an account that has System Management and Tenant Administrator privileges (or System Admin)

https://<NetBrain IP Address or Hostname>/admin.html

2. In the System Management interface, select the "License" tab to see how many nodes are included in the current license.

Figure 1 - Initial License allocation to the Platform

      In this example the existing license is for 1000 nodes.

3. In the System Management interface, select the "Tenants" tab and see how many nodes are allocated to each Tenant.

Figure 2 - Initial Node allocation to Tenants

      In this example we see that of the 1000 nodes in the license, 800 have been allocated to Tenant NetBrainEMEA, 100 have been allocated to the Tenant Customer A and the remaining 100 have not yet been allocated to a Tenant. We can also see that of the 800 nodes allocated to NetBrainEMEA, 180 have not yet been allocated to Domains within this Tenant. Although these 180 node licenses have not been allocated to Domains, they have been allocated to the Tenant so they are not yet free to be removed from the license. At this point we could apply a license with 100 fewer nodes without a problem as that is the number of unallocated licenses. If the number of node licenses that is not yet applied to a Tenant is greater than or equal to the number of node licenses that are being removed from the new license then you can proceed to the step to refresh your license if you wish to.

4. Log into the NetBrain End User Interface with an account that has System Management and Tenant Administrator privileges (or System Admin).

https://<NetBrain IP Address or Hostname>

5. From the main user interface desktop, navigate to the Quick Access Toolbar, click on the Domain Name then ‘Select Domain’

Select All Tenants from the dropdown and look for the node allocation for each Domain within each Tenant.

Figure 3 - Node allocation per Domain within each Tenant

      In this example we see the number of node licenses allocated to each Domain within each Tenant and how many of these have not yet been used. For example, we see that Domain EMEA-LAB within Tenant NetBrainEMEA has 90 nodes allocated but that 40 of these have not yet been used. Recall from step 3. above that we also know that Tenant NetBrainEMEA also has 180 nodes that have not yet been allocated to any of its Domains.

Identify how you wish to free up node licenses

Once you know how many available node licenses you have within each Domain, how many unallocated node licenses you have in each Tenant and how many node licenses have not yet been allocated to a Tenant you will be able to calculate how many unused node licenses you have available within the platform. If this number is less than the number that you will be reducing the license by then it will be necessary to remove some nodes from the NetBrain Domain (not covered by this article) to free up mode node license and then repeat the above steps before refreshing the license.

If the number of node licenses not yet allocated to a Tenant is greater than or equal to the number of node licenses you are reducing the node by then it is OK to move ahead with refreshing your license if you wish to, but you may still wish to modify node license allocation if you think there will be future changes in your environment.

If you have more than enough unused node licenses but that they are currently allocated to Tenants and Domains that do not need them then the next step is to identify where you wish to free up node allocations from. When making this decision consider that the number of node licenses allocated to a Domain should not be less than the number of node licenses required within that domain (and you should preferably consider any expected future growth within each Domain so that future discoveries do not fail due to insufficient licenses).

Free up node license allocations

1. If you wish to reduce the number of node licenses allocated to any of the Domains then this should be performed before making changes to Tenants. From the main user interface desktop, navigate to the Quick Access Toolbar, click on the Domain Name then ‘Select Domain’. Select All Tenants or the name of the specific Tenant that the Domain is in from the dropdown and select Edit from the dropdown to the right of the Domain you wish to edit.

Figure 4 - Edit the Domain you wish to change

Edit the number of License Nodes allocated to the Domain.

Figure 5 - Reduce the number of License Nodes allocated to the Domain

      In this example I have reduced the number of nodes allocated to the Domain from 90 in Figure 4 to 80. You will notice that this domain also has Function Modules (optional) allocated to it and these automatically reduced to match the new License Nodes count. Also note that the number of available node licenses in the tenant increased from 180 to 190 as I decreased the number used by the Domain. Click ‘OK’ to save the new settings.

2. Reduce the number of Node Licenses allocated to Tenants. In the System Management interface, select the "Tenants" tab and use the dropdown at the right of the Tenant you wish to change and select ‘Edit’.

Figure 6 - Edit the Tenant you wish to change

Edit the number of License Nodes allocated to the Tenant.

Figure 7 - Change the number of Node Licenses allocated to the Tenant

In this example I have reduced the number of nodes allocated to the Tenant from 800 in Figure 6 to 780. You will notice that this Tenant also has Function Modules (optional) allocated to it and these automatically reduced to match the new License Nodes count. Also note that the number of available node licenses not allocated to a tenant increased from 100 to 120 as I decreased the number used by the Tenant. Click ‘OK’ to save the new settings. In this example I can now refresh the license with one with 120 fewer devices in it.

3. Confirm with your NetBrain representative how many node licenses your new license includes. If the number is more than the number in the existing license minus the number of available node licenses shown in Figure 7 then it is OK to refresh the license. Follow the instructions to refresh the license as documented in NetBrain Online Help –

https://www.netbraintech.com/docs/R11/help/HTML/refresh-subscription-license.html

NetBrain Tip: If your license information does not refresh as expected or your available features are not activated, your NetBrain system may not be able to connect to the internet.  If this is the case, you will need to work directly with our Technical Support team to update your licensing.  Please contact NetBrain Technical Support in our Customer Success Center or support@netbraintech.com and refer to this Knowledge Base article.