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Activating a Platform License or Platform Activation Key
This topic includes the following information:
Platform License or Platform Activation Key Requirements
Activating the License Key for a ClearPass Virtual Appliance
Activating the Platform Activation Key for a ClearPass Hardware Appliance
Platform License or Platform Activation Key Requirements
Licensing requirements and procedures vary slightly between ClearPass virtual appliances and ClearPass hardware appliances.
A Platform License provides the Platform License Key that is installed on all the virtual appliances in a Policy Manager cluster.
A Platform Activation Key activates a Platform License Key for a ClearPass hardware appliance.
You must have a Policy Manager Platform License or Product Activation Key for every instance of the product. Platform Licenses and Platform Activation Keys are available for purchase as a license (with no expiration date), or as an license with a 90- or 180-day duration.
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You cannot have more than one Policy Manager Platform License or Platform Activation Key installed on a Policy Manager server. |
Activating the License Key for a ClearPass Virtual Appliance
To use a new license key for a virtual appliance, activate that license key on the HPE Networking Support Portal, then also activate it on the virtual appliance.
Activating the License in the HPE Networking Support Portal
To activate a license key for a ClearPass virtual appliance on the HPE Networking Support Portal:
1. Open the HPE Networking Support Portal at https://networkingsupport.hpe.com/home.
2. In the top navigation, go to Service Management > License Management, and then go to Licenses > Activate. The License Activation form opens (https://lms.arubanetworks.com/licenses/activate).
3. Enter the order number and confirmation number you received in an email from HPE.
4. Click Load. The HPE Networking Support Portal displays all licenses associated with that order.
5. Select a license from the table. In the Redeem column, enter the number of licenses you wish to activate.
6. In the Friendly Name field, enter a name for the license or VA Virtual Appliance. VA is a pre-configured virtual machine image, ready to run on a hypervisor. you are activating.
7. In the Software Version field, select 6.8 & later to indicate this is a new license and not a license in the legacy license format used by ClearPass 6.7 and earlier releases.
8. Click Activate to activate that license.
Figure 1 Activating a License in the HPE Networking Support Portal
9. The HPE Networking Support Portal displays the activation key for the license. Copy this entire key. Be sure to include the "begin" and "end" lines, including all the hyphen characters (for example, "-----BEGIN ACCESS LICENSE KEY-----"); however, do not include any leading or trailing space characters.
Adding the License to the Virtual Appliance
1. In a separate tab of your web browser, go to the ClearPass Policy Manager management interface:
, where is the IP address of the management port defined for the ClearPass virtual appliance.
2. You will be prompted to enter the Platform License for that VM Virtual Machine. A VM is an emulation of a computer system. VMs are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer.. Once entered, you have 90 days to activate the license.
For Policy Manager virtual appliances running version 6.10 or later, you can activate the license for that individual virtual appliance from the login screen of that VA Virtual Appliance. VA is a pre-configured virtual machine image, ready to run on a hypervisor. or from the page of the WebUI. If your VA Virtual Appliance. VA is a pre-configured virtual machine image, ready to run on a hypervisor. is running ClearPass 6.9.0, you must upgrade to a later version or download and install a licensing software patch before you can activate your license. For more information, refer to Upgrading the Hardware Appliance Prior to Activating the License.
Activating a License Key from the Virtual Appliance Login Page
1. In a separate tab of your web browser, go to the ClearPass Policy Manager management interface:
, where is the IP address of the management port defined for the ClearPass virtual appliance. The ClearPass Policy Manager page opens. It displays a message indicating that you have 90 days to activate the product, and includes an link.
Figure 2 The Login Form: Activating ClearPass Policy Manager
2. Click the link in the message on the login page. The form opens.
3. If you are connected to the internet, click the button. Policy Manager attempts to activate the product over the Internet with Aruba license activation servers. Otherwise, if the ClearPass Policy Manager virtual appliance does not have Internet access, follow the steps described in Offline License Activation.
Activating a License Key for the Virtual Appliance in the WebUI
To activate the Platform License on a publisher or subscriber:
1. Navigate to . The page displays the tab.
2. Select the tab to review license server resources for potential activation.
Figure 3 ClearPass Platform License Ready to Be Activated
The Policy Manager Platform Licenses for the Policy Manager servers in the cluster are listed.
If the Platform License is not activated, a red button appears on the > > tab. Continue to the next step.
If the Policy Manager Platform License is already activated, it is shown with a green button.
3. Select the icon. The form opens.
Figure 4 Activate License Form
4. In the section, click . The Policy Manager Platform License is now activated. On the tab, the column shows a green circle next to the keyword .
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The Support End Date column shows the date and time support ends for each listed license. |
Figure 5 ClearPass Platform License Activated
Activating the Platform Activation Key for a ClearPass Hardware Appliance
1. After the configuration for the hardware appliance is completed as described in the ClearPass Installation Guide, open the HPE Networking Support Portal at https://networkingsupport.hpe.com/home.
2. In the top navigation, go to , and then go to . The form opens (https://lms.arubanetworks.com/licenses/pak).
Figure 6 The Product Activation Key Form in License Management Services (LMS)
Enter the information for this hardware appliance in the and fields.
3. In the field, enter a name that will clearly identify this Platform Activation Key as belonging to this hardware appliance. This is included as a column in the list of licenses in the HPE Networking Support Portal .
4. Mark the check box to accept the End User Software License Agreement (EULA End User License Agreement. EULA is a legal contract between a software application publisher or author and the users of the application.), and then click . The Platform Activation Key (PAK) for the hardware appliance is displayed.
5. Copy and paste the PAK into a text file. Be sure to include the "begin" and "end" lines, including all the hyphen characters (for example, "-----BEGIN ACCESS LICENSE KEY-----"); however, do not include any leading or trailing space characters. Keep the key displayed in the HPE Networking Support Portal while you do the next steps, and save the text file for future reference.
Upgrading the Hardware Appliance Prior to Activating the License
Before you can activate a license for a ClearPass hardware appliance you must install a software upgrade or update patch.
To run ClearPass 6.9.0 on the hardware appliance, you first must download and install the ClearPass 6.9.x licensing patch ClearPass Hotfix Patch for license activation failures after May 30, 2020 prior to activating the license. A known issue in the ClearPass 6.9.0 and 6.9.1 software prevents users from activating licenses, and this patch resolves this issue.
To update the hardware appliance from ClearPass 6.9.0 to ClearPass 6.9.1, you first download and install both the ClearPass software update patch and the ClearPass 6.9.x licensing patch ClearPass Hotfix Patch for license activation failures after May 30, 2020 prior to activating the license.
To update the hardware appliance from ClearPass 6.9.0 to ClearPass 6.9.2 or later 6.9.x releases, or to upgrade to a later release (including 6.10.x), you first must download and install the ClearPass software update patch or upgrade image, and then activate the license on the appliance.
To upgrade the hardware appliance from ClearPass 6.7.0 to 6.8.x, you first must download and install the ClearPass upgrade image, and then activate the license on the appliance.
For information about downloading and installing software updates and patches, refer to Software Updates
Activating a License Key for the Hardware Appliance in the WebUI
To activate the Platform License on a publisher or subscriber:
1. Navigate to . The page opens to the page.
2. Select the tab.
Figure 7 ClearPass Platform License Ready to Be Activated
The Policy Manager Platform Licenses for this Policy Manager servers in the cluster are listed.
If the Platform License is not activated, a red button appears on the > > tab. Continue to the next step.
If the Policy Manager Platform license is already activated, it is shown with a green button.
3. Click the icon. The form opens.
Figure 8 Activate License Form
4. In the section, click . The Policy Manager Platform License is now activated. On the tab, the column shows a green circle next to the keyword .
If your ClearPass virtual appliance or hardware appliance is not connected to the Internet, you must submit a case through the HPE Networking Support Portal. For more information, refer to Offline License Activation.
