Infoblox Licenses

Note that B1TD Essentials is licenced per member. If the member is a HA pair of two nodes, you only need one licence and another license for $0 will be issued. (IB-SUB-THREAT-ESNTL-HA)

When you use the “set licence” command, you must to so on the CLI of the actual member that you are installing he license on (i.e. you can't use the GM CLI for all licenses)

The DNSFW/RPZ license (IB-SWTL-DFW-TE-xxxx) is sold per node. In a HA-Pair, you will need two DNSFW licenses - one per HA-Pair member.

For expiry details here and here, between 8.0 and 8.2, the subscription behaviour didn't work as it does today. 8.3.6+ to 8.4 and all beyond, this was fixed. Changed to DNS and DHCP after subscription expiry should work.

• When you purchase X6 with Microsoft Management installed, be aware that you can't install Microsoft Management on a NIOS VM that has the CP licence installed. So, although the X6 appliance is licenced for CP, you can't install it if you want to use Microsoft Management.
• You need to install DNS first before installing RPZ and DTC. If you try to install all licences at the same time, it is possible that RPZ and DTC will not install and you just have to re-import those licences and they will install.

Be aware, unlike production NIOS licences, if you set a temp licence on NIOS, when the licence expires, the services are no longer reliable. If you boot a NIOS VM that has its licence expired, the services will not start.

If the VM is already running, if the service stops, it won't start. If the service is kept running, certain actions will not work (zone updates, etc).

IPAM is still usable manually.

This is the list of licenses when running set temp_license in a virtual NIOS appliance.

• DNSone (DNS, DHCP)
• DNSone with Grid (DNS, DHPC, Grid)
• Network Services for Voice (DHCP, Grid)
• Add NIOS License (causes a system restart)
• Add DNS Server license
• Add DHCP Server license
• Add Grid license
• Add Microsoft management license
• Add Multi-Grid Management license
• Add Query Redirection license
• Add Threat Protection (Software add-on) license (causes a system restart)
• Add Threat Protection Update license
• Add Response Policy Zones license
• Add FireEye license
• Add DNS Traffic Control license
• Add Cloud Network Automation license
• Add Security Ecosystem license
• Add Threat Analytics license
• Add Flex Grid Activation license
• Add Flex Grid Activation for Managed Services license

If you set the NIOS license to IB-v5005 (or after you join the Grid), you will see that set temp_license generates a much smaller list (3 insetad of 16).

• Add NIOS License
• Add Grid license
• Add Reporting subscription license

This list list list of NIOS Licenses you can add

• IB-V805
• CP-V805
• IB-V815
• IB-V1405
• CP-V1405
• IB-V1415
• IB-V14125
• IB-V2205
• CP-V2205
• IB-V2215
• IB-V2225
• IB-V4005
• IB-V4015
• IB-V4025
• IB-V5005 (Reporting Server)

For VMware temp licencing at deployment

• dns=dns
• dhcp=dhcp
• enterprise=grid
• nios=appliance

See the dedicated ADP page for more details.

When a license is renewed, the support portal is automatically updated. However, for NIOS appliances you will need to redownload the appliance licence key and install it via the Grid Master GUI.

When you apply a renewal license, services are not impacted. Tested with DNS and DHCP services.

First deploy the VM.

You may also want to enable remote console access to the VM.

1. Log into the CLI of the VM and run show hwid to show the VM ID and make a note of it. You will need it later. You can also get this Hardware ID from the Grid Manager Web UI: Grid > Licenses and the data is in the Serial Number column.
2. Log into the Infoblox Support Portal - https://support.infoblox.com/
3. Click “My Products” on the menu at the top of the page.
4. Click “Create VM/Grid and Assign Software” blue button on the left.
5. Select the correct End Customer.
6. Paste the Hardware ID into the field “Virtual Host Hardware ID”.
7. Set License Technology to “DDI (for NIOS and BloxOne)”
8. Do NOT click “Is Grid Wide?” unless you are creating a VM instance to represent “Grid Wide” licences (e.g. for reporting).
9. Click “Save & Assign Software”. This will take you to the screen to assign software to this VM. It will start off by saying “There is no Software assigned to this Host”. Further down the screen you can see a list of “Software available to be assigned to Host”. Take a note of “Total Quantity” and “Available Quantity”.
10. What I do at this stage is find the entry for the NIOS licence (e.g. “IB-SWTL-BASE-NIOS-825”). Click the + symbol to add this license and you should find that the other licences for the VM get added automatically (e.g. IB-SWLT-GD and IB-SWTL-NS1).
11. Click “Assign Software” and the licenses should appear at the top of the screen.
12. Click “Download License Keys”. and then click “Download” to download the licences as a TXT file.
13. Open up the Grid Master GUI and go to Grid > Licenses > Member.
14. “Upload License File” and then “Select File”.
15. Select the TXT file you downloaded earlier.
16. Then click “Save Licenses” on the right.

I've not seen what happens on a production Infoblox Grid that lets the subscriptions expire. However, I have seen what happens when a 60 day trial Grid has its subscriptions expire.

• You can still query existing zone.
• You can still update existing records and create new records in existing zones.
• You can create new zones but they can't be queried.
• If you restart the appliance, the DNS server stops functioning.

In theory the above is true. Also in theory, when a “TRIAL” subscription expires, the functionality stops completly.

When you set a Grid Wide License, you must create a VM in the support portal using the Grid UUID.

NOTE: You need to already have a Grid licence and NIOS licence installed. Set a temp licence if required.

show license_uid

Pool licenses are supported but there are some caveats in the 8.6+ code.

The following are the limitations of using pool licenses in NIOS:

• When a pool license has expired, you cannot manually delete the license.
• If you replace an expired pool license with a replacement license, the new license is installed and the expired license is left as is. This does not impact the functionality but is not good user experience.
• Pool licenses can only be removed by installing a new license file. Any of the pool licenses present in the Grid but not present in the license file will be removed. The only way to remove a pool license is to apply a “new” pool license which in turn will remove any of the current licenses that are not contained within the “new” pool license.

A (limited) workaround for these limitations is to install a static license. A static license installed on a Grid member will take precedence over the pool license. Dynamic licenses are released from the associated Grid member and returned to the corresponding pool when a valid static license is applied to the same feature on the Grid member.