StorNext Disk Licensing

Disk licensing has been added to StorNext in order to help quantify customers’ configurations. There are three levels of disk certification:

The vendor and model of each disk are checked against the disk catalog supplied by Quantum to determine to which category each disk belongs.

Note: Disk licenses should be updated after completion of StorNext installation or upgrade.

Licenses are available for free from Quantum that specify the amount of Quantum Certified and Quantum Uncertified disks that can be configured. For Quantum Branded disks, the amount of disk capacity is not specified by a license - it is unlimited.

There is also a new command line tool called disk_license (disk_license.exe on Windows) that can be used to create Disk License Status file, interrogate disk capacity, display license status, import catalogs and perform other disk licensing tasks.

  1. Generate a Disk License Status file using one of the following methods:

  2. Submit the Disk License Status file to Quantum. See Upload a Disk License Status File to the Disk Licensing Web Form.
  3. Install Disk Licenses received from Quantum, or install a new Disk Catalog (if there is one). See StorNext Disk Certification Catalog (DCC).

Note: The Configuration GUI is not available on Windows MDCs. Disk License Reports on Windows can only be generated manually with the disk_license(.exe) tool. For an HA pair, the Configuration GUI will generate a file which contains the reports for both MDCs in the HA pair.

The Disk License Status file contains the licensing status of all the disks within your StorNext environment.

  1. Log into the StorNext GUI.
  2. On the Configuration menu, click Licenses.

  3. On the Configuration > Licenses page, click Download DLS....

    Note: The Disk License Status file will need to be accessible from a computer with Internet/Web access as an attachment to a Quantum web page. Follow the instructions for your particular browser and operating system.

  4. Click Done to return to the Licenses page. Once the file is saved, it can be submitted to Quantum. See Upload a Disk License Status File to the Disk Licensing Web Form.

If you need to the use CLI, then this method can be used. However, the preferred method is to generate the Disk License Status file using the StorNext GUI. See Generate a Disk License Status File Using the StorNext GUI.

Note: If you use the StorNext GUI to generate a Disk License Status file, skip this section.

If you are using the disk_license(.exe) tool to obtain a Disk License Status file for a High Availability (HA) pair, this procedure will need to be run on both MDC computers.

  1. Execute the command below (disk_license.exe on Windows).

    Note: The Disk License Status file (quantum_disk_license_report.xml) will need to be accessible from a computer with Internet/Web access as an attachment to a web page.

    disk_license_gather quantum_disk_license_report.xml

  2. Once the Disk License Status file (quantum_disk_license_report.xml) is created, it can be submitted to Quantum to request new disk licenses as described in Upload a Disk License Status File to the Disk Licensing Web Form.

    Note: This command disk_license_gather will be removed in a future release of StorNext, when the functionality is included in the command disk_license.

StorNext use a free per-TB license to track disks managed by StorNext. This allows Quantum to provide better support. A StorNext MDC that needs a license will generate a warning message.

Follow the procedure below to upload the Disk License Status file on‑line, and Quantum will generate the appropriate disk licenses for the MDC.

Note: The MDC will continue to operate while licenses are generated.

  1. Use a browser to navigate to https://stornextdisklicense.quantum.com.
  2. In the Customer Contact Information section, complete the form by providing your First Name, Last Name, Company Name, Telephone, and Email.
  3. In the Disk Usage File section, click Choose File and then navigate to the destination folder on your local system where you saved the Disk License Status file from section Generate a Disk License Status File Using the StorNext GUI or Generate a Disk License Report Using disk_license(.exe). For example, /tmp/quantum_disk_license_report.xml.
  4. Click Submit to upload the Disk License Status file.
  5. (Optional) Click Reset to discard your changes.

Note: New disk licenses will be emailed to you automatically. When you receive them, follow the normal instructions for installing new licenses into license.dat. See Enabling and Installing Licenses.

Note: You may also receive a new quantum_disk_catalog.dat. For instructions on installing a new Quantum Disk Certification Catalog, see StorNext Disk Certification Catalog (DCC).