Here’s the procedure to add a license to an Avamar server as of 4/1/2016. This only needs to be ran on the Utility node, is non-disruptive, and takes very little time. The only delay you might run into is reviving the relevant info, and the license itself, from EMC.
Generating a License Key Information File
Start by opening a SSH session into the utility node as the admin user and run the following commands.
cd /tmp ssh-agent bash ssh-add ~admin/.ssh/admin_key
Enter the admin_key password if promoted (default is P3t3rPan).
gathergsankeydata
After you run gathergsankeydata you will be promoted to two bits of information, a customer account ID and an asset reference ID. Please consult with your EMC representative to determine what to use here.
Once you enter that information a file will be generated in the /tmp directory called “gsankeydata.xml” which you need to pull off the node to generate the license key itself. I use WinSCP and send the license to licensing@emc.com along with the EMC Sales Order number under which the licensing was purchased. You also need to include the requested license size in TBs.
Note, I don’t have access to the new licensing portal so I can’t comment on how that process looks at this point.
Applying a License Key
After a day or two, sooner if you’re lucky, EMC will send you back the license key itself. The license key will also be a .xml file and named something like Judsonian_1547876-Aprl-2016.xml. If they send it enclosed in a .zip then you’ll have remove the .xml from the archive before proceeding.
With the license key on hand, use WinSCP and upload it to the /tmp directory on the Utility node. After which, SSH back into the Utility node, and run the following commands…
cd /tmp ssh-agent bash ssh-add ~admin/.ssh/admin_key dpnctl status gsan
At this point the system should respond that the gsan is up and running (if not, you may want to contact EMC support unless you have it down for other reasons).
If the gsan is running, run the following commands…
chmod 644 License-File.xml avmaint license License-File.xml --avamaronly
If the gsan is not running, run the following commands…
cd /usr/local/avamar/etc mv license.xml license.xml.old cp /tmp/License-File.xml license.xml chmod 644 license.xml
You can confirm that the license has been successfully implied by running…
avmaint license --avamaronly
And that’s all there is to it! Why they haven’t just added a quick GUI method within the Avamar Console by this point, I have no idea.