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Licensing VMware vFabric Suite 5.1 (2021350)
Purpose
This article provides steps on licensing vFabric Suite 5.1.
Resolution
VMware vFabric 5 was released in 2011 as an Integrated Application Platform for Virtual and Cloud Environments. Available in Standard and Advanced Editions, vFabric 5 is:
Licensed for virtual and cloud through a conversion to a virtual machine-based approach to pricing.
Packaged for simplicity and reuse as each licensed vFabric virtual machine can run any or all of the software within Fabric Standard or vFabric Advanced.
Engineered for vSphere and Spring to make vFabric the best place to run Spring applications on vSphere, with features such as Elastic Memory for Java (EM4J) and Spring Insight Operations.
vFabric Suite Standard and vFabric Suite Advanced packages are licensed on a per-virtual machine and average-usage basis, exclusively for virtual and cloud environments. You obtain a pool of licenses that you activate by adding only one license key to vCenter Server through the vSphere client. Rather than installing a license key on each virtual machine, you register one license key with vCenter that represents the number of license units that you have purchased.
Licensing for standalone vFabric components
If you purchase a vFabric component individually, rather than as part of a vFabric Suite Standard or Advanced package, you install license keys locally, on one or more physical or virtual machines. Local licensing does not involve integration with vCenter and the vFabric License Server. It allows you to install and run the product on physical as well as virtual machines.
Note: To license a vFabric product on an individual basis, refer to the documentation for that product. Each product implements licensing in a slightly different way.
Licensing vFabric Suite 5.1
To license vFabric Suite:
Log into the vSphere Client.
Click Home. Under the Administration section, click the Licensing icon.
Click Manage vSphere Licenses.
Enter the license key in the Enter new vSphere license keys field (one per line).
Include labels for new license keys as necessary.
Click Add License Keys.
Repeat these steps to add additional license keys.
Click Next and follow the prompts until the Confirm Changes window, verify the changes, then click Finish.
The license keys are displayed in the main vCenter Licensing window under the name VMware vFabric Suite Standard / Advanced, depending on the vFabric Suite package you purchased.
Note: The vCenter Licensing page displays only the capacity of your vFabric Suite license, and does not track the number of licenses currently assigned.
Activating a local Web Server license
To activate a local Web Server license:
On the computer where Web Server is installed, paste the serial number into a text file named vf.ws-serial-numbers.txt.
Save this file to the directory appropriate to your operating system:
Windows: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\VMware\vFabric\
Unix: /etc/opt/vmware/vfabric/
Ensure that the file is readable by the user who runs the Web Server instance. Because this user is typically root, no additional steps are normally required.
Activating a local vPostgres license
The vPostgres database supports two mechanisms for validating the license:
Local, using a serial number in a file that you create in the virtual machine.
Server-based, which validates the license by communicating with the vFabric Suite license server.
Installing a local vPostgres Standard Edition license
To install a vFabric Suite serial number in the guest operating system of your virtual machine:
Log in as the root user.
Create a text file in the virtual machine named /etc/opt/vmware/vfabric/vf.vpg-serial-numbers.txt containing your valid license number:
If vPostgres does not find this file, it will attempt to use the vFabric license server. If the license server does not respond, vPostgres will fall back to using the remainder of the evaluation license. For more information about vFabric licenses, see the vFabric Suite Documentation.
Note: vFabric Application Director 1.0 users must download and install the VMware vFabric Application Director Activation Key to activate the product during installation. This key is different from the vFabric Suite license key, which will not activate Application Director.
Additional Information
For more information, see these sections in the vFabric Suite 5.1 Documentation:
