Now before upgrading your F5 device its always recommended that admin should reactivate the license. What happens during this process is that the service check date would get updated in bigip.license file which will then allow you to upgrade to the latest and greatest firmware. This is based on your active support contract. The F5 license server returns a license. On the standby F5 product, use the vi text editor to edit the previously truncated /config/bigip.license file, or in the case of activating a new license to create a new/config/bigip.license file. Apr 28, 2015 If the service check date in your bigip.license file is earlier than the license check date for the software version you are attempting to install, you must reactivate the system’s license before upgrading. Reactivation can be done in two ways, the traditional method via the web GUI: (System- license- Reactivate) requires us to return to.
F5 license activation or reactivation is very simple. There are basically two reason why you reactivate your license.
1. You are adding a new module to your device with an add-on key.
2. You want to do an upgrade. The Software image needs to know that you have an active support contract to successfully install. You will see that there is a service check date in the install. If your support contract runs out/ your license expires you won’t be able to do any upgrades beyond that date.
To reactivate the license on your device follow these easy steps:
Click on License under the System menu. You will see the type of license. The license and expiration date, the licensed modules and the optional modules that can be activated with an add-on key. At the bottom of the screen click activate.
If your F5 has internet access and DNS setup, you can select automatic activation. In all likelihood you will need to chose the manual method. The timeout takes a while for automatic if its going to fail, so I usually just go with manual from the start.
The easiest way is the Copy/Paste Text option. I like to just copy and paste the license. Under Step 1: Dossier select and copy the contents of the text box. Next click on the link under Step 2.
You will be taken to the F5 license activation server. Paste the Dossier you copied from your F5 into the text box and click next.
F5 will now generate your license. Copy the entire content of the textbox and return to your F5 GUI.
Paste the license text into the text box under Step 3 and click next at the bottom of the screen.
Your F5 will reload the license.
And you’re all done! Easy, right?
Want to try on the CLI? Use the get_dossier command to create the dossier as above:
And follow the steps above to F5 License Activation server
Copy the license that the F5 license activation server generates and overwrite your /config/bigip.license file using your favorite text editor and use the reloadlic command to read the new license(In vi its “dGi” to delete the whole contents and enter insert mode, and then CTRL-V or Command-V to paste the whole file in and type the Escape key, :wq to save):
I had to upgrade the software on my F5 BIG-IP LTM’s this week and initially got a little confused with the License & Service check dates. Here’s what it all means.
– The Service Check Date is in the license file and is updated each time the license is reactivated, during reactivation it will only be updated if there is an active service contract for this BIG-IP system. If you have an active support contract then be sure to reactivate your license prior to upgrade (System > License > Click Re-activate [In the Activation Method area, select the Automatic or manual and following the onscreen instructions].
F5 Reactivate License Vcmp
– The license check date is a static date built into the software for BIG-IP 9.2.0 and later. The following F5 doc has a table which shows the license check dates for each software version (for example BIG-IP 11.6.0 = 2014-08-05):
https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/700/sol7727.html
F5 Reactivate License Keys
The Bottom line is:
The Service Check Date MUST BE LATER than the License Check Date.
Login to your F5 using SSH and run the following command:
F5 Reactivate License Renewal
[admin@hostname:Active] ~ # grep “Service check date” /config/bigip.license
Service check date : 20150511
As you can see the Service Check Date is 20150511.
F5 Reactivate License Number
As explained above, check the following doc to establish the license check date for your software version:
https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/7000/700/sol7727.html
F5 Reactivate License Number
Again, the service check date must be later than the license check date otherwise the configuration on your device will fail to load post upgrade.
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