Release License

I need to retain their old backups till their retention is over.

  - Delete the client resources

  - Delete their index directories

That should do the trick. I think you do not need to restart NW.

Infact, my envrionment has 59 client resources defined. 59 unique Index entries under the Media Tab and only 30 having active scheduled backups on a daily basis. Both nsrlic -vvv & license conformance report show me 100% OK in client connections.

So I just want to diable a few more, release client connections from here while retaining the client resurces & Indexes and then add 2 more to active schedules to run daily.

It has not yet released the licenses so I am a bit worried.

I am pretty sure that this will not work.

The reason is obvious - with your method, it would be pretty simple to cheat:

  - run backups

  - disable clients

  - use the licenses for other clients but still recover the old ones

You could even think about an intelligent cycle which 'moves' licenses around.

It is only logical that such methods will be suppressed.

Well our idea definetely is not to create an intelligent cycle as we have many other tasks to handle than to daily keep swapping schedules.

Infact, as I mentioned earleir...there are 59 client resources with indexes so why did it not warn on the previous 30 licenses. The only thing I see as a difference is that this is the first time we are decommissioning any clients since upgrade to 8.2.

Was this change done in 8.x?

AFAIR this has been the old licensing scheme for more than 20 years.

If you want to get rid of client licensing you must switch to volume based licensing. That's what we have been using for 6 years now.

If the clients are just using client connection licenses, then there is no need to worry about client licenses being used up.

The client connection license is check at backup time...  so as long as the client is no longer being backed up, then it will not consume any client connection license.

However, if the client uses a NetWorker Module license for backups, then these licenses are permanently assigned to a NetWorker client resource.  In this case, to release these license so that they can be reassigned to a different client, you can simply delete the license, and then re-add it back.  Before deleting, note the enabler and auth codes.

If you are using the capacity based based enabler code, then there is no need to worry, since you are licensed based on the amount of backup capacity, not on number of clients.

Hope this helps.

Wallace wrote: However, if the client uses a NetWorker Module license for backups, then these licenses are permanently assigned to a NetWorker client resource.  In this case, to release these license so that they can be reassigned to a different client, you can simply delete the license, and then re-add it back.  Before deleting, note the enabler and auth codes.

You can also delete it from client resource by using nsradmin.

Client license normally is kind of floating, or at least it was that way in previous NW releases where after some time you see that it goes away from list of used ones.  If you have client which you no longer use, you can then delete the client and problem solved.

The client will only consume a client connection license at backup time.  So if you do not start a backup of this client, then it will not consume a client license.

I would not delete the client resource.  Instead, I would recommend modifying the NetWorker client resource so that the client is not part of any NetWorker group.  Also deselect the scheduled backup box.  This way, it serves as a visual reminder that NetWorker may still have savesets that you can still recover from.  It will also make it easier in the future in case you need to recover data from this client, because the client has to be defined before you can recover from it.

The metadata that is stored in the client file index will also eventually be removed due to the client's browse policy, so you may want to perform a final full backup of the NetWorker client's client file index.  This will also make it easier should you wish to later recover data from this client.