PowerStore: How to Activate and Regenerate a PowerStore License

All appliances come with a 30-day trial license to allow the configuration to proceed until licensing can be completed.

The PowerStore attempts to connect to Dell every 24 hours to activate the license. The appliance must have access to the Internet in order for automatic license activation to work. 

Note: If external Internet access is not available, you must follow the Manual Licensing-New steps outlined below.

Manual Licensing-New

If the appliance has never been activated or you do not initially have access to the Internet, these steps can be followed to manually obtain a license file.

1. Go to MyAccount
2. Log in with account credentials.
3. Under Software Licenses and Subscriptions, select Software Licenses, and then License Activation
4. In Search, enter the appliance Service Tag, and choose to Search by LAC
5. Check the box next to the identified PowerStore appliance, which may read as PowerStore Base SW
6. Select Next 
7. In the Add New Machine field, insert the Service Tag
8. In the Locking ID field, insert the Service Tag again (ensure that Machine Name and Locking ID match at this step)
9. Select Next 
10. Enter the email address to send the license key to. If more than one, separate by a comma.
11. You see confirmation that the product has been activated and the license files have been emailed.
12. You also have the option to download the license file directly from this page by selecting Actions > Download License
13. Upload the license file in PowerStore Manager.
    1. Navigate to the Settings menu.
    2. Select Licensing.
    3. Click Install License.
    4. On Step 3, click the Choose File button.
    5. Upload the .xml file downloaded earlier.
    6. Confirm the status changes to Active.

Manual Licensing-Previously Issued

If the appliance was activated previously, these steps can be followed to download the original license file:

1. Go to MyAccount
2. Log in with account credentials.
3. Select Certificate
4. In the search bar, enter the Service Tag of the PowerStore Appliance and select Search by LAC or Search by Machine Name
5. Confirm that the Machine Name and Locking ID match, then select Actions > View Certificate
6. Select Actions > Download License (this downloads the XML file to your local system)
7. Upload the license file in PowerStore Manager.
   1. Navigate to the Settings menu.
   2. Select Licensing.
   3. Click Install License.
   4. On Step 3, click the Choose File button.
   5. Upload the .xml file downloaded earlier.
   6. Confirm the status changes to Active.

Note: Each appliance is licensed individually. Once all members in the cluster are licensed, the licensing UI displays as Active.

Troubleshooting Manual Licensing Failures on PowerStore

1. Confirm the license file extension (*.xml) is uploaded.
2. Open the *.xml file and inspect the contents.

• Confirm BOTH the <LockingID> and <MachineName> values contain ONLY the Service tag of the PowerStore Appliance. (Must be in all CAPS.)
• If these do not match, correct the values on MyAccount and capture the corrected license file. 

If the above fails to provide a solution or for assistance with Transformational License Agreement (TLA) license types, contact a technical support representative who can facilitate a case with the licensing team.

Troubleshooting Automatic Licensing Failures on PowerStore

Note: Automatic licensing does not support Transformational License Agreement (TLA) type licenses. This license type must be manually activated.

Confirm that you can resolve the DNS name of the license server ssgosge.emc.com and connect to port 443 from any Windows or Linux system in the environment.

• ncat is available for many operating systems as open source, https://nmap.org/ncat/
• ncat is not available for the service user on PowerStore.
• The license server does not respond to ping.

nc -vz ssgosge.emc.com 443
Ncat: Version 7.50 ( https://nmap.org/ncat  )
Ncat: Connected to 168.159.208.38:443  <<Successful Connection
Ncat: 0 bytes sent, 0 bytes received in 0.07 seconds.

nc -vz ssgosge123.emc.com 443
Ncat: Version 7.50 ( https://nmap.org/ncat  )
Ncat: Could not resolve hostname "ssgosge123.emc.com": Name or service not known. QUITTING.  <<Cannot resolve DNS name

nc -vz ssgosge.emc.com 440
Ncat: Version 7.50 ( https://nmap.org/ncat  )
Ncat: Connection timed out.  <<Failed connection to port

If the above fails to provide insight to a problem, contact a technical support representative referencing this article.