Licensing in EnsureDR

 

This document will address the following subjects:

      ·       What is covered by the license?

      ·       Adding a license - How to do it.

      ·       Removing a license - Steps to delete.

 

Scope of License Coverage

 

Out of the box, EnsureDR includes an integrated Trial license that enables customers to evaluate the product using a basic health test, restricted to ten devices. To overcome this limitation, customers need to obtain a license that provides access to all advanced testing features. Customers can easily request the EnsureDR product directly from the EnsureDR website.

The table below provides a comparison of licenses:

 

	Free license	Subscription	Paid license
Health test	√	√	√
Boot animation	√	√	√
Networking test	x	√	√
Application test	x	√	√
Custom test	x	√	√
DB test	x	√	√
Maximum number of testing devices	10	*	*
License expires	No	Yes **	No

 

*	Depends on the quantity purchased by the customer
**	Instead of making a one-time purchase for a permanent license, you can subscribe to a monthly or annual fee to use the product

 

Health test

 

The health test is performed on the servers to retrieve the status of a recovered virtual machine within the data center. If the status indicates 'OK', it signifies that the utilized data mover successfully executed the recovery process, registered the restored virtual machine on the DR site, and powered on the virtual machine.

Throughout the health test process, EnsureDR will capture a boot animation as evidence that the recovered virtual machine not only bears the "Powered On" status within VMware but is also genuinely started. This proves particularly valuable when the virtual machine is in a "Powered On" state but encounters an inability to initiate the OS, leading to other tests displaying a no successful.

To conduct this test, customers are required to configure an EnsureDR account with substantial privileges within the VMware data center on the DR site, allowing them to execute this particular type of test.

 

Networking test

 

The networking test evaluates the status of a recovered virtual machine at the network layer by conducting a PING test. For the networking test to be executed effectively, the firewall on a source virtual machine must permit PING requests.

The ping test will be conducted using the computer name, and the ensuing status will cover the resolution of the server's name through DNS records, with documentation in the job log. In situations where the DNS server is unreachable or the DNS record is missing on the DR site, the test will be performed using the IP address, and this result will be logged in the job log.

To conduct this test, it is essential that the firewall does not block the ICMP port. No credentials are required for performing this test.

 

Application test

 

The application test can be conducted on services operating within the recovered virtual machine, revealing the server's current status. If the test is executed and the service status is "not started", the job log will display a "Bad" result. In such cases, customers should inspect the Windows logs to identify the cause behind the service's failure to start.

To perform this test, it's crucial to set up an account with administrator privileges on the source virtual machine that will be recovered by your data mover. If the account lacks the necessary permissions to access the recovered virtual machine, the test result in the job log will be labeled as "Access Denied" and marked as Bad in the report.

 

Custom test

 

EnsureDR provides users with the flexibility to conduct tailored tests, utilizing either a batch file or a PowerShell script. This choice empowers customers to create custom batch files or PowerShell scripts that cater to their unique requirements. To ensure successful validation of the executed script, the developed script should generate a specific output upon successful completion. This designated output must then be incorporated into the job definition during the custom setup process.

To perform this test, it's crucial to set up an account with administrator privileges on the source virtual machine that will be recovered by your data mover. If the account lacks the necessary permissions to access the recovered virtual machine, the test result in the job log will be labeled as "Access Denied" and marked as Bad in the report.

 

DB test

 

The DB test is specifically designed to address the needs of testing MS SQL databases. The customer will define the query that needs to be executed, and the results will be written in the job log. If the query is executed successfully, the test will be marked as 'OK' in the report; otherwise, it will be marked as 'Bad'.

To perform this test, it's crucial to set up an account with MS SQL that has privileges on the tested database in the source virtual machine that will be recovered by your data mover. If the account lacks the necessary permissions to access the database after the virtual machine is restored, the test result in the job log will be labeled as 'Access Denied' and marked as 'Bad' in the report.

 

Web test

 

The Web test is specifically designed to address the need for testing the availability of a website. The customer defines the URL to be checked, and the results will be recorded in the job log. If the test is executed successfully, it will be marked as 'OK' in the report; otherwise, it will be designated as 'Bad'.

There are no prerequisites for this test.

 

Adding the license

 

As we already mentioned, EnsureDR includes an integrated Trial license out of the box. To set up the first job ever with the Trial license, please follow the steps described in the article titled Creating the basic job. 

 

When a customer purchases a full license, EnsureDR will send you the PDF document by mail containing all the details regarding the purchase. The license file will include details about the maximum number of testing devices, the expiration date of the license if set, and the license key that needs to be registered in the EnsureDR console.

 

To add your newly purchased license, you need to open the Chrome browser and navigate to the EnsureDR console. Click on the job icon on a blue background to open list of jobs as shown in the following picture:

 

Once job list is loaded click on the Create Job button and select your data mover

On the first page of edit mode, enter the license name and key. The 'License Name' field is mandatory, but the name can be defined by the customer. This field is not related to any data you see in the received PDF document. In the 'License Key' field, please paste the License key you received in the PDF document. Once the data is entered and you navigate away from the 'License Key' field, EnsureDR will validate the license key. If the entered key is valid, a green checkmark will appear in the License Name and License Key fields, as shown in the following picture.

The green checkmark indicates that you have successfully registered a new license in EnsureDR.

 

Deleting the license

 

In certain scenarios, a customer may need to remove an old license. To be able to remove a license, there are specific prerequisites that must be satisfied in order to successfully remove a license:

• The customer has a new license key that is applied to at least one active jobs.
• The license that the customer would like to delete is not applied to any active job

 

The initial step involves applying a new license to the job, and the process for doing so was detailed in the preceding topic. After the customer has successfully applied a new license and the process has been validated, the customer needs to review all active jobs to ensure that none of them are still assigned to the license they wish to remove. Now that the customer has unassigned the license from all the jobs in the EnsureDR console, we can proceed with the permanent removal of the license.

Open the EnsureDR console, navigate to the list of jobs, choose any job from your list, and then open it in edit mode. From drop down list select License you want to remove.

Once you have selected a license key, click on the pencil icon to the right of the selected License. Then, when the 'Edit License Name' appears in the right pane, click on the Delete button.

When the confirmation dialogue box appears, confirm the deletion of the License by clicking on the 'Yes' button.

A green toast notification will appear in the bottom right corner to confirm the successful removal of the License. If the license cannot be removed, a red toast notification will be displayed in the same corner.