The license servers authenticate VMware Smart Assurance applications. Without proper licensing, the applications will not work correctly. Licenses control access to applications and features as well as limit the number of systems discovered.

It is recommended that the license server runs on the same host as the Broker—all applications need to be able to access the license server. However, an existing FLEXnet License Server may be used if it meets the VMware Smart Assurance specifications. If there is more than one Broker for the installation, there may be good reason to use more than one license server.

In certain cases, you may use multiple license servers in your network for the same reasons that you split a topology or choose different locations for the Domain Managers: geographical requirements, corporate organizational requirements, or the network’s security design. Multiple license servers would require the corresponding number of licenses.

When multiple license servers are used, each domain will use blocks of licenses from a specific license server. Therefore, the license blocks must be divided among multiple licenses and the appropriate license must be deployed to each license server. Then, the Domain Managers that rely on a specific license server will have the appropriate licenses to support the systems that they must manage.

Collect the following information for each license server and add it to the deployment build guide:

  • The host ID of the computer where the FLEXnet license server is running

  • The expected installation path to BASEDIR/smarts/bin on your broker (or to the VMware Smart Assurance installation from which you want to run the license server)

  • The operating system of the computer

  • The port number used

    The VMware Smart Assurance System Administration Guide provides additional information.