Product Keys

Some features offered on Solace event brokers are locked and can only be accessed through a product key provided by Solace.

For instructions for installing product keys, see Entering Product Keys to Unlock Services.

Product Keys on Appliance Event Brokers

In some cases a product key may have already been entered for an Solace Appliance Event Broker before it was shipped to your site, in other cases you can manually enter a product key for an appliance event broker that is already in use. To review the features that require a product key, see Appliance Event Broker Features that Require Product Keys .

If a product key is added for a feature on an appliance event broker, no existing product keys and unlocked features are affected. For example, if a product key for Solace Cache service was already entered, and a new, combined product key for Solace Cache service and High-performance Guaranteed Messaging is subsequently entered, the earlier Solace Cache product key and the service that it unlocked remain, and no service or configuration changes occur for it.

If a product key is removed, a system restart will be triggered and all configuration related to the features unlocked by that key will be lost if no other product key is currently registered for those features. For example, if you remove a product key for Solace Cache, the appliance event broker will restart if that was the only product key registered for Solace Cache. However, if another product key for Solace Cache service was registered (say the combined Solace Cache and High-performance Guaranteed Messaging) because the use of Solace Cache is still supported by a valid license, the event broker servicewill not restart and any existing Solace Cache configuration parameters will remain.

Appliance Event Broker Features that Require Product Keys

Features that are locked on appliance event brokers include Solace Cache service and optional higher-performance levels for some ADB models.

Solace Cache

A product key is required to enable Solace Cache service on any appliance event broker that is acting as a Designated Router. Solace Cache provides a scalable, in-memory message cache for Direct messages.

When the Solace Cache service is locked, no aspect of it is configurable or enabled to be displayed. The CLI commands relating to the features are still visible in the Solace Event Broker CLI, but the command fails to run when executed and returns an error message indicating the features are locked.

High-Performance Guaranteed Messaging

A product key is required to increase the Guaranteed messaging performance of some ADBs installed inappliance event brokers (for example, ADB-000000-02 and ADB-04210M-01). This increase performance provides higher maximum ingress message rates (in msg/sec) and maximum ingress bandwidth (in Gbps).

Product Keys on Software Event Brokers

You can manually enter a product key to enable locked features for a software event broker. You can enter this key during container initialization using a configuration key (see Initializing a Software Event Broker Container), or while the event broker is in use, via the Solace Event Broker CLI. To review the features that require a product key, see below.

Software Event Broker Features that Require Product Keys

On software event brokers, a product key is required to enable the optional increase to the Message VPN limit. In addition, you can use a product key to upgrade from the Solace Standard Edition to Solace Enterprise Edition or appliance event broker 90-day evaluation.

Upgrade to Solace Enterprise Edition

You can use a product key to upgrade from the Solace Standard Edition to the Solace Enterprise Edition. Contact Solace to get the product key.

Evaluate the Solace Enterprise Edition

You can use a 90-day evaluation of the Solace Enterprise Edition by installing the Solace Standard Edition and entering a free product key. To get the product key, go to solace.com/downloads and select Solace Event Broker Enterprise Evaluation.

After the Solace Enterprise Edition key is installed, the event broker will cease to function after 90 days, and all configuration will be lost unless you upgrade to the Enterprise edition before the 90 day expiration. Contact Solace for assistance.

For instructions for installing product keys, see Product Keys .

Entering Product Keys to Unlock Services

To unlock a feature on a Solace event broker that requires a product key, enter the following commands:

solace> enable
solace# admin
solace(admin)# product-key <key-value>

Where:

<key-value> is the Solace-provided product key.

You must restart the event broker for the change to take effect.

To determine whether a product key to unlock those optional features was pre-entered by Solace, enter the following command:

solace> show product-key

Any product keys currently in use, and the features that they unlock, are displayed.

Displaying Product Keys in Use

To display the current product keys in use for a Solace event broker and the services that they provide, enter the following command:

solace> show product-key