Focus

VM-Series Deployment Guide

License the VM-Series Firewall with API key

Table of Contents

License the VM-Series Firewall with API key

The licensing process for the VM-Series firewall uses the UUID and the CPU ID to generate a unique serial number for each VM-Series firewall. Hence, when you generate a license, the license is mapped to a specific instance of the VM-Series firewall and cannot be modified.

Use the instructions in this section if you are:

Migrating from an evaluation license to a production license.
Upgrading the model to allow for increased capacity. For example you want to upgrade from the VM-100 to the VM-300 model.

Upgrading capacity, which restarts some critical processes on the firewall. An HA configuration is recommended to minimize service disruption; to upgrade the capacity on a HA pair, see Upgrade the VM-Series Model in an HA Pair.
In a private or public cloud deployment, if your firewall is licensed with the BYOL option, you must deactivate your VM before you change the instance type or VM type. Upgrading the model or instance changes the UUID and CPU ID, so you must apply the license when the .

Allocate additional hardware resources to your VM-Series firewall.
Before initiating the capacity upgrade, you must verify that enough hardware resources are available to the VM-Series firewall to support the new capacity. The process for assigning additional hardware resources differs on each hypervisor.
To check the hardware requirements for your new VM-Series model, see VM-Series Models.
Although the capacity upgrade does not require a reboot of the VM-Series firewall, you need to power down the virtual machine to change the hardware allocation.
Retrieve the license API key from the Customer Support portal.
1. Log in to the Customer Support Portal.
  
  Make sure that you are using the same account that you used to register the initial license.
  You must have Super User privileges to retrieve the license API key.
2. Select ProductsAPI Key Management.
3. Copy the API key.
On the firewall, use the CLI to install the API key copied in the previous step.
```
request license api-key set key <key>
						
```
The VM will reboot after you set the API key inside a VM.
( If you have internet access) Enable the firewall to Verify Update Server identity on DeviceSetupService.
Commit your changes. Ensure that you have a locally-configured user on the firewall. Panorama pushed users might not be available after the deactivation if the configuration exceeds the non-licensed PA-VM objects limit.
Upgrade the capacity.
Select DeviceLicensesUpgrade VM Capacity and then activate your licenses and subscriptions in one of the following ways:
- (internet) Retrieve license keys from license server—Use this option if you activated your license on the Customer Support portal.
- (internet) Use an authorization code—Use this option to upgrade the VM-Series capacity using an authorization code for licenses that have not been previously activated on the support portal. When prompted, enter the Authorization Code and then click OK.
- (no internet) Manually upload license key—Use this option if your firewall does not have internet connectivity to the Customer Support portal. From a computer with access to the internet, log in to the CSP, download a license key file, transfer it to a computer in the same network as the firewall, and upload it to the firewall.
Verify that your firewall is licensed successfully.
On the ProductsDevices page, verify that the license was successfully activated.

Upgrade the VM-Series for NSX Without Disrupting Traffic

Upgrade the VM-Series Model in an HA Pair