Licenses and Nimbra Console #

Nimbra Console at console.nimbra.io is where you manage your Net Insight licenses. You use it to allocate licenses to appliances and clusters, and to give your colleagues access.

What you can license #

There are three kinds of licenses:

• Appliance licenses unlock features on a single Edge OS appliance, such as the operating system itself, video encoding and decoding, and ASI ports. See Appliance licenses for the full list.
• Nimbra Edge licenses let you install and run Nimbra Edge. Each license has a license key that you enter when you install the software.
• RTUs (rights to use) set how much a Nimbra Edge installation can use a service, such as outputs or transcoding. You buy RTUs for your organization and then divide them between your clusters.

How appliance licenses work #

Each appliance license belongs to one appliance, identified by its serial number. When you allocate a license to a serial number, Nimbra Console adds it to that appliance’s license file. The license file lists the features the appliance is licensed for. Each change gives the file a higher version number.

Allocations are permanent. You cannot move a license to another appliance, so check the serial number before you confirm.

You can allocate a license to a serial number before the appliance is installed or even delivered. The appliance picks up its licenses the first time it can reach Nimbra Console.

How an appliance gets its license file #

An appliance gets its license file in one of three ways:

• Automatically over the internet. An appliance that is not connected to Nimbra Edge checks for a new license file about once a minute. This is on by default.
• Through Nimbra Edge. When the appliance is connected to a Nimbra Edge installation, Nimbra Edge fetches the license file and sends it to the appliance.
• As a file. For an appliance without internet access, you download the license file from Nimbra Console and install it in the appliance’s web interface. See Install an appliance license offline.

An appliance always keeps the newest license file it has received. An older file never replaces a newer one.

Managed and standalone appliances #

A managed appliance is connected to Nimbra Edge, and you set up its inputs and outputs in Network Manager. An Edge Connect appliance can also run in standalone mode, without Nimbra Edge. You then set up inputs and outputs in the appliance’s own web interface.

Standalone mode needs a Standalone license. When you allocate it, Nimbra Console shows an activation key. You enter this key once on the appliance to unlock the streaming software. See Enable standalone mode.

When usage goes beyond your licenses #

Network Manager compares what each appliance is configured to do with its licenses. If an appliance uses more than it is licensed for, Network Manager raises the alarm “Appliance is provisioned beyond its licensed capacity” and lists what is missing. The alarm clears when you allocate the licenses that are missing or reduce what the appliance is set up to do. Streams that are already running are not stopped.

Who can do what #

Everyone in your organization who has a Nimbra Console account can see your licenses, appliances and clusters. Only administrators can allocate licenses and manage users. See Nimbra Console roles.