Configure a license master

Configure a license master

This topic discusses configuring a Splunk instance as a license master. Before you proceed, you may want to review these topics:

• Read "How Splunk licensing works" in this manual for an introduction to Splunk licensing.
• Read "Groups, stacks, pools, and other terminology" in this manual for more information about Splunk license terms.

Kinds of license masters

There are two basic styles of license master:

• Standalone license master
  • If you have a single Splunk indexer and want to manage its licenses, you can run it as its own license master, install one or more Enterprise licenses on it and it will manage itself as a license slave.
  • When you first download and install Splunk, it includes a 500MB 60-day Enterprise Trial license. This instance of Splunk is automatically configured as a stand-alone license master, and you cannot create a pool or define any license slaves for this type of license. If you want to create one or more stacks or pools and assign multiple indexers to them, you must purchase and install an Enterprise license. To install a license, follow the instructions in "Install a license" in this manual.
• Central license master
  • If you have more than one indexer and want to manage their access to purchased license capacity from a central location, configure a central license master and add the indexers to it as license slaves.
  • If the license master is also an indexer, it will be its own license master as well, but Splunk recommends that if you have a search head, you designate it as the license master.
  • If you have a large environment with multiple search heads, you might want to have some or all search heads that are not the license master distribute searches to the license master, for two reasons:
    • You can run searches against the license logs.
    • If an unusual condition occurs on the search head (for example you have a time-limited license and it will expire in 5 days), this condition will be visible on the search head when running a search, as part of the info messages attached to search results.

Configure a central license master

By default, a standalone instance of Splunk is its own license master. To configure a central license master, install one or more Enterprise licenses.

Once an Enterprise license is installed, you can create one or more stacks and pools to access the installed license, and manage them from the license master.

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