Migrate to the new Splunk licenser

Migrate to the new Splunk licenser

This topic discusses how to migrate your license configuration from a pre-4.2 Splunk deployment to the new (4.2+) licenser model. This topic does not cover migration of an entire Splunk deployment, review this migration topic in the Installation Manual for information before you migrate your Splunk deployment.

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.

Old licenses

Migrating from an older version most likely puts you in one of these two categories:

• If you are currently running Splunk 4.0 or later, your license will work in 4.2.
• If you're migrating from a version older than 4.0, you must contact your Splunk Sales representative and arrange for a new license. Splunk also recommends you review the migration documentation before proceeding with the migration. Depending on how old your version of Splunk is, you might want to migrate in multiple steps to maintain your configurations.

Migrating search heads

If your search heads were previously using old forwarder licenses, they will be automatically converted to be in the Download-trial group. Before you proceed, Splunk recommends adding your search heads to an established Enterprise license pool.

Migrate a standalone instance

If you've got a single 4.1.x Splunk indexer and it has a single license installed on it, you can just proceed as normal with your upgrade. Follow the instructions in the Installation Manual for your platform, and be sure to read the "READ THIS FIRST" documentation first.

Your existing license will work with the new licenser, and will show up as a valid stack, with the indexer as a member of the default pool.

Migrate a distributed indexing deployment

If you've got multiple 4.1.x indexers, each with their own licenses, follow these high-level steps in order to migrate the deployment:

• Designate one of your Splunk instances as the license master. If you've got a search head, this is likely a good choice.
• Install or upgrade the Splunk instance you have chosen to be the license master, following the standard instructions in the Installation Manual.
• Configure the license master to accept connections from the indexers as desired.
• Upgrade each indexer one at a time, following these steps:
  • Upgrade an indexer to 4.2 following the instructions in the Installation Manual. It will be operating as a stand-alone license master until you perform the following steps.
  • Make a copy of the indexer's Enterprise license file (pre-4.2 license files are located in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/splunk.license on each indexer) and install it onto the license master, adding it to the stack and pool to which you want to add the indexer.
  • Configure the indexer as a license slave and point it at the license master.
  • On the license master, confirm that the license slave is connecting as expected by navigating to Manager > Licensing and looking at the list of indexers associated with the appropriate pool.
  • Once you've confirmed the license slave is connecting as expected, proceed to upgrade the next indexer, following the same steps.

Migrate forwarders

If you have deployed light forwarders, review the information in this chapter about the new universal forwarder in the new Distributed Deployment Manual. You can upgrade your existing light fowarders to the new universal forwarders, no licensing configuration is required--the universal forwarder includes its own license.

If you have deployed a heavy forwarder (a full instance of Splunk that performs indexing before forwarding to another Splunk instance), you can treat it like an indexer--add it to a license pool along with the other indexers.

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