Switching Aspera HSTS from License Key to Entitlement

IBM Aspera offers two licensing options for High-Speed Transfer Server, the main server engine that powers Aspera FASP transfer sessions. The first model licenses each installation by server with a bandwidth cap. The second model allows unlimited installations and bandwidth, and is entitled according to how much data volume (bytes in + out) is sent over a year.

Many customers are changing to this volume entitlement to allow more flexibility in number of servers deployed and overall throughput.

This article describes how to switch an existing High-Speed Transfer Server from a license key to an entitlement.

Connectivity

There is a service that runs on your HSTS host that needs outbound connectivity on tcp/443 to the IBM Aspera entitlement service. This service will register your HSTS install and send simple byte counts to track against your annual allotment. Please open tcp/443 outbound.

Enabling the Entitlement Service and Registration

Log in to your HSTS host and open a root prompt, then run the following:

1. Run ascp -A to view your current license. Note the customer ID, license ID and bandwidth limitation.
2. Run /opt/aspera/bin/asalee-config.sh enable to enable the asperalee entitlement service.
3. Locate your customer ID and entitlement ID. These should come directly from IBM, or may be given out by the primary Aspera administrator in large organizations.
4. Run /opt/aspera/bin/alee-admin register customer_ID entitlement_ID to register your server.
5. Run systemctl restart asperanoded to restart the main Aspera Node daemon.
6. Run ascp -A to verify your server is using the new entitlement.