How to Review Backup Exec SLF File Content

Backup Exec SLF files are text based and are formatted with XML tags. They can therefore be opened for review in any suitable text editor (such as Windows Notepad). Once the file is open it can be seen that it is made up of entries contained between tags in the format
Entry .

The overall content of a license file is made up of an initial Header Section followed by one or more License Key sections and then ending with some closing tags. The license key sections are for the specific product, maintenance or service components within a license file. The maintenance section is used with Backup Exec 16 and earlier license files, Backup Exec (20) uses the service section.

The Header Section

This starts at the beginning of the file and ends at the first entry that starts with . Useful tags within this section are:

This tag is either the Legacy Serial Number (begins with a ‘ M’), or is the new Entitlement ID (begins with an ‘ A’). Both formats of serial number are listed in the same column in the Add License screen within Backup Exec. In the Add License screen, serial numbers staring with ' A' may be listed twice to cover the Product and Maintenance License Keys, where those beginning with ' M' should be unique in the list. For both formats of serial number, the https://supportbackupexec.cloud.com/support-home/home web portal can be used to check the entitlement data by using the drop down in the Licensing --> Entitlements section to choose either Entitlement ID or Legacy Serial Number to perform a search.  If the search does not locate the entitlement, then Customer Care need contacting to research the validity of the license and to confirm which License Portal account is associated with the entitlement.

This tag contains the overall name of the product and usually contains enough detail to confirm the correct product and correct version. The exact text of this varies depending on the product involved although an Appliance license should contain the word Appliance as part of the content. It should be noted that Editions, Agents and Options can all count as Backup Exec 'products' and will be listed with suitable names such as:

This tag is the date (in the format YYYY-MM-DD) the license file was created and should NOT be in the future.

Example license file header section:

The Licence Key Sections:

Each license key section starts with the tag and ends with the tag. Within these tags will be further tags covering various details specific to the license key.

Backup Exec licenses issued under ' M' Serial numbers will only contain one section as separate SLF files were issued to cover different license components. The new Backup Exec licenses, issued after 3rd October 2015, using the Entitlement (serial_numbers that start with ' A') will usually contain at least two sections covering at least one product component and one maintenance component. As such when reviewing license file content check for multiple statements and individually review each key section.   Note: Quickstart Edition and Not for Resale (NFR) licenses do not include Maintenance. 

Useful tags within the license key sections that cover Product License Keys are:

This tag contains an acronym such as "SERVER", "RAWS", "CAP", "BackupExec_License:SIL" etc. Where the acronyms represent specific Backup Exec 'products' 
This tag is a numeric value representing the product version, where Backup Exec (20) is 20.0, Backup Exec 16 is 16.0, Backup Exec 15 is 14.2, Backup Exec 2014 is 14.1 and Backup Exec 2012 is 14.0.
This tag is not seen in this section for Backup Exec 16 and earlier. It shows the date the license begins (in YYYY-MM-DD format) and should match the date in the Service section. The date should be in the past as, for some older Backup Exec versions, the license key would not be accepted if the date was in the future (and Customer Care would need to be contacted to re-issue)
This tag is not seen in this section for Backup Exec 16 and earlier. It shows the date the license ends (in YYYY-MM-DD format) and should match the date in the Service section. For valid subscriptions it should be in the future.
This tag applies to products that might need a specific count for instance: the number of GB for Backup Exec (20) Gold, Silver and Bronze Edition Licenses  (when 1024 = 1TB) or the number of TB  for Capacity Licenses against older versions (when 1 = 1TB), the number of V-Ray host licenses or the number of Library Expansion Option licenses etc.
for Backup Exec (20) editions this tag will show "PER-GIGABYTE", for Backup Exec 16 and earlier Capacity Editions this tag will show "PER-TERABYTE" and for a-la-carte licenses this tag will show "PER-SERVER"
For Backup Exec (20) editions this tag will contain the word "SUBSCRIPTION", currently for all other Backup Exec license keys, this tag should contain the word 'PERPETUAL'. This tag may not be present within license files issued against 'M' Serial numbers.
<product_edition> This tag is not seen in this section for Backup Exec 16 and earlier, it is only present in license files used by the Backup Exec (20) Editions and will contain one of "GOLD", "SILVER" or "BRONZE"

Example product license key for 10TB of Backup Exec 16 Capacity Edition:

Useful tags within the license key sections that cover Maintenance License Keys are:

When associated with the maintenance part(s) of a license file, should contain the text 'BE_Support'. As this name does not match the 'product' the maintenance applies to, then the key in the header can be used to confirm the product (or alternatively the entry for the <be_pid> tag can be used to find the Product section associated with this maintenance section.)
This tag is a numeric value representing the product version, where Backup Exec 16 is 16.0, Backup Exec 15 is 14.2, Backup Exec 2014 is 14.1 and Backup Exec 2012 is 14.0.
This tag shows the date the maintenance agreement starts (in YYYY-MM-DD format) and will not be present in the sections dealing with Product License Keys. The date should be in the past as, for some older Backup Exec versions, the license key would not be accepted if the date was in the future (and Customer Care would need to be contacted to re-issue)
This tag shows the date the maintenance agreement ends (in YYYY-MM-DD format) and will not be present in the sections dealing with Product License Keys. Against core products (Server or Server Editions) the date in this tag determines the countdown inside the Backup Exec console. For valid maintenance it should be in the future.
This will always be 1 for a Maintenance License Key
For Backup Exec maintenance license keys this tag should contain the word 'MAINTENANCE'

Example Maintenance license key for Backup Exec 16:

Useful tags with the license key sections that cover Service are:

<name> Confirms the service level of the edition e.g "BackupExec_Service:SIL" for the Backup Exec (20) Silver Edition
This tag is a numeric value representing the product version, where Backup Exec (20) is 20.0
This tag shows the date the service starts (in YYYY-MM-DD format) and should match the date in the section dealing with the Product License. The date should be in the past as, for some older Backup Exec versions, the license key would not be accepted if the date was in the future (and Customer Care would need to be contacted to re-issue)
This tag shows the date the service ends (in YYYY-MM-DD format) and should match the date in the section dealing with Product License Key. For valid subscription it should be in the future.
<ipl_product_id> For Backup Exec (20) this will show "BE200"
<service_type> For Backup Exec (20) Subscription Editions this will show "SUBSCRIPTION"

Example Service license key for Backup Exec (20) Silver (subscription) Edition:

BackupExec_Service:SIL
20.0
2017-12-07
2018-12-06
BE200
F91
SUBSCRIPTION


 

Closing Tags:

The closing tags are made up of just two entries and form the last lines of the file as follows:

Comments:

• To contact either Customer Care (Licensing) OR Technical Support use the details provided at https://supportbackupexec.cloud.com/support-home/home
• This article does not list all the specific Backup Exec ,  and content as there are a number of possibilities and the exact lists are subject to change against different Backup Exec versions.
• All SLF files issued for, or present on, a given Backup Exec server should be reviewed.
• The information in this article also applies to SLF files written into the C:\ProgramData\veritas Shared\Licenses\Backup Exec\nn.n path by the Automated (In Product) licensing method that uses the internet to validate a license based on an entered serial number instead of Importing an actual SLF file.
• When reviewing SLF content, check for incorrect product, incorrect versions, incorrect counts or invalid dates
• Backup Exec 2012 does not display the maintenance dates for the new style combined licenses (those with serial numbers beginning with A.) This version was already End-of-Life when these new style license became available and there are no plans to address this issue. (Affected customers need to upgrade)
• If the overall content of the SLF file(s) appear to be incorrect but what is seen inside the SLF file(s) matches what can be seen inside of Backup Exec then consider contacting your reseller to confirm what was purchased before contacting the Backup Exec Customer Care team via the support contact details. Tech Support cannot directly assist with this type of issue. 
• If the overall content of an SLF file appears to be correct but the license is not accepted by the Backup Exec installer then the license itself is invalid or corrupt and Customer Care may need to issue a replacement (although if required Backup Exec Technical Support can assist with performing internal tests of the SLF files to confirm the issue.)
• If the overall content of an SLF file appears to be correct and the installer accepts the import, but the licenses cannot be seen inside Backup Exec or they are seen but appear to not be working as expected then Backup Exec Technical Support should be involved to look into the problem.
• Be prepared to provide the SLF files and/or any license purchase information (PDF documents) to the support engineers or Customer Care team members handling your issue. 

Steps to download the Backup Exec Licenses, Installation Files, Updates, Feature Pack, Service Pack, Hotfix and Patches within VEMS

IMPORTANT:  
The information in this document applies only to Backup Exec license files and is not applicable to other product licensing.
To avoid accidental editing of the SLF file, copy the original file to a temporary location before opening it from that location.   Do not attempt to edit (modify and save) the original SLF file content as this could corrupt the license and cause backup failures.
In this article examples are provided against the content of some typical license files. In the provided examples, where ... is seen, this means one or more lines that are not critical to understand the basic information within the license file have been removed for simplicity.

Should a Backup Exec administrator experience issues when applying licenses using SLF files, it can be difficult to understand if the issue is a product issue within Backup Exec, an invalid license file or the supplied file is valid but does not contain the expected or required licenses. Depending on the problem the issue would usually be handled by a different team.

For instance, product issues against Backup Exec are usually handled by Technical Support, invalid license files are usually the Customer Care (Licensing Team) and a valid license file containing the wrong licenses might be the reseller or Customer Care. Due to the different responsibilities of the teams it is therefore important to be able to review the content of a Backup Exec SLF file and this article explains the key entries within such files.