Using the vxlicinstupgrade utility

Last published : Jun 11, 2026
The vxlicinstupgrade utility enables you to perform the following tasks:
  • Upgrade to another Veritas InfoScale product
  • Update a temporary license to a permanent license
  • Manage co-existence of multiple licenses
On executing the vxlicinstupgrade utility, the following checks are done:
  • If the current license key is keyless or user-defined and if the user is trying to install the keyless or user defined key of the same product.
Example: If the 7.3 Foundation Keyless license key is already installed on a system and the user tries to install another 7.3 Foundation Keyless license key, then vxlicinstupgrade utility shows an error message:
 vxlicinstupgrade WARNING: The input License key and Installed key
are same.
-  If the current key is keyless and the newly entered license key is user-defined of the same product

Example: If the 7.3 Foundation Keyless license key is already installed on a system and the user tries to install 7.3 Foundation user-defined license, then the ``vxlicinstupgrade`` utility installs the new licenses at ``/etc/vx/licenses/lic`` and all the 7.3 Foundation Keyless keys are deleted and backed up at ``/var/vx/licenses/lic<date-timestamp>``.

-  If the current key is of higher version and the user tries to install a lower version license key.

Example: If the 7.3 Enterprise license key is already installed on a system and the user tries to install the 6.0 SFSTD license key, then the ``vxlicinstupgrade`` utility shows an error message:
 vxlicinstupgrade WARNING: The input License key is lower than the
Installed key.
  • If the current key is of a lower version and the user tries to install a higher version license key.
Example: If 6.0 SFSTD license key is already installed on a system and the user tries to install 7.3 Storage license key, then the vxlicinstupgrade utility installs the new licenses at /etc/vx/licenses/lic and all the 6.0 SFSTD keys are deleted and backed up at /var/vx/licenses/lic<date-timestamp>.
Supported Co-existence scenarios:
  • InfoScale Foundation and InfoScale Availability
  • InfoScale Storage and InfoScale Availability
Example: If the 7.3 Foundation or 7.3 Storage license key is already installed and the user tries to install 7.3 Availability license key or vice -versa, then the vxlicinstupgrade utility installs the new licenses and both the keys are preserved at /etc/vx/licenses/lic.
Note: When registering license keys manually during upgrade, you have to use thevxlicinstupgradecommand. When registering keys using the installer script, the same procedures are performed automatically.
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