DR - 2 SH License master with one license

[hsbcboscnicolas]

Hi,
Architecture
I have a multisite cluster with one search head on each site (but no search head cluster).
I have 3 indexers on each site, part of the cluster.
The 2 search head are configured as license master, both are up, but only one is active (F5 for failover is setup'ed).

Issue
I still get 'Duplicated License situation happen on peer XXXX because it has the same license key=XXXX as this searchhead=YYYY but searchhead's license master=AAAAA != peer's license_master=BBBBB please fix this issue in 72 hours, otherwise search will be disabled '

Question
Do i need to configure a SH cluster ?
The goal is to switch datacenter without manual action in case of DR .

Thanks for your help

[tiagofbmm]

First, no you don't need to have a Search Head Cluster.

Second, you are saying that you have the same license in the peer and a search head. So if that is the case, your problem is between one Search Head (which is apparently you License Master), and each of the peers that may have the same license installed.

Why don't you have all the peers as slave licenses from the same license? You only need to have one License installed in one place: the License Master (that can be any Splunk instance that has connectivity to all the others)

[hsbcboscnicolas]

Thanks for your reply.
So i see 3 options :
- Shutdown failover SH License master and startup it manually when primary SH is down
- Put failover SH as License slave, and switch manually as license master when primary SH is down
- Do a SH cluster (both can be setup as license master?)

[tiagofbmm]

Please let me know if the answer was useful for you. If it was, accept it and upvote. If not, give us more input so we can help you with that

[tiagofbmm]

You can have the license installed on the fail over SH but I don't think you can have that one to function as a license master while the active SH is running. So I'd keep the license installed, but I'd keep the passive one as license slave to avoid those errors.

If there is some problem with the active one, you'll have to change the passive to active automatically and put it as license master

[hsbcboscnicolas]

Thanks for the answer.

I have 2 masters (one down) - 2 Deployment servers (F5 in front) - 6 indexers (peers) - 2 SH.
All peers (Indexers) are slave of SH number 1, that is also license master.
In case of a DR, Indexers should switch license master to SH number 2.

So license should be installed on both SH right? And both configured as License master in order to be ready to receive license usage from indexer?

Thanks again.