Once the Secure Gateway - Virtual Appliance (SG-VA) is deployed onto the Hypervisor and provided with a serial number, it needs to be licensed. The step that differs between a hardware proxy and a VA is the birth certificate which is not required for a hardware proxy appliance. This article describes the steps required to obtain the birth certificate for SG-VA however the same steps apply to Gen1 VA (VSWG).

The VA must have internet connection to reach the licensing server and retrieve the birth certificate (TECH242627)

Retrieve and install the SG-VA license:
1. In the Management Console, select Maintenance > Licensing > Install.
2. Click Retrieve.
3. In the dialog box that displays, do the following:
a. Enter your MySymantec account login information

b. Click Request License. The Confirm License Install dialog box displays

c. Click OK to begin license retrieval.


Prevent Licensing Issues

To prevent licensing issues, ensure the SG-VA is allowed network access to the license validation server at https://validation.es.bluecoat.com. If communication
with the server fails, the license may be suspended; thus, a constant internet connection is required for the SG-VA to communicate regularly with the license validation server to confirm that the serial number is not being used on another SG-VA. Upon an unsuccessful connection to https://validation.es.bluecoat.com, the number of days is set to 6 and the countdown starts until 0 is reached at which point the license is suspended.

If the license validation server detects duplicate serial numbers, your license is invalidated. If the SG-VA license expires, network traffic is subject only to the default policy (Allow or Deny). You need to "restart regular" after this for the SG to start making the call to the validation server again.