Cisco Prime Network Control System Ordering and Licensing Guide

Cisco Prime Network Control System Ordering and Licensing Guide. 3

Overview.. 3

Cisco Prime NCS Evaluation Licenses. 3

Ordering Cisco Prime NCS Software and Licenses. 3

Ordering Software with Device Count Licenses. 3

Purchasing a Physical Appliance. 4

Ordering Additional Capacity Licenses. 4

Additional Licensing Information. 5

Migrating Cisco WCS Licenses to Cisco Prime NCS Licenses. 5

Migration Step 1: Obtain the XML File from Your Existing WCS Deployment 6

Migration Step 2: Upload the Contents of the XML File to the Cisco.com Migration Webpage. 6

Migration Step 3: Apply the New License to Cisco Prime NCS.. 7

Cisco Prime Network Control System Ordering and Licensing Guide

This Cisco Prime Network Control System (NCS) licensing and ordering guide presents guidelines and licensing information for Cisco NCS, and instructions for migrating current Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) deployments to Cisco NCS Version 1.0.

Overview

Cisco Prime NCS delivers unified user and access management with complete visibility into endpoint connectivity, regardless of device, network or location, to address the top reported pain point, “Network problems related to client devices.”

This first-of-a-kind platform offers converged wired, wireless, and security policy management in a single solution for improved network visibility, faster troubleshooting, and increased network operations efficiency.

Built on a mature Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) feature set, Cisco Prime NCS delivers wired monitoring and troubleshooting and wireless lifecycle management functionality to significantly increase IT productivity and lower TCO.

Cisco Prime NCS Evaluation Licenses

Cisco Prime NCS can be used in a lab or in an evaluation setting with the following license: NCS-10-DEMO. This provides an evaluation license for 10 devices, for a duration of 30 days. If you need a custom device count or duration, please contact your Cisco representative.

Ordering Cisco Prime NCS Software and Licenses

Ordering Cisco Prime NCS software and licenses is a simple process:

1.     Order software with appropriate license to match number of devices being managed. If you are deploying NCS as a virtual appliance, no further steps are required in the ordering process. The virtual appliance image can be downloaded from Cisco.com software download page.

2.     Purchase the physical appliance (if the desired deployment option is a physical hardware appliance).

3.     Order additional capacity licenses (only necessary at a later date, when adding more capacity).

4.     Order a support contract option.

All purchasable Cisco Prime NCS licenses can be ordered from the Cisco Ordering Tool. To request help with ordering, please contact Cisco Customer Service: http://www.cisco.com/go/customerservice.

Ordering Software with Device Count Licenses

Cisco Prime NCS uses a licensing structure that includes all features and functionality in a single tier. Part numbers are purchased based on number of devices to be managed. Part numbers are available to support 50, 100, 500, 1000, 2500, 5000, or 10,000 devices, where both an access point and a switch is considered as a single managed device.

Once logged into the Cisco Ordering Tool, follow these steps:

1.     Enter the Cisco Prime NCS Software and Device Count License Family: L-NCS-1.0-K9

2.     Select “Software License Option” in the left pane. The available software and license options are then displayed in the right pane.

3.     Choose the radio button that coincides with the number of devices to be managed, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1.       Part Numbers for Cisco Prime NCS Device Count Licenses

4.     Select “Check Configuration” to view a summary of your order.

5.     Select “Save” to save the configuration.

These software and license packages can be deployed as virtual appliances if desired. If this is the deployment method, skip to the section “Order the Related Support Contract.”

If you wish to deploy these software and license packages on a physical appliance, follow the steps in the next section.

Table 2.       Part Numbers for Cisco Prime NCS Appliance

Purchasing a Physical Appliance

Cisco Prime NCS can be deployed on a physical appliance supplied by Cisco. To order this appliance, choose PRIME-NCS-APL-K9 in the Cisco Ordering Tool.

Ordering Additional Capacity Licenses

As the number of wired or wireless devices within the environment grows, users can add additional licenses to existing Cisco Prime NCS deployments.

Once logged into the Cisco Ordering Tool, follow these steps:

1.     Enter the Cisco Prime NCS “ADD” Device Count License Family: L-NCS-1.0-ADD-K9

2.     Select “Software License Option” in the left pane. The available license options are then displayed in the right pane.

3.     Choose the radio button that coincides with the number of additional devices to be managed (Table 3).

Table 3.       Part Numbers for Cisco Prime NCS Additional Capacity Licenses

4.     Select “Check Configuration” to view a summary of your order.

5.     Select “Save” to save the configuration.

Additional Licensing Information

Please note the following points about the Cisco Prime NCS licensing process:

1.     Licenses are applied to an appliance based on a unique device identifier (UDI) or virtual unique device identifier (V-UDI). These are located within the Cisco Prime NCS user interface in the Administration > License Center menu found on the summary page. If you are using the command-line interface, use the show udi command.

2.     Licenses can be re-hosted. Please contact licensing@cisco.com.

3.     Definition of a Device: When it comes to licensing, A device is a switch, or an Access Point (AP). Each switch in a stack is considered as one licensed device.

4.     Switches used for Switchport tracing (SPT) only are not counted towards licensed devices.

Migrating Cisco WCS Licenses to Cisco Prime NCS Licenses

The Cisco Prime Network Control System uses a single-tier license model. When Cisco WCS BASE or WCS PLUS licenses are being migrated, licenses will be mapped to the new Cisco Prime NCS single-tier model, as shown in Figure 1. Customers are able to migrate their existing WCS licenses by purchasing the migration SKU (L‑WCS-NCS1-M-K9) as also indicated in Figure 1 below:

Table 4.       Part Numbers for Cisco WCS to Cisco Prime NCS Migration Licenses

Please apply the L-WCS-NCS1-M-K9 license first, before adding the licenses migrated from your WCS installation; the licenses migrated from WCS are generated as “ADD” licenses and they can’t be applied before the L-WCS-NCS1-M-K9 is applied.

Migration Step 1: Obtain the XML File from Your Existing WCS Deployment

1.     Using Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome, log in to the WCS server (Version 7.0.164.0 or later) and select Administration > License Center.

2.     In the left pane, select "File."

3.     Select the "WCS File" link, and then use the "Export" option. An XML file will be generated.

4.     Save the XML file to your local machine.

Migration Step 2: Upload the Contents of the XML File to the Cisco.com Migration Webpage

1.     Go to: http://www.cisco.com/go/license.

2.     Scroll down to the “Migration” section and select the “Register for Upgrade/Migrate License” option.

3.     Select “NCS 1.0” from the drop-down menu, and select “Proceed.”

4.     Enter you “Product ID” and “Serial Number.”

5.     Open the saved XML file in a text editor and copy the contents of the file.

6.     Paste the copied content in the text box.

7.     Accept the General Terms.

8.     Verify your contact information and select “Continue.”

9.     The migration webpage will generate the new license, which will be emailed to you.

Migration Step 3: Apply the New License to Cisco Prime NCS

As mentioned in step 2-9, the license file is distributed to you in an email from Cisco. Do not edit the contents of the .lic file in any way or you will render the file useless.

1.     Log in to Cisco NCS.

2.     Select Administration > License Center.

3.     Use the File menu in the left pane to add new licenses.

Note:    Prior to migrating WCS licenses on Cisco Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE), the solution needs to be running Cisco Wireless Control System 7.0.164.0 or later.

Note:    Cisco WLSE hardware will not support Cisco Prime NCS 1.0. Customers using the WLSE hardware to run WCS are required to purchase either the physical appliance option, or deploy the virtual appliance on your own hardware.

For more information please visit our Cisco Prime Network Control System Support Page.