Field Notice: FN - 72121 - Prime License Manager: QuoVadis Root CA 2 Decommission Might Affect Smart Licensing Functionality - Workaround Provided

Notice

THIS FIELD NOTICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE FIELD NOTICE OR MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE FIELD NOTICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS FIELD NOTICE AT ANY TIME.

Revision History

Revision	Publish Date	Comments
2.3	24-Feb-22	Updated the Problem Description, Background, Problem Symptom, and Workaround/Solution Sections
1.0	07-Jan-22	Initial Release

Products Affected

Affected OS Type	Affected Software Product	Affected Release	Affected Release Number	Comments
NON-IOS	Prime License Manager Software Updates	11.0(1)	11.0(1)
NON-IOS	Prime License Manager Software Updates	11.5	11.5(1), 11.5(1)SU1, 11.5(1)SU10, 11.5(1)SU1a, 11.5(1)SU2, 11.5(1)SU5, 11.5(1)SU6, 11.5(1)SU7, 11.5(1)SU8, 11.5(1)SU9

Defect Information

Defect ID	Headline
CSCvx00485	QuoVadis root CA decommission on Prime License Manager

Problem Description

For affected versions of the Prime License Manager (PLM) software, some Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates issued from the QuoVadis root certificate authority (CA) trust chain before March 31, 2021 cannot be renewed from this CA. Once those certificates expire on devices or are removed from the Cisco cloud servers, functions such as Smart Licensing will fail to establish secure connections to Cisco and might not operate properly.

Background

The QuoVadis Root CA 2 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) used by PLM software to issue SSL certificates is subject to an industry-wide issue that affects revocation abilities. Due to this issue, no new QuoVadis Root CA 2 certificates will be issued or renewed by Cisco after March 31, 2021. This affects certificate renewals on devices, Cisco cloud servers, and third-party services.

Certificates issued before the QuoVadis Root CA 2 was decommissioned will continue to be valid. However, the certificates will not renew when they expire on either the device or the Cisco cloud server. This will cause functions such as Smart Licensing to fail to establish secure connections to Cisco cloud servers.

This table shows a summary of the QuoVadis Root CA 2 certificate expiration dates for affected Cisco services.

Cisco Cloud Server	QuoVadis Certificate Expiration Date	Affected Services
tools.cisco.com	February 5, 2022	Smart Licensing

Problem Symptom

Expiration of the QuoVadis Root CA 2 certificates affects these services with the associated symptoms.

Affected Services	Symptoms for Affected Services
Smart Licensing	Failure to connect to the server (Details are provided in this section)

 

For PLM, affected versions will be unable to connect to the Smart Licensing services hosted by Cisco. Smart licenses might fail entitlement and reflect an "Insufficient Licenses" status.

The features that use Smart Licensing will continue to function for 60 days after the last successful secure connection. Some Smart Licensing symptoms are:

• If the administrator uses e-fulfilment to install the license, then e-fulfilment will fail with this error:

  

   

• If licenses are not installed on PLM due to e-fulfilment failure, the product shows this banner message:

  

   

• The PLM Dashboard will show an "Insufficient Licenses" alert:

  

   

• After 60 days, the PLM server will continue to show the "Insufficient Licenses" state if there is no communication with the Smart Licensing server. Administrators will be unable to provision users and devices until the certification is renewed with IdenTrust.

  

Note: Offline licensing, such as Permanent License Reservation (PLR) and Specific License Reservation (SLR), is not affected by the certificate change on the Smart Licensing server.

For additional information, refer to the License Management chapter of the Cisco Prime License Manager User Guide for your specific version of PLM software.

Workaround/Solution

Cisco has migrated from the QuoVadis Root CA 2 to the IdenTrust Commercial Root CA 1 for SSL certificates. Cisco recommends to install the COP file on the PLM server to add the new IdenTrust Commercial Root CA 1 certificate to PLM.

1. Follow the directions in the Cisco Prime License Manager, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and Cisco Unity Connection 11.5 COP File for PLM CDETS CSCvx00485 document.
2. Download the COP file.

Note: This COP file can be used for all 11.X versions of PLM. Existing certificates issued from the HydrantID SSL ICA G3 do not need replacement. They are normal certificates issued from the current SSL certificate service and can be used until expiration.

For More Information

Cisco has created a web page to provide customers and partners with additional information on this issue. Consult the QuoVadis Root CA 2 Decommission page for a full list of products affected, associated Field Notices, and frequently asked questions.

If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:

• Open a service request on Cisco.com
• By email or telephone

Receive Email Notification For New Field Notices

My Notifications—Set up a profile to receive email updates about reliability, safety, network security, and end-of-sale issues for the Cisco products you specify.