Downloading and Installing UCS Licenses

Introduction

This document describes the steps needed to download UCS Licenses from the Cisco Systems website and installing it on your UCS Fabric Interconnects. There are also steps on how to rehost your licenses and transfer them to another UCS Fabric Interconnect.

Contributed by Qiese Dides, Cisco TAC Engineer.

Problem

Customers often buy PAK/Tokens and do not know how to convert them to licenses and then download and install them on the UCS-M. This document will give you a step by step approach on how to do this. 

Prerequisites

Requirements

Cisco recommends that you have knowledge of these topics:

• Knowledge to access UCS Manager GUI
  

Components Used

The information in this document is based on theses oftware and hardware versions:

• UCS Fabric Interconnect 6100, 6200, and 6300
• UCS Manager 2.1(x) and higher

The information in this document was created from the devices in a specific lab enviornment. All of the devices used in this document started with a cleared (default) configuration. If your network is live, make sure that you understand the potential impact of any command.

Configure

   1. Navigate to UCS Manager and proceed with selecting the Equipment >> Fabric Interconnect A and Fabric Interconnect B tab. The serial numbers of both the Fabric Interconnects will be present here which is needed to add the licenses to. The images below show where the Serial ID number is located in this view.

   2. Navigate to www.cisco.com and login with the CCO credentials in which the licenses were purchased with. Once logged in navigate to the Product License Registration page this can be found under the Tools & Resources section.

   3. Once at this page select the PAKs/Tokens screen you will be presented with the image listed below. This shows the Tokens that are available and the ones that are used. The available ones which are highlighted can generate new licenses.

    4. When moving the mouse cursor over the PAK/Token ID section an option will appear (image of 3 bars) that can be selected and a mini window appears for that ID.

    5. Once that is selected a new screen will appear in which generates a “Get New Licenses” button.




    6.The next screen is where the Fabric Interconnect Serial Numbers are inputted, this will transfer that specific license to the Fabric Interconnect Serial Number. 

    7. Once the Serial number is entered a window will appear asking to enter an email in which the license can be sent to and the CCO ID attached to this account. Once the  I Agree with Terms of the License Agreement button is selected a link will be generated to download the license and an email notification will be sent.

    8. The licenses that were previously unfulfilled in the Pak’s/TOKENS section of the Product License Registration will now show as fulfilled.

    9. Another way to download the Licenses when they are fulfilled is to click on the License Tab and as shown in the picture below, if the mouse cursor goes over the License ID a download option will appear in the form of a drop down menu.



    10. Once all those are installed, proceed with unzipping the files and putting the .lic file on the desktop of your computer (This is to involved an issue where the file name will contain spaces if it is in multiple folders). When that is complete  log-in to your UCS-M GUI. Once there you will navigate to the Admin tab and either Filter the License Management or scroll to the very bottom and expand the License Management Tab.

    11. Now select the Fabric Interconnect that those specific licenses are assigned to. Proceed to the Download License Files Tab. Once there click the Download License icon, which will propagate a page in which you will insert the destination of the .lic file earlier downloaded.

• This is the error in which the upload will fail by having multiples spaces and can be avoided by places the .LIC file on your desktop.

• This is the successful message once the licenses are uploaded.

    12. After that is successful. We will go to the Downloaded License File Tab, left click the license file we just added and then select the Install License button. This will install the license and then validate.

• When installed it goes from Validated to Installed