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This chapter includes the following sections:
One Cisco Nexus 1000V license is needed for each installed server CPU on every Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) in the distributed architecture. There is no limit to the number of cores per CPU.
The following describes licensing high availability (HA) for the Cisco Nexus 1000V:
This section includes the following topics:
You can purchase permanent licenses for a fixed number of VEM CPU sockets. Permanent licenses do not expire. The number of licenses is specified in the license file purchased.
When you subsequently upgrade to a new software release, all previously installed permanent licenses remain in effect.
When you purchase permanent licenses, make sure to request enough licenses to cover all of your installed CPUs in all of your VEMs. Before licenses are applied to a VEM, enough licenses must be available to cover all of the CPUs in that VEM. If you do not have enough licenses to cover all of the CPUs, no licenses are applied to the VEM.
Note |
If your license does not have the capacity to cover all CPUs in a particular VEM, any licenses that could have been applied to that VEM are placed into a pool of available licenses on the VSM to be used as needed. The VEM remains unlicensed until sufficient licenses are available to cover all CPUs in the VEM. |
After you purchase a license package, you then install the package on your VSM. The license package shown in the following table is an example of a license package name.
License Package | Description |
---|---|
NEXUS1000V_LAN_SERVICES_PKG |
Virtual Ethernet Module (VEM) |
After installing permanent licenses, if your evaluation licenses are no longer used, you can remove the evaluation license file from the pool.
512 default licenses are pre installed in your Cisco Nexus 1000V software and are valid for 239 days from the date of installation. These default licenses allow you to use the Cisco Nexus 1000V for a 239-day trial period before purchasing permanent licenses.
Default licenses are invalidated when one of the following occurs:
If you need additional licenses to cover all VEM CPU sockets, you must obtain either permanent licenses or evaluation licenses from Cisco.com.
Evaluation licenses, valid for 239 days, are available from Cisco.com in packages of 512 licenses. Evaluation licenses allow you to evaluate the Cisco Nexus 1000V before purchasing permanent licenses.
The 239-day evaluation period starts when you install the evaluation license file. Unlike default licenses, an evaluation license is not invalidated when you install a permanent license.
Evaluation licenses expire when the license file reaches its expiration date.
After installing permanent licenses, if your evaluation licenses are no longer used, you can remove them from the pool.
Overdraft licenses can prevent a service disruption in the event you exceed the number of permanent or evaluation licenses specified in your license file. The number of overdraft licenses provided is based on the number of licenses ordered.
A system message similar to the following is generated when more licenses are being used than are installed. This message indicates that you should add more permanent licenses:
%LICMGR-2-LOG_LIC_USAGE: Feature NEXUS1000V_LAN_SERVICES_PKG is using 17 licenses, only 16 licenses are installed.
A system message similar to the following is generated every hour with a list of modules that are unlicensed:
%VEM_MGR_UNLICENSED_MODS: Modules 3-10 are not licensed, this will result in network connectivity issues. Please contact your Cisco account team or partner to purchase licenses. To activate your purchased licenses, click on www.cisco.com/go/license.
If you have licenses that are unused, the VSM stores these unused licenses in a pool of available licenses. If your license does not have the capacity to cover all CPUs in a particular VEM, any licenses that could have been applied to that VEM are placed into the pool to be used as needed. If a VEM is no longer used, then its licenses are returned to the pool. Before you can uninstall a license, you must first return all licenses from its VEMs to the pool.
If any licensed VEM is offline during a renegotiation of licenses, its licenses are returned to the VSM license pool. Once the VEM comes back online, it again acquires its licenses from the VSM.
The following events trigger a renegotiation and synchronization of licenses between the VSM and its VEMs:
During the license renegotiation process, system messages alert you if licenses are returned to the VSM pool for a VEM that is offline. This process requires no action on your part because the licenses are returned to the VEM when it comes back online.
The volatile license feature automatically captures unused licenses when a VEM is taken out of service and adds them to the VSM license pool so that they can be reused by another VEM. When you enable this feature, any time a VEM is taken out of service, either automatically or manually, its licenses are returned to the VSM license pool.
If its licenses are nonvolatile, the VEM does not release them when taken out of service. When returned to service, the VEM resumes normal activity without further interruption.
The Volatile Licenses feature is disabled by default. That is, the licenses in VEMs are nonvolatile and are not released when a VEM is removed from service.
Caution |
Service Disruption—Volatile licenses are removed from a VEM during a loss in connectivity and are not returned to the VEM when connectivity resumes. We recommend that volatile licenses remain disabled (the default), and that you transfer unused licenses using the Transferring Licenses to the License Pool procedure. |