Chapter 1. Overview

Chapter 2. Introduction to Cisco Unified Computing System Infrastructure

Cisco Unified Computing System Overview

Cisco UCS Manager Overview

Chapter 3. Introduction to Cisco UCS Central

Introducing Cisco UCS Central

Cisco UCS Central Features

Overview of Cisco UCS Central 1.4 Features

Overview of Cisco UCS Central HTML 5 UI

Using the HTML5 UI

Dashboard Widgets

Adding Table Summary Widgets to the Dashboard

Adding Instance Summary Widgets to the Dashboard

Tab Navigator

Using the Tab Navigator

Behavior and Design Changes in HTML5 UI

Chapter 4. Working with Cisco UCS Manager

Cisco UCS Domains and Cisco UCS Central

Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

Domains and Domain Groups

Creating or Editing a Domain Group

Adding a Domain to a Domain Group

Managing Domain Group SNMP

Domain Group Qualification Policy

Creating or Editing a Domain Group Qualification Policy

Policies in Cisco UCS Central and Cisco UCS Domains

Policy Resolution between Cisco UCS Manager and Cisco UCS Central

Consequences of Policy Resolution Changes

Consequences of Service Profile Changes on Policy Resolution

Organization

Updating Organization Descriptions

Chapter 5. License Management

Overview

Smart Licensing

Enabling Smart Licensing

Registering UCS Central Using a License Token

Renewing Authorization

Renewing Registration

Deregistering Smart Software Licensing

Disabling Smart Software Licensing

Traditional Licensing

Obtaining a Traditional License

Downloading a License from a Local File System

Downloading a License from a Remote File System

Installing a License

Deleting a Traditional License

Preface

Audience

Conventions

Related Cisco UCS Documentation

Documentation Feedback

Copyright Page

Chapter 1. Overview

This guide serves as an introduction to the Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) and its key components—Cisco UCS Manager, and Cisco UCS Central.

This guide contains the following chapters:

Chapter

Contents

Introduction to Cisco Unified Computing System Infrastructure

Introduces the Cisco UCS environment from a functional and architectural perspective. See:Introduction to Cisco Unified Computing System Infrastructure

Introduction to Cisco UCS Central

Describes various aspects of Cisco UCS Central including using the HTML 5 UI. See: Introduction to Cisco UCS Central

Working with Cisco UCS Manager

Describes how Cisco UCS Central integrates with Cisco UCS Manager and allows you to manage multiple Cisco UCS domains. See: Working with Cisco UCS Manager

License Management

Describes managing licenses for the registered Cisco UCS domains from Cisco UCS Central. See: License Management

Chapter 2. Introduction to Cisco Unified Computing System Infrastructure

- Cisco Unified Computing System Overview

- Cisco UCS Manager Overview

Cisco Unified Computing System Overview

Cisco UCS Architecture

Cisco UCS has a unique architecture that integrates compute, data network access, and storage network access into a common set of components under a single-pane-of-glass management interface.

Cisco UCS fuses access layer networking and servers. This high-performance, next-generation server system provides a data center with a high degree of workload agility and scalability. The hardware and software components support Cisco's unified fabric, which runs multiple types of data center traffic over a single converged network adapter.

Architectural Simplification

The simplified architecture of Cisco UCS reduces the number of required devices and centralizes switching resources. By eliminating switching inside a chassis, network access-layer fragmentation is significantly reduced. Cisco UCS implements Cisco unified fabric within racks and groups of racks, supporting Ethernet and Fibre Channel protocols over 10 Gigabit Cisco Data Center Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) links. This radical simplification reduces the number of switches, cables, adapters, and management points by up to two-thirds. All devices in a Cisco UCS domain remain under a single management domain, which remains highly available through the use of redundant components.

High Availability

The management and data plane of Cisco UCS is designed for high availability and redundant access layer fabric interconnects. In addition, Cisco UCS supports existing high availability and disaster recovery solutions for the data center, such as data replication and application-level clustering technologies.

Scalability

A single Cisco UCS domain supports multiple chassis and their servers, all of which are administered through one Cisco UCS Manager. For more detailed information about the scalability, speak to your Cisco representative.

Flexibility

A Cisco UCS domain allows you to quickly align computing resources in the data center with rapidly changing business requirements. This built-in flexibility is determined by whether you choose to fully implement the stateless computing feature. Pools of servers and other system resources can be applied as necessary to respond to workload fluctuations, support new applications, scale existing software and business services, and accommodate both scheduled and unscheduled downtime. Server identity can be abstracted into a mobile service profile that can be moved from server to server with minimal downtime and no need for additional network configuration. With this level of flexibility, you can quickly and easily scale server capacity without having to change the server identity or reconfigure the server, LAN, or SAN. During a maintenance window, you can quickly do the following:

- Deploy new servers to meet unexpected workload demand and rebalance resources and traffic.

- Shut down an application, such as a database management system, on one server and then boot it up again on another server with increased I/O capacity and memory resources.

Optimized for Server Virtualization

Cisco UCS has been optimized to implement VM-FEX technology. This technology provides improved support for server virtualization, including better policy-based configuration and security, conformance with a company's operational model, and accommodation for VMware's VMotion.

Cisco UCS Manager Overview

Cisco UCS Manager is embedded software that resides on the fabric interconnects, providing complete configuration and management capabilities for all of the components in the Cisco UCS system. This configuration information is replicated between the two fabric interconnects, providing a highly available solution for this critical function. The most common way to access UCS Manager for simple tasks is to use a Web browser to open the Java-based GUI. For command-line or programmatic operations against the system, a command-line interface (CLI) and an XML API are also included with the system.

The Cisco UCS Manager GUI provides role-based access control (RBAC) to allow multiple levels of users granular administrative rights to system objects. Users can be restricted to certain portions of the system based on locale, which corresponds to an optional organizational structure that can be created within the system. Users can also be classified based on their access levels or areas of expertise, such as “Storage Administrator,” “Server Equipment Administrator,” or “Read-Only”. RBAC allows the comprehensive capabilities of the Cisco UCS Manager GUI to be properly shared across multiple individuals or teams within your organization in a flexible, secure manner.

Cisco UCS Manager provides unified, embedded management of all software and hardware components. Every instance of Cisco UCS Manager and all of the components managed by it form a domain. For organizations that deploy multiple Cisco UCS domains, Cisco UCS Central software providesa centralized user interface that allows you to manage multiple, globallydistributed Cisco UCS domains with thousands of servers. Cisco UCS Central integrates with Cisco UCS Manager and utilizes it to provide globalconfiguration capabilities for pools, policies, and firmware.

Chapter 3. Introduction to Cisco UCS Central

- Introducing Cisco UCS Central

Introducing Cisco UCS Central

Cisco UCS Central provides scalable management solution for growing Cisco UCS environment. Cisco UCS Central simplifies the management of multiple Cisco UCS domains from a single management point through standardization, global policies and global ID pools. Cisco UCS Central does not replace Cisco UCS Manager, which is the policy driven management for single UCS domain. Instead Cisco UCS Central focuses on managing and monitoring the UCS domains on a global level, across multiple individual Cisco UCS Classic and Mini management domains worldwide.

Cisco UCS Central enables you to manage individual or groups of classic, mini or mixed Cisco UCS domains with the following:

- Centralized Inventory of all Cisco UCS components for a definitive view of the entire infrastructure and simplified integration with current Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes.

- Centralized, policy-based firmware upgrades that can be applied globally or selectively through automated schedules or as business workloads demand

- Global ID pooling to eliminate identifier conflicts

- Global administrative policies that enable both global and local management of the Cisco UCS domains

- An XML API, building on the Cisco UCS Manager XML API for easy integration into higher-level data center management frameworks

- Remote management to manage various end points in registered Cisco UCS domains

Cisco UCS Central does not reduce or change any local management capabilities of Cisco UCS Manager, such as its API. This allows you to continue usingCisco UCS Manager the same way as when you did not have Cisco UCS Central, and also allows all existing third party integrations to continue to operate without change.

- Cisco UCS Central Features

- Overview of Cisco UCS Central HTML 5 UI

- Using the HTML5 UI

- Behavior and Design Changes in HTML5 UI

Cisco UCS Central Features

The following table provides a list of features with brief description on the management capabilities of Cisco UCS Central:

Feature

Description

Centralized inventory

Cisco UCS Central automatically aggregates a global inventory of all registered Cisco UCS components, organized by domain, with customizable refresh schedules and provides even easier integration with ITIL processes, with direct access to the inventory through an XML interface.

Centralized fault summary

Cisco UCS Central enables you to view the status of all Cisco UCS infrastructure on the global fault summary panel, with a fault summary organized by domain and fault type. Also provides you the ability to view individual Cisco UCS Manager domains for greater fault detail and more rapid problem resolution. Drilling down on a fault launches the UCS Manager in context for a seamlessly integrated experience.

Centralized, policy-based firmware upgrades

You can download firmware updates automatically from the Cisco.com to a firmware library within Cisco UCS Central. Then schedule automated firmware updates, globally or selectively, based on your business requirements. Managing firmware centrally ensures compliance with IT standards and makes reprovisioning of resources a point-and-click operation.

Global ID pools

Cisco UCS Central eliminates identifier conflicts and ensures portability of software licenses. You are able to centralize the sourcing of all IDs, such as universal user IDs (UUIDs), MAC addresses, IP addresses, and worldwide names (WWNs), from global pools and gain real-time ID use summaries. Centralizing server identifier information makes it simple to move a server identifier between Cisco UCS domains anywhere in the world and reboot an existing workload to run on the new server.

Domain groups

Cisco UCS Central simplifies policy management by providing options to create domain groups and subgroups. A domain group is an arbitrary grouping of Cisco UCS domains that can be used to group systems into geographical or organizational groups. Each domain group can have up to five levels of domain sub groups. This provides you the ability to manage policy exceptions when administering large numbers of Cisco UCS domains. Each sub group has a hierarchical relationship with the parent domain group.

Global administrative policies

Cisco UCS Central helps you to ensure compliance and staff efficiency with global administrative policies. The global policies are defined at the domain group level and can manage anything in the infrastructure, from date and time and user authentication to equipment power and system event log (SEL) policies.

Global service profiles and templates

Global service profiles and templates in Cisco UCS Central enables fast and simplified infrastructure deployment and provides consistency of configurations throughout the enterprise. This feature enables global bare-metal workload mobility very similar to how hypervisor enables virtualized workload mobility.

Backup

Cisco UCS Central provides an automatic backup facility that enables quick and efficient backing up the configuration information of the registered Cisco UCS domains and the UCS Central configuration.

High availability

As with all Cisco UCS solutions, Cisco UCS Central is designed for no single point of failure. High availability for Cisco UCS Central Software allows organizations to run Cisco UCS Central using an active-standby model with a heartbeat that automatically fails over if the active Cisco UCS Central does not respond.

XML API

Cisco UCS Central, just like Cisco UCS Manager, has a high-level industry-standard XML API for interfacing with existing management frameworks and orchestration tools. The XML API for Cisco UCS Central Software is similar to the XML API for Cisco UCS Manager, making integration with high-level managers very fast.

Remote Management

Cisco UCS Central enables you to manage various end points in the registered Cisco UCS domains from one management point. You can manage chassis, servers, fabric interconnects, and fabric extenders from Cisco UCS Central GUI or CLI. You can also access tech support files for registered UCS domains from Cisco UCS Central.

- Overview of Cisco UCS Central 1.4 Features

Overview of Cisco UCS Central 1.4 Features

Cisco UCS Central, release 1.4 allows you to take charge of the data center environment by delivering easy to use, integrated solution for managing Cisco UCS Domains from a single management point, both in data centers and remote management locations, with high availability. With Cisco UCS Central 1.4, you can efficiently manage server, storage and network policies and generate network traffic reports for your entire data center.

This release includes full support for the HTML5-based user interface, and deprecates support for the previous flash-based user interface.

The following table lists the major new features and functions in this release:

Feature

Functions

New global policies and enhancements to existing policies

- Global service profiles, including manual creation of vNICs and vHBAs.

- Naming conventions when creating service profiles from templates

- Service profile qualification

- Equipment policies

- VMQ connection policy

- Storage policies

- Unified KVM launch with KVM-only permissions

- Component exclusion support in host firmware package policy

- ROCE, NVGRE, ARF added to Ethernet adaptor policy

Smart Call Home

Enables support for the new Smart Call Home .

Support for traditional licence management and Smart licensing

Enables support for the new Smart licensing, as well as continuing support for traditional license management.

Authentication updates

Added support for TACACs and RADIUS.

BIOS token support

Includes support for all BIOS tokens included in Cisco UCS Manager.

SNMP Support

Support for sending Cisco UCS Central alerts via SNMP to other management tools.

Cisco UCS Manager 3.1

Pre-enabled support for Cisco UCS Manager release 3.1.

Advanced Local Storage Configuration

- Configuration of Storage Profiles and multiple virtual drives—To allow flexibility in defining the number of storage disks, roles and usage of these disks, and other storage parameters, you can create and use storage profiles. A storage profile encapsulates the storage requirements for one or more service profiles. You can also configure multiple virtual drives.

- Configuration of a local LUN or a JBOD as the primary boot device

- Support for local storage configuration on multiple storage controllers

- Support for out-of-band configuration for local storage

Boot Policy enhancements

Enables support for booting from local LUN, embedded LUN, and embedded JBOD.

API Communications Report

Enables reporting on active API communications between the GUI and back-end.

Tomcat Logging

Enables logging for Tomcat processes.

Improved VLAN permission management

Allows different organizations to have permissions to different VLANs.

Multi-delete usage analysis

Allows you to see the effect of deleting multiple policies, such as what service profiles use them.

Hardware Components table view

Displays all hardware components within the system, such as FANs, PSUs, and Memory.

General UI enhancements

Export, saved searches

Domain group and organization view UI enhancements

Widgets enhanced and additional widgets added

Configuration Status

Can view configuration status for Ports, Service Profiles, and Firmware Upgrade scheduling.

Security enhancements

Added multiple security enhancements as well as updates to the underlying operating system.

Port configuration

Enables configuration support for ports and port channels, including scalability ports.

Overview of Cisco UCS Central HTML 5 UI

Cisco UCS Central HTML5 based user interface provides flexibility and task based usability for your management purposes.

The dashboard provides a quick overview of components in the system. You can pin the components you use frequently and customize the dashboard to suit your operational requirements. You can click on any object on the dashboard to go to the related page in the system. Click Play on this Video to view a brief introduction to the HTML 5 UI.

Using the HTML5 UI

Dashboard

You can pin dashboard widgets and customize the dashboard based on your operational requirements. The following is the basic dashboard structure:

Item

Description

1

Search bar. What are you looking for? You can do the following:

- Select the entity type to search for any entity in the system by name. Empty search string returns all entities.

- Filter search results by location and status when applicable.

- Click on an entity in the search results to open the details in a new page.

2

Actions bar. What do you want to do? You can Create, Schedule, Install, Export and Import from here:

- Click drop down to display available actions and select a task or type the task in the field and launch the dialog box and perform the task.

3

Dashboard widget. You can pin any widget on this dashboard. When you mouse over on the widget, other options are enabled on widget's menu bar.

4

From within any widget on the dashboard, when you display additional options, you can do the following:

- Refresh the displayed information for this specific widget.

- Unpin this widget from the dashboard.

- Launch the details page for this operation.

Navigation Icons

The following navigation icons help you navigate around the product to perform management tasks:

Item

Description

1

Search icon. Click to display physical and logical inventory related entities in the system such as, Domains, Fabric Interconnects, Servers, Chassis, FEX, vLANs, vSANs, Service Profiles, Templates, Pools, Policies and ID Universe. Click on any of these entities to launch related page and view details.

2

Organization icon. Click to display org root and other sub organizations in the system. You can click on the root or any sub org to launch the details page for a selected org.

3

Domain group icon. Click to display domain group root and other domain groups in the system. You can click on a domain group to launch the details page.

4

User Preferences icon. Click to launch User Settings. From here you can Change Password, Restore Dashboard Defaults, and Show First Launch Experience.

5

Alerts icon. Click to display and navigate to Pending Activities, System Faults, Domain Faults, Events, Audit Logs, Core Dumps, Sessions and Internal Services.

6

Operations icon. Click to display and navigate to Firmware, Backup & Restore, Export & Import, Licenses and Tech Support.

7

System Settings icon. Click to display and navigate to System Profiles, System Policies, Users, Authentication and SNMP.

8

Log out icon. Click to log out from the active UCS Central session.

9

Refresh icon. Click to Refresh information in all pinned widgets. Each widget has individual refresh icons to refresh data for individual widgets.

10

Dashboard widgets library icon. Click to view available widgets and click on the widget to pin it to the dashboard.

11

Tab navigator. Allows you to navigate through the open tabs, or close all tabs at once.

- Dashboard Widgets

- Tab Navigator

Dashboard Widgets

Dashboard widgets allow you to customize the dashboard based on your operational requirements. Cisco UCS Central contains the following types of widgets:

Default Widgets

Default widgets are listed in the widgets library on the dashboard. Click the widgets library to pin the widget to the dashboard. The widgets library includes the following widgets:

- Welcome to UCS Central!—Displays introductory links and videos to get you started with Cisco UCS Central.

- UCS Central Basics— Displays basic concepts and flows for Cisco UCS Central.

- Licenses—Displays the total number of licenses and their status.

- Backup & Restore—Displays the current backup and restore status.

- Config Export & Import—Displays the current config export and import status.

- Firmware UCS Classic—Displays the total number of Cisco UCS Manager domains.

- Firmware UCS Mini—Displays the total number of Cisco UCS Mini domains.

- All Inventory Status—Displays the number of domains, FIs, servers, chassis, and FEX, as well as the overall status.

- ID Universe—Displays the number of available pools. If a conflict exists, only the number of conflicts is displayed.

- System Faults—Displays the number of system faults with the top four severities.

Click the Expand icon to view the Faults Log page for all system faults. Click on a fault icon to view the system faults with the selected severity pre-selected.

- Domain Faults—Displays the number of domain faults with the top four severities.

Click the Expand icon to view the Faults Log page for all domain faults. Click on a fault icon to view the domain faults with the selected severity pre-selected.

Table Summary Widgets

Table summary widgets displays the total number of items and the status for the following:

- Domains

- Fabric Interconnects

- Servers

- Chassis

- FEX

- Service Profiles

Up to two status bars can be displayed, with the top four errors displayed in each status bar.

Click the Expand icon to view the full table.

Detailed Instance Summary Widgets

Detailed instance summary widgets display the overall status and fault summary. Click the pin icon to create a widget for the following instances:

- Domain

- Domain Group

- Organization

- Fabric Interconnect

- Server

- Chassis

- FEX

- Service Profile

Click the Expand icon to view the full instance page. Click on a fault icon to view a faults window with the selected severity pre-selected.

Instance Shortcut Widgets

Shortcut widgets create a read-only link to a particular instance of a policy or template. Click the pin icon on an instance to create the widget.

- Adding Table Summary Widgets to the Dashboard

- Adding Instance Summary Widgets to the Dashboard

Adding Table Summary Widgets to the Dashboard

Step 1

Click the Search icon and select one of the following:

- Domains

- Fabric Interconnects

- Servers

- Chassis

- FEX

- Service Profiles

Step 2

On the table page that displays, click the Pin icon.

Step 3

Click the Dashboard link to view the new widget.

Adding Instance Summary Widgets to the Dashboard

Step 1

Click the Search icon and select one of the following:

- Domains

- Fabric Interconnects

- Servers

- Chassis

- FEX

- Service Profiles

Step 2

Double-click an instance.

Step 3

On the page that displays, click the Pin icon.

Step 4

Click the Dashboard link to view the new widget.

Tab Navigator

The tab navigator appears on all screens, and allows you to navigate quickly through the tabs that you have opened. You can also close all tabs at once.

- Using the Tab Navigator

Using the Tab Navigator

Step 1

On the tab bar, click the drop-down on the far right.
A list of all currently opened tabs is displayed.

Step 2

Select the tab that you want to navigate to, or select Close All Tabs to close all of the tabs.
Note:
The dashboard tab cannot be closed.

Behavior and Design Changes in HTML5 UI

Feature Support

The following features that are available in the older Flash-based user interface are not supported in the new HTML5 user interface at this time:

- Policy Import

- Threshold Policy

- Statistics

Behavior Changes Based on Design

- You must create the global service profile template before you can create a service profile.

- The following inline options are not available in a service profile:

- Boot Policy

- Static ID

If you have an existing global service profile with any of these options, you cannot edit the global service profile in the HTML5 UI.

- Any changes to the iSCSI boot parameters made in HTML5 UI will not be available in the Flex UI.

- vNIC and vHBA Placement is now referred to as Interface Placement.

- Registration Policy is now referred to as Domain Group Qualification Policy.

- ID Range Qualification Policy is now referred to as ID Range Access Control Policy.

- There are no qualified IP addresses for ID Range Access Control Policy.

- The only backup option is config-all backup. Other backup types such as config logical and config system are not supported.

- Local service profile picks up Host Firmware Policy from the Org instead of the Domain Group.

- When Import fails in HTML 5 UI, the message displays the reason for import failure. Make sure to correct errors and resubmit the configuration for import.

- Local service profile inventory is not displayed.

- The maintenance policy and schedules that are currently used by local service profiles and currently under domain groups will not be available in HTML5 UI.

Chapter 4. Working with Cisco UCS Manager

- Cisco UCS Domains and Cisco UCS Central

- Domains and Domain Groups

- Domain Group Qualification Policy

- Policies in Cisco UCS Central and Cisco UCS Domains

- Organization

Cisco UCS Domains and Cisco UCS Central

Cisco UCS Central provides centralized management capabilities to multiple Cisco UCS domains across one or more data centers. Cisco UCS Central works with Cisco UCS Manager to provide a scalable management solution for a growing Cisco UCS environment. Cisco UCS Central does not replace Cisco UCS Manager, which is the basic engine for managing a Cisco UCS domain. Instead, it builds on the capabilities provided by Cisco UCS Manager and works with Cisco UCS Manager to effect changes in individual domains.

Cisco UCS Central does not reduce or change any local management capabilities of Cisco UCS Manager, such as its API. This allows you to continue using Cisco UCS Manager the same way you did before Cisco UCS Central. This also allows all existing third party integrations to continue to operate without change.

Registering Cisco UCS Domains

To manage Cisco UCS Manager through Cisco UCS Central, you must register the Cisco UCS domains in Cisco UCS Central. You can register a Cisco UCS domain as a part of a domain group or as an ungrouped domain. When you have domain group, all registered domains in the domain group can share common policies and other configurations.

You can use a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) or IP address to register Cisco UCS domains in Cisco UCS Central.

Note

During the initial registration process with Cisco UCS Central, all the active Cisco UCS Manager GUI sessions will be terminated.

Before registering a domain in Cisco UCS Central, do the following:

- Configure an NTP server and the correct time zone in both Cisco UCS Manager and Cisco UCS Central to ensure that they are in sync. If the time and date in the Cisco UCS domain and Cisco UCS Central are out of sync, the registration might fail.

- Obtain the hostname or IP address of Cisco UCS Central. You cannot use the same hostname for both Cisco UCS Central and Cisco UCS Manager. For standalone mode, use individual VM IP address. If you plan to setup in cluster mode, use virtual IP address.

Note

We recommend that you always register Cisco UCS domains using a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).

- Obtain the shared secret that you configured when you deployed Cisco UCS Central.

Note

- If you register Cisco UCS domains using a domain name, Cisco UCS Manager can gracefully move to a different IP address.

If you register a Cisco UCS domain in Cisco UCS Central using an IP address, you cannot change or swap the IP address used by Cisco UCS Manager. If you need to change or swap the IP address, you must contact Cisco TAC.

- You can register or un-register a Cisco UCS domain using Cisco UCS Manager GUI or CLI.

- If the registered Cisco UCS domains have a latency of greater than 300ms for a round trip from Cisco UCS Central, there might be some performance implications for the Cisco UCS domains.

- When you unregister a Cisco UCS domain from Cisco UCS Central the global service profiles become local service profiles in Cisco UCS Manager.

Warning

You should upgrade the Cisco UCS Manager to Release 2.1(2) before registering with Cisco UCS Central. If you try to register Cisco UCS Manager, Release 2.1(1) with Cisco UCS Central Release 1.1, Cisco UCS Manager will display the registration as positive. But Cisco UCS Central inventory will not display the registered Cisco UCS Domain. Cisco UCS Central faults will display a critical fault on the registration failure.

- Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

- Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

- Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

- Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

SUMMARY STEPS

1.    In Cisco UCS Manager Navigation pane, click Admin tab.

2.    On the Admin tab, expand All > Communication Management.

3.    Click the UCS Central node.

4.    In the Actions area, click Register With UCS Central.

5.    In the Register with UCS Central dialog box,

6.    In the Policy Resolution Control area, click Global if you want the policy or configuration to be managed by Cisco UCS Central or click Local to manage the policy or configuration by Cisco UCS Manager.

7.    Click OK.

DETAILED STEPS

Step 1

In Cisco UCS Manager Navigation pane, click Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > Communication Management.

Step 3

Click the UCS Central node.

Step 4

In the Actions area, click Register With UCS Central.

Step 5

In the Register with UCS Central dialog box,

1. Enter the host name or IP address in the Hostname/IP Address field.
We recommend that you use a hostname rather than an IP address. To use a hostname, you must configure a DNS server. If the Cisco UCS domain is not registered with Cisco UCS Central, or DNS management is set to local, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager. If the Cisco UCS domain is registered with Cisco UCS Central and DNS management is set to global, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Central.

2. Enter the shared secret or password in the Shared Secret field.

Step 6

In the Policy Resolution Control area, click Global if you want the policy or configuration to be managed by Cisco UCS Central or click Local to manage the policy or configuration by Cisco UCS Manager.

Step 7

Click OK.

Registering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

SUMMARY STEPS

1.    UCS-A# scope system

2.    UCS-A/system # create control-ep policy ucs-central

3.    Shared Secret for Registration: shared-secret

4.    UCS-A/system/control-ep # commit-buffer

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action

Purpose

Step 1

UCS-A# scope system

Enters system mode.

Step 2

UCS-A/system # create control-ep policy ucs-central

Creates the policy required to register the Cisco UCS Domain with Cisco UCS Central.

ucs-central can be the hostname or IP address of the virtual machine where Cisco UCS Central is deployed.

Note:
We recommend that you use a hostname rather than an IP address. To use a hostname, you must configure a DNS server. If the Cisco UCS domain is not registered with Cisco UCS Central, or DNS management is set to local, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager. If the Cisco UCS domain is registered with Cisco UCS Central and DNS management is set to global, configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Central.

Step 3

Shared Secret for Registration: shared-secret

Enter the shared secret (or password) that was configured when Cisco UCS Central was deployed.

Step 4

UCS-A/system/control-ep # commit-buffer

Commits the transaction to the system configuration.

The following example registers a Cisco UCS Domain with a Cisco UCS Central system with a FQDN, and commits the transaction:

UCS-A# scope system
UCS-A /system # create control-ep policy UCSCentral.MyCompany.com
Shared Secret for Registration: S3cretW0rd!
UCS-A /system/control-ep* # commit-buffer
UCS-A /system/control-ep #

Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager GUI

Caution

If you want to unregister any registered Cisco UCS Domain in a production system, contact Cisco Technical Support.

When you unregister a Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central,

- You can no longer manage the service profiles, policies and other configuration for the Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central.

- All global service profiles and policies become local and continues to operate as local entities. When you re-register the domain, the service profiles and polices still remain local.

SUMMARY STEPS

1.    In Cisco UCS Manager Navigation pane, click Admin tab.

2.    On the Admin tab, expand All > Communication Management.

3.    Click the UCS Central node.

4.    In the Actions area, click Unregister With UCS Central.

5.    If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

6.    Click OK.

DETAILED STEPS

Step 1

In Cisco UCS Manager Navigation pane, click Admin tab.

Step 2

On the Admin tab, expand All > Communication Management.

Step 3

Click the UCS Central node.

Step 4

In the Actions area, click Unregister With UCS Central.

Step 5

If the Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

Step 6

Click OK.

Unregistering a Cisco UCS Domain Using Cisco UCS Manager CLI

Caution

If you want to unregister any registered Cisco UCS Domain in a production system, contact Cisco Technical Support.

When you unregister a Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central,

- You can no longer manage the service profiles, policies and other configuration for the Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central.

- All global service profiles and policies become local and continues to operate as local entities. When you re-register the domain, the service profiles and polices still remain local.

SUMMARY STEPS

1.    UCS-A# scope system

2.    UCS-A/system # delete control-ep policy

3.    UCS-A/system # commit-buffer

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action

Purpose

Step 1

UCS-A# scope system

Enters system mode.

Step 2

UCS-A/system # delete control-ep policy

Deletes the policy and unregisters the Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central.

Step 3

UCS-A/system # commit-buffer

Commits the transaction to the system configuration.

The following example unregisters a Cisco UCS Domain from Cisco UCS Central and commits the transaction:

UCS-A# scope system
UCS-A /system # delete control-ep policy
UCS-A /system* # commit-buffer
UCS-A /system #

Domains and Domain Groups

When you register a Cisco UCS Manager instance in Cisco UCS Central, that instance is becomes an ungrouped domain in Cisco UCS Central. You will have assign this domain to a domain group to start managing this domain using global policies in Cisco UCS Central.

Cisco UCS Central creates a hierarchy of Cisco UCS domain groups for managing multiple Cisco UCS domains. You will have the following categories of domain groups in Cisco UCS Central:

- Domain Group— A group that contains multiple Cisco UCS domains. You can group similar Cisco UCS domains under one domain group for simpler management.

- Ungrouped Domains—When a new Cisco UCS domain is registered in Cisco UCS Central, it is added to the ungrouped domains. You can assign the ungrouped domain to any domain group.

If you have created a domain group policy, and a new registered Cisco UCS domain meets the qualifiers defined in the policy, it will automatically be placed under the domain group specified in the policy. If not, it will be placed in the ungrouped domains category. You can assign this ungrouped domain to a domain group.

Each Cisco UCS domain can only be assigned to one domain group. You can assign or reassign membership of the Cisco UCS domains at any time. When you assign a Cisco UCS domain to a domain group, the Cisco UCS domain will automatically inherit all management policies specified for the domain group.

Before adding a Cisco UCS domain to a domain group, make sure to change the policy resolution controls to local in the Cisco UCS domain. This will avoid accidentally overwriting service profiles and maintenance policies specific to that Cisco UCS domain. Even when you have enabled auto discovery for the Cisco UCS domains, enabling local policy resolution will protect the Cisco UCS domain from accidentally overwriting policies.

Important:

- Make sure to create a separate domain groups for all M Series modular server domains. Also make sure the modular server domain groups are not hierarchical.

- You must create separate infrastructure firmware policy for M Series modular domains in Cisco UCS Central. The infrastructure firmware policies must be unique to modular servers. This will prevent any issues in firmware policy resolution with other domain groups.

- Creating or Editing a Domain Group

- Adding a Domain to a Domain Group

- Managing Domain Group SNMP

Creating or Editing a Domain Group

Step 1

In the Task bar, type Create Domain Group and press Enter.
This launches the Create Domain Group dialog box.

Step 2

In Basic, click Domain Group Location and select the location in which you want to create the domain group.

Step 3

Enter a Name and optional Description.
The name is case sensitive.

Step 4

In Qualification, select the Qualification Policies that you want to use to identify the Cisco UCS Manager domains.
All domains that meet the qualification policy are automatically added to the domain group.

Step 5

In Domains, select the Cisco UCS Manager domains that you want to add to the domain group.
M Series modular server domains should not be added to a domain group that contains UCS Classic (B Series) domains or UCS Mini domains.

Step 6

Click Create.

Adding a Domain to a Domain Group

Step 1

Click the Domain Group icon and select the domain group where you want to add the Cisco UCS Manager domain.

Step 2

Click the Edit icon.
The Edit dialog box for the domain that you selected displays.

Step 3

Update the description and qualification policies as necessary.

Step 4

Click Domains and select the Cisco UCS Manager domains that you want to add to the domain group.
Note:
M Series modular server domains should not be added to a domain group that contains UCS Classic (B Series) domains or UCS Mini domains.

Step 5

Click Save.

Managing Domain Group SNMP

Step 1

In the Task bar, type Manage Domain Group SNMP and press Enter.
This launches the Manage Domain Group SNMP dialog box.

Step 2

In Basic, click Enabled, then enter the Community/User Name.
Cisco UCS includes the SNMP v1 or v2c community name or the SNMP v3 username when it sends the trap to the SNMP host. This must be the same as the community or username that is configured in SNMP Traps.

Step 3

Enter the optional System Contact and System Location.

Step 4

In SNMP Traps, click Add and complete the following:

1. Enter the same Community/User Name from the Basic section.

2. Enter the Port, and select values for the SNMP Version, the Type, and the V3 Privilege.

Step 5

In SNMP Users, click Add and complete the following:

1. Enter the SNMP User Name.

2. Select the Authentication Type and whether to enable AES-128 Encryption.

3. Enter and confirm the values for the password and privacy password.

Step 6

Click Save.

Domain Group Qualification Policy

Domain group qualification policy enables you to automatically place new Cisco UCS domains under domain groups. You can create qualifiers based on Owner, Site and IP Address of various Cisco UCS domains based on your management requirements. When you register a new Cisco UCS domain, Cisco UCS Central analyses the domain based on the pre defined qualifiers in the domain group qualification policy and places the domain under a specific domain group for management.

- Creating or Editing a Domain Group Qualification Policy

Creating or Editing a Domain Group Qualification Policy

Step 1

In the Task bar, type Create Domain Group Qualification Policy and press Enter.
This launches the Create Domain Group Qualification Policy dialog box.

Step 2

In Basic, click Organization and select the location in which you want to create the domain group qualification policy.

Step 3

Enter a Name and optional Description.
The policy name is case sensitive.

Step 4

In Owner, enter the owner name and regex.

Step 5

In Site, enter the site name and regex.

Step 6

In IP Address, add the IP address ranges.

Step 7

Click Create.

Policies in Cisco UCS Central and Cisco UCS Domains

You can create and manage global policies in Cisco UCS Central and include them in service profiles or service profile templates for one or more Cisco UCS domains. The service profiles and service profile templates that include global policies can be either of the following:

- Local service profiles or service profile templates that are created and managed by Cisco UCS Manager in one Cisco UCS domain. You can only associate local service profiles with servers in that domain. When you include a global policy in a local service profile, Cisco UCS Manager makes a local read-only copy of that policy.

- Global service profiles or service profile templates that are created and managed by Cisco UCS Central. You can associate global service profiles with servers in one or more registered Cisco UCS domains.

You can only make changes to global policies in Cisco UCS Central. Those changes affect all service profiles and service profile templates that include the global policy. All global policies are read-only in Cisco UCS Manager.

You can configure all operational policies under a domain group using IPv6 addresses. These policies are located in the Operations Management tab of the Cisco UCS Central GUI.

This feature helps the Cisco UCS Manager to use an IPv6 address while importing these policies from Cisco UCS Central.

- Policy Resolution between Cisco UCS Manager and Cisco UCS Central

- Consequences of Policy Resolution Changes

- Consequences of Service Profile Changes on Policy Resolution

Policy Resolution between Cisco UCS Manager and Cisco UCS Central

For each Cisco UCS domain that you register with Cisco UCS Central, you can choose which application will manage certain policies and configuration settings. This policy resolution does not have to be the same for every Cisco UCS domain that you register with the same Cisco UCS Central.

You have the following options for resolving these policies and configuration settings:

- Local—The policy or configuration is determined and managed by Cisco UCS Manager.

- Global—The policy or configuration is determined and managed by Cisco UCS Central.

The following table contains a list of the policies and configuration settings that you can choose to have managed by either Cisco UCS Manager or Cisco UCS Central:

Name

Description

Infrastructure & Catalog Firmware

Determines whether the Capability Catalog and infrastructure firmware policy are defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or come from Cisco UCS Central.

Time Zone Management

Determines whether the time zone and NTP server settings are defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or comes from Cisco UCS Central.

Communication Services

Determines whether HTTP, CIM XML, Telnet, SNMP, web session limits, and Management Interfaces Monitoring Policy settings are defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

Global Fault Policy

Determines whether the Global Fault Policy is defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

User Management

Determines whether authentication and native domains, LDAP, RADIUS, TACACS+, trusted points, locales, and user roles are defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

DNS Management

Determines whether DNS servers are defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

Backup & Export Policies

Determines whether the Full State Backup Policy and All Configuration Export Policy are defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

Monitoring

Determines whether Call Home, Syslog, and TFTP Core Exporter settings are defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

SEL Policy

Determines whether the SEL Policy is defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

Power Allocation Policy

Determines whether the Power Allocation Policy is defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

Power Policy

Determines whether the Power Policy is defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

Equipment Policy

Determines whether the Equipment Policy is defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

Port Configuration

Determines whether port configuration is defined locally in Cisco UCS Manager or in Cisco UCS Central.

Consequences of Policy Resolution Changes

When you register a Cisco UCS domain, you configure policies for local or global resolution. The behavior that occurs when the Cisco UCS domain is registered or when that registration or configuration changes, depends upon several factors, including whether a domain group has been assigned or not.

The following table describes the policy resolution behavior you can expect for each type of policy.

Policies and Configuration

Policy Source

Behavior in Cisco UCS Manager on Registration with Cisco UCS Central

Behavior in Cisco UCS Manager when Registration Changed

Cisco UCS Central

Cisco UCS Manager

Domain Group Unassigned

Domain Group Assigned

Unassigned from Domain Group

Deregistered from Cisco UCS Central

Call Home

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

SNMP configuration

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

HTTP

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Telnet

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

CIM XML

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Management interfaces monitoring policy

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Power allocation policy

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Power policy (also known as the PSU policy)

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

SEL policy

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Authentication Domains

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

LDAP

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

LDAP provider groups and group maps

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

TACACS, including provider groups

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

RADIUS, including provider groups

N/A

Cisco UCS Manager only

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

SSH (Read-only)

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

DNS

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Time zone

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Web Sessions

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Fault

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Core Export

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Syslog

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Global Backup/Export Policy

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Default Authentication

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Console Authentication

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Can be local or remote

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Roles

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Combine (Remote replacing Local)

Deletes remote policies

Converted to a local policy

Locales - Org Locales

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Combine (Remote replacing Local)

Deletes remote policies

Converted to a local policy

Trust Points

Domain group root

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Combine (Remote replacing Local)

Deletes remote policies

Converted to a local policy

Firmware Download Policy

Domain group root

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

ID Soaking Policy

Domain group root

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Locales - Domain Group Locales

Domain group root

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Infrastructure Firmware Packs

N/A

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote (if Remote exists)

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Catalog

N/A

Assigned domain group

Local

Local/Remote (if Remote exists)

Retains last known policy state

Converted to a local policy

Maintenance Policy

Schedule

Host Firmware Packs

N/A

Assigned domain group

See Consequences of Service Profile Changes on Policy Resolution

See Consequences of Service Profile Changes on Policy Resolution

Deletes remote policies

Converted to a local policy

Maintenance Policy

Schedule

Host Firmware Packs

N/A

Assigned domain group

See Consequences of Service Profile Changes on Policy Resolution

See Consequences of Service Profile Changes on Policy Resolution

Deletes remote policies

Converted to a local policy

Maintenance Policy

Schedule

Host Firmware Packs

N/A

Assigned domain group

See Consequences of Service Profile Changes on Policy Resolution

See Consequences of Service Profile Changes on Policy Resolution

Deletes remote policies

Converted to a local policy

Consequences of Service Profile Changes on Policy Resolution

For certain policies, the policy resolution behavior is also affected by whether or not one or more service profiles that include that policy have been updated.

The following table describes the policy resolution behavior you can expect for those policies.

Policy

Behavior in Cisco UCS Manager on Registration with Cisco UCS Central

Domain Group Assigned after Registration with Cisco UCS Central

Domain Group Unassigned / Domain Group Assigned

Service Profile not Modified

Service Profile Modified

Maintenance Policy

Local

Local, but any "default" policies are updated on domain group assignment

Local/Remote (if resolved to "default" post registration)

Schedule

Local

Local, but any "default" policies are updated on domain group assignment

Local/Remote (if resolved to "default" post registration)

Host Firmware Packages

Local

Local, but any "default" policies are updated on domain group assignment

Local/Remote (if resolved to "default" post registration)

Organization

The Organization page enables you to view logical entities created under an organization that exists in a registered Cisco UCS domain.

Click one of the following icons to launch the specific page.

- Service Profiles—Displays all service profiles in the organization.

- Service Profile Templates—Displays all service profile templates in the organization.

- Pools—Displays all pools in the organization.

- Policies—Displays all policies in the organization.

- Permitted VLANs—Displays VLANs permitted in the organization.

- Updating Organization Descriptions

Updating Organization Descriptions

After an organization is created, you can update the description.

Step 1

From the Organization page, click the Edit icon.

Step 2

In the Edit Organization dialog box, enter the Description for the organization.

Step 3

Click Save.

Chapter 5. License Management

- Overview

Overview

Cisco UCS Central, release 1.4 introduces Smart Licensing, along with the traditional PAK based licensing. Cisco Smart licensing is simple, flexible and smart way of procuring, deploying and managing licenses in your environment. For more information on smart licensing, see Click Here

You can have smart licensing and traditional licensing in your system at the same time. But only one type licensing can be active. The following are the differences between traditional and smart licensing:

Traditional Licensing

Smart Licensing

Node-locked licensing. Licenses are associated with registered domains.

Dynamic licensing. Licenses are associated with products and transferable within the virtual account.

You must obtain a license and manually download and install it on each device in Cisco UCS Central.

No license installation is necessary. The device initiates an HTTPS call home session and requests the licenses it is configured to use.

Licenses are associated with specific devices.

License pools are account-specific and can be used with any device in your company

Licenses are not easily transferable from one device to another.

Licenses can be transferred between product instances without any software installation. You can transfer unused licenses from one virtual account to another.

- Smart Licensing

- Traditional Licensing

Smart Licensing

Smart licenses are server based licenses. You will purchase, deploy and track licenses for servers instead of domains. Instead of registering individual products with license files or PAKs, Smart Licensing provides the option to create a pool of licenses that can be used across your company's portfolio.

Smart licensing uses Virtual Accounts, Product Instances and Registration Tokens to procure, deploy and manage licenses in your environment.

Virtual Accounts

Virtual accounts are collections of licenses and product instances. You can create virtual accounts in Cisco Smart Software Manager to organize the licenses for your company into logical entities. You can use virtual accounts to organize licenses by business unit, product type, IT group, or whatever makes sense for your organization. For example, if you segregate your company into different geographic regions, you can create a virtual account for each region to hold the licenses and product instances for that region.

All new licenses and product instances are placed in a virtual account. You choose the virtual account when you register a product instance. You can transfer existing licenses or product instances from one virtual account to another.

For more information on creating virtual accounts in Cisco Smart Software Manager, see Click Here .

Product Instances

A Cisco UCS Central product instance has a unique device identifier (UDI) that is registered using a product instance registration token. You can register several instances of a product with a single registration token. Each product instance can have one or more licenses that reside in the same virtual account.

Registration Tokens

Registration tokens are stored in the Product Instance Registration Token Table that is associated with your smart account. After you enable Smart Licensing in Cisco UCS Central, you can generate a new token in a virtual account on the Smart Software Licensing portal to register in Cisco UCS Central.

For more information on creating virtual accounts in Cisco Smart Software Manager, see Click Here .

Obtaining Licenses

To obtain licenses using smart licensing, you will have to do the following:

- Generate tokens in Cisco Smart Software Manager virtual accounts.

- Register licenses for product instances in Cisco UCS Central.

The following illustrations explains the smart licensing process:

1

Registration request

The Smart Licensing 90-evaluation period starts when the product instance begins using the licensing feature. It not renewable. When the evaluation period expires, the agent sends a notification to the platform.

2

Authorization renewal

Authorization requests can result in an Authorized or Out of Compliance (OOC) response, or in an error due to a communication failure. Authorization periods are renewed every 30 days as long as authorization requests return Authorized or Out of Compliance (OOC) responses. When the authorization period expires, the agent continues to retry renewal with authorization requests. If successful, a new authorization period starts. If ID cert renewal (authorization renewal) fails, the product instance moves to an Unidentified state and begins consuming the evaluation period.

- Enabling Smart Licensing

- Registering UCS Central Using a License Token

- Renewing Authorization

- Renewing Registration

- Deregistering Smart Software Licensing

- Disabling Smart Software Licensing

Enabling Smart Licensing

Before You Begin

Make sure you have enabled Smart Call Home before enabling Smart Licensing. Enabling Smart Call Home includes the following:

- Specify a DNS server.

- Set up Smart Call Home.

- Make sure your Smart Call Home URL is correct. This is the URL the system uses to connect to the smart license server.

Note

Although you must enable Smart Call Home, a Smart Call Home contract ID is not required to use Smart Licensing.

Step 1

On the menu bar, click the Operations icon and select Licenses.

Step 2

Click Enable Smart Software Licensing.
System enables smart licensing and information related to traditional licensing is replaced smart licensing related information.

Registering UCS Central Using a License Token

Before You Begin

Make sure Smart Licensing is enabled.

Step 1

Click the Operations icon and select Licenses.

Step 2

Click the Smart Software Manager link to go to the Smart Software Manager portal.

Step 3

In the Smart Software Manager portal:

1. Select a UCS Central virtual account.

2. Click New Token in the Product Instance Registration Tokens panel and select Copy.

Step 4

In the UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel, click Register Smart Software Licensing.

Step 5

In the Register Smart Licensing dialog box, paste the new token you generated in the Product Instance Registration Token text box.

Step 6

Click Register.

You will receive notifications on registration in progress, successful registration or failure to register. If there are problems with your Smart Call Home settings, a Failed message will appear with a link to the Call Home Configuration.

Renewing Authorization

License authorization is renewed automatically by the Smart Licensing agent every 30 days. You can manually renew license authorization by selecting Renew Authorization Now from the Actions menu in the UCS Central Smart Licensing panel.

Step 1

In the UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel, click the Action menu.

Step 2

Select Renew Authorization Now.

Renewing Registration

The agent automatically renews Smart Software Licensing registration certificate or the ID certificate every 6 months. You can manually renew the registration certificate by selecting Renew Registration Now from the Actions menu in the UCS Central Smart Licensing panel.

Step 1

In the UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel, click the Action menu.

Step 2

Select Renew Registration Now.

Deregistering Smart Software Licensing

When you deregister a product instance from Smart Software Licensing, the product will not be associated with the license. The product will be removed from the list of registered products for the associated virtual account. You can use the license to register another product.

Step 1

In the UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel, click the Action menu.

Step 2

Select Deregister to remove UCS Central from Smart Software Manager.

Disabling Smart Software Licensing

After registering a UCS Central product instance, you can disable Smart Software Licensing to return to the Traditional Licensing mode.

Step 1

In the UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel, click the Action menu.

Step 2

Select Disable Smart Software Licensing.

Traditional Licensing

traditional PAK based licensing used domain based licenses instead of the product based license that Smart Licensing offers. You can manage domain licenses through the Cisco UCS Central GUI or CLI.

Grace Period

When you start using Cisco UCS Central for the first time, you can register up to five Cisco UCS domains for free, for up to 120 days grace period. If you register any domain after the fifth, you get a 120 grace period for each new registered domain. After the grace period ends, you need an active domain license to manage the domain using Cisco UCS Central. The grace period is measured from the day you register the Cisco UCS domain until the day you obtain and install a license.

The use of grace period for a registered Cisco UCS domain is stored in the system. Unregistering a domain from the system does not reset the grace period. For example, if you register a domain for free and use 40 days of the grace period unregister after 40 days, the system records the 40 days in association with that domain. If you register this Cisco UCS domain again, the grace period for the domain resumes and indicates that 40 days have been used. You must obtain and install a license before the grace period expires. If you did not obtain a license before the grace period expires, the system generates multiple faults as a reminder to procure a license.

License Types

The following are the two available license types:

- Initial License: Initial license includes the initial activation license for Cisco UCS Central and five domain licenses. After installing the initial license, you cannot delete it from the system. You can still delete the download task for the initial license, that does not have any impact on the initial license installation status.

- Domain License: If you plan to register more than five domains in Cisco UCS Central, you must purchase domain licenses. After obtaining and downloading the domain licenses, when you register a Cisco UCS domain, you can select the domain and assign a license.

- Obtaining a Traditional License

- Downloading a License from a Local File System

- Downloading a License from a Remote File System

- Installing a License

- Deleting a Traditional License

Obtaining a Traditional License

You can obtain a license for a Cisco UCS domain using the Cisco License Management Portal.

Note

- This process may change after the release of this document. If one or more of these steps do not apply, contact your Cisco representative for information on how to obtain a license.

- To obtain initial license use the license code L-UCS-CTR-INI=.

- To obtain domain licenses use the license code L-UCS-CTR-LIC=.

Before You Begin

Obtain the Product Authorization Key (PAK) from the claim certification or other proof of purchase documentation.

Step 1

From the Task bar drop-down menu, select Manage UCS Central Call Home Settings and enable the Call Home feature.

Step 2

On the menu bar, click Operations icon and select Licenses.
This launches a License information page.

Step 3

Click UCS Central GUID link and copy the GUID to Clipboard. The GUID is unique to each Cisco UCS Central instance for obtaining licenses.

Step 4

Click Cisco SWIFT to open the Product License Registration portal.
Videos on this page provide information on software licensing features and operations.

Step 5

Login and click Continue to Product License Registration.

Step 6

On the Quickstart page, enter the PAK in the Enter a Single PAK or Token to fulfill field and click Fulfill Single PAK/Token.

Step 7

On the Assign SKUs to Devices page, check the Quantity Available checkbox next to the PAK that you entered.

Step 8

Enter the GUID in the GUID field, and click Assign.

Step 9

Click Next.

Step 10

On the Review page, enter your email address, select the user ID, and check the License Agreement checkbox.

Step 11

Click Get License.
Cisco sends you the license zip file by email. The license file is digitally signed to authorize use on only the specified Cisco UCS domain.

Caution:
After you obtain the license file, you must not tamper with the license code. Any manual edits from your part breaks the tamper proof, and disables the license.

What to Do Next

Unzip the license file and install it.

Downloading a License from a Local File System

Before You Begin

To download a license from the local file system to Cisco UCS Central, make sure you have the following:

- A Cisco product license saved it to your local system.

- Administrative permission for Cisco UCS Central to perform this task.

Step 1

From the What do you want to do? drop-down menu, select Manage UCS Central Call Home Settings and enable the Call Home feature.

Step 2

Tap the Operations icon and select Licenses.
This launches a License information page.

Step 3

Click Download.

Step 4

In the Filename dialog box, type the full path and the name of the license.
If you do not know the exact path to the folder where the license is located, click Choose File to navigate and select the file.

Step 5

Click OK.
Cisco UCS Central begins downloading the license.

Downloading a License from a Remote File System

Before You Begin

To download a license from a remote location to Cisco UCS Central, make sure you have the following:

- A Cisco product license saved it to a remote location.

- The username and password required to access an FTP, SCP, or SFTP server if necessary.

- Administrative permission for Cisco UCS Central to perform this task.

Step 1

From the What do you want to do? drop-down menu, select Manage UCS Central Call Home Settings and enable the Call Home feature.

Step 2

Tap the Operations icon and select Licenses.
This launches a License information page.

Step 3

Click Download.

Step 4

In the Download License dialog box, click the Remote File System radio button.

Step 5

Select the protocol to be used in communicating with the remote server.
It can be one of the following protocols:

- FTP

- TFTP

- SCP

- SFTP

Step 6

In the Server field, enter the IP address or host name of the server on which the license file resides.

Step 7

In the License File Name field, enter the name of the license file you want to download.

Step 8

In the Path field, enter the absolute path to the license file on the remote server, if required.
If you use SCP, the absolute path is always required. If you use any other protocol, you may not need to specify a remote path if the file resides in the default download folder. For details about how your file server is configured, contact your system administrator.

Step 9

In the User Name field, enter the user name to log into the remote server.
If you selected TFTP, this field does not apply.

Step 10

In the Password field, enter the password for the remote server user name.
If you selected TFTP, this field does not apply.

Step 11

Click OK.
Cisco UCS Central begins downloading the license.

Installing a License

Make sure the license is downloaded in Cisco UCS Central.

Step 1

From the Task bar drop-down menu, select Manage UCS Central Call Home Settings and enable the Call Home feature.

Step 2

On the menu bar, click Operations icon and select Licenses.

Step 3

Click Install icon.
Launches the License Install dialog box.

Step 4

In the License Install dialog box, select Local or Remote file location, enter required information and select the license file.

Step 5

Click Install.
The Overall License Status column displays the status of the installation. When you initiate the installation, the status in this column displays Install-pending. After the license is installed, the status changes to Installed.

Deleting a Traditional License

You can delete a traditional license that is not associated with a registered UCS domain, from Cisco UCS Central. If you want to delete a license that is associated to a UCS domain, make sure to unregister the domain before deleting the license. When you delete a license, the system automatically adjusts the available license count.

Important:
Deleting a license from Cisco UCS Central removes only the license file from the system. If you try to download the same license after deleting it from the system, you might encounter a download license error. So when you delete a license, you must delete the associated download task for that license.

Step 1

From the What do you want to do? drop-down menu, select Manage UCS Central Call Home Settings and enable the Call Home feature.

Step 2

Tap the Operations icon and select Licenses.
This launches a License information page.

Step 3

Select the license you want to uninstall.

Step 4

Click Delete.

Step 5

Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box. The license file is deleted from Cisco UCS Central.

Preface

- Audience

- Conventions

- Related Cisco UCS Documentation

- Documentation Feedback

Audience

This guide is intended primarily for data center administrators with responsibilities and expertise in one or more of the following:

- Server administration

- Storage administration

- Network administration

- Network security

Conventions

Text Type

Indication

GUI elements

GUI elements such as tab titles, area names, and field labels appear in this font.

Main titles such as window, dialog box, and wizard titles appear in this font.

Document titles

Document titles appear in this font.

TUI elements

In a Text-based User Interface, text the system displays appears in this font.

System output

Terminal sessions and information that the system displays appear in this font.

CLI commands

CLI command keywords appear in this font.

Variables in a CLI command appear in this font.

[ ]

Elements in square brackets are optional.

{x | y | z}

Required alternative keywords are grouped in braces and separated by vertical bars.

[x | y | z]

Optional alternative keywords are grouped in brackets and separated by vertical bars.

string

A nonquoted set of characters. Do not use quotation marks around the string or the string will include the quotation marks.

< >

Nonprinting characters such as passwords are in angle brackets.

[ ]

Default responses to system prompts are in square brackets.

!, #

An exclamation point (!) or a pound sign (#) at the beginning of a line of code indicates a comment line.

Note

Means reader take note. Notes contain helpful suggestions or references to material not covered in the document.

Tip

Means the following information will help you solve a problem. The tips information might not be troubleshooting or even an action, but could be useful information, similar to a Timesaver.

Caution

Means reader be careful. In this situation, you might perform an action that could result in equipment damage or loss of data.

Timesaver

Means the described action saves time. You can save time by performing the action described in the paragraph.

Warning

IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS

This warning symbol means danger. You are in a situation that could cause bodily injury. Before you work on any equipment, be aware of the hazards involved with electrical circuitry and be familiar with standard practices for preventing accidents. Use the statement number provided at the end of each warning to locate its translation in the translated safety warnings that accompanied this device.

SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS

Related Cisco UCS Documentation

Documentation Roadmaps

For a complete list of all B-Series documentation, see the Cisco UCS B-Series Servers Documentation Roadmap available at the following URL: Click Here .

For a complete list of all C-Series documentation, see the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Documentation Roadmap available at the following URL: Click Here .

For information on supported firmware versions and supported UCS Manager versions for the rack servers that are integrated with the UCS Manager for management, refer to Release Bundle Contents for Cisco UCS Software.

Other Documentation Resources

Follow Cisco UCS Docs on Twitter to receive document update notifications.

Documentation Feedback

To provide technical feedback on this document, or to report an error or omission, please send your comments to ucs-docfeedback@cisco.com. We appreciate your feedback.

THE SPECIFICATIONS AND INFORMATION REGARDING THE PRODUCTS IN THIS MANUAL ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL STATEMENTS, INFORMATION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS IN THIS MANUAL ARE BELIEVED TO BE ACCURATE BUT ARE PRESENTED WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. USERS MUST TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR APPLICATION OF ANY PRODUCTS.

THE SOFTWARE LICENSE AND LIMITED WARRANTY FOR THE ACCOMPANYING PRODUCT ARE SET FORTH IN THE INFORMATION PACKET THAT SHIPPED WITH THE PRODUCT AND ARE INCORPORATED HEREIN BY THIS REFERENCE. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO LOCATE THE SOFTWARE LICENSE OR LIMITED WARRANTY, CONTACT YOUR CISCO REPRESENTATIVE FOR A COPY.

The Cisco implementation of TCP header compression is an adaptation of a program developed by the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) as part of UCB's public domain version of the UNIX operating system. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1981, Regents of the University of California.

NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER WARRANTY HEREIN, ALL DOCUMENT FILES AND SOFTWARE OF THESE SUPPLIERS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS" WITH ALL FAULTS. CISCO AND THE ABOVE-NAMED SUPPLIERS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THOSE OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE.

IN NO EVENT SHALL CISCO OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS OR LOSS OR DAMAGE TO DATA ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS MANUAL, EVEN IF CISCO OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: Click Here . Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)