Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide, Release 1.4
Managing Licenses
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Managing Licenses

This chapter includes the following sections:

Licenses

Port licenses for each Cisco UCS fabric interconnect are factory installed and shipped with the hardware. At a minimum, each fabric interconnect ships with the following counted licenses pre-installed:

  • Cisco UCS 6120XP fabric interconnect—pre-installed licenses for the first eight Ethernet ports enabled in Cisco UCS Manager and any Fibre Channel ports on expansion modules
  • Cisco UCS 6140XP fabric interconnect—pre-installed licenses for the first sixteen Ethernet ports enabled in Cisco UCS Manager and any Fibre Channel ports on expansion modules

Port licenses are not bound to physical ports. When you disable a licensed port, that license is then retained for use with the next enabled port.

If you want to use additional fixed ports, you must purchase and install licenses for those ports.

Grace Period

If you attempt to use a port that does not have an installed license, Cisco UCS initiates a 120 day grace period. The grace period is measured from the first use of the port without a license and is paused when a valid license file is installed. The amount of time used in the grace period is retained by the system.

Note

Each physical port has its own grace period. Initiating the grace period on a single port does not initiate the grace period for all ports.

If a licensed port is unconfigured, that license is transferred to a port functioning within a grace period. If multiple ports are acting within grace periods, the license is moved to the port whose grace period is closest to expiring.

High Availability Configurations

To avoid inconsistencies during failover, we recommend that both fabric interconnects in the cluster have the same number of ports licensed. If symmetry is not maintained and failover occurs, Cisco UCS enables the missing licenses and initiates the grace period for each port being used on the failover node.

Obtaining the Host ID for a Fabric Interconnect

The host ID is also known as the serial number.

Procedure
    Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the Equipment tab.
    Step 2   On the Equipment tab, expand Equipment > Fabric Interconnects.
    Step 3   Click the node for the fabric interconnect for which you want to obtain the host ID.
    Step 4   In the Work pane, click the General tab.
    Step 5   In the Properties area, the host ID is listed in the Serial Number (SN) field.
    What to Do Next

    Obtain the required licenses from Cisco.

    Determining the Grace Period Available for a Port or Feature

    Procedure
      Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
      Step 2   On the Admin tab, expand All > License Management.
      Step 3   In the Work pane, click the General tab.
      Step 4   Click a feature in the table to view the following details, including the used grace period, of that feature in the General tab below:
      Name Description

      Name field

      The name of the feature to which the license applies.

      Scope field

      The fabric associated with the license.

      Absolute Quantity field

      The total number of licenses available. This value is the sum of the number of default licenses plus the number of purchased licenses.

      Used Quantity field

      The number of licenses currently being used by the system. If this value exceeds the total number of licenses available, then some ports will stop functioning after their associated grace period expires.

      Default Quantity field

      The default number of licenses provided for this Cisco UCS instance.

      Operational State field

      The operational state of the license.

      Grace Period Used field

      The number of grace period days that this license has used. After the grace period ends, Cisco UCS disables the feature until a new license is purchased.

      To view the total number of grace period days available, see the Grace Period column in the License table.

      Peer Status field

      If this field displays matching, than the license is installed on both fabrics.

      Obtaining a License


      Note

      This process may change after the release of this document. If one or more of these steps no longer applies, contact your Cisco representative for information on how to obtain a license file.

      Before You Begin

      Obtain the following:

      • Host ID or serial number for the fabric interconnect
      • Claim certificate or other proof of purchase document for the fabric interconnect or expansion module
      Procedure
        Step 1   Obtain the product authorization key (PAK) from the claim certificate or other proof of purchase document.
        Step 2   Locate the website URL in the claim certificate or proof of purchase document.
        Step 3   Access the website URL for the fabric interconnect and enter the serial number and the PAK.

        Cisco sends you the license file by email. The license file is digitally signed to authorize use on only the requested fabric interconnect. The requested features are also enabled once Cisco UCS Manager accesses the license file.

        What to Do Next

        Install the license on the fabric interconnect.

        Downloading Licenses to the Fabric Interconnect from the Local File System


        Note

        In a cluster setup, we recommend that you download and install licenses to both fabric interconnects in matching pairs. An individual license is only downloaded to the fabric interconnect that is used to initiate the download.

        Before You Begin

        Obtain the required licenses from Cisco.

        Procedure
          Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
          Step 2   On the Admin tab, expand All > License Management.
          Step 3   Click the node for the fabric interconnect to which you want to download the license.
          Step 4   In the Work pane, click the Download Tasks tab.
          Step 5   Click Download License.
          Step 6   In the Download License dialog box, click the Local File System radio button in the Location of the Image File field.
          Step 7   In the Filename field, type the full path and and name of the license file.

          If you do not know the exact path to the folder where the license file is located, click Browse and navigate to the file.

          Step 8   Click OK.

          Cisco UCS Manager GUI begins downloading the license to the fabric interconnect.

          Step 9   (Optional)Monitor the status of the download on the Download Tasks tab.
          Note   

          If Cisco UCS Manager reports that the bootflash is out of space, delete obsolete bundles on the Packages tab to free up space. To view the available space in bootflash, navigate to the fabric interconnect on the Equipment tab and expand the Local Storage Information area on the General tab.

          Step 10   Repeat this task until all the required licenses have been downloaded to the fabric interconnect.
          What to Do Next

          After all of the download tasks have completed, install the licenses.

          Downloading Licenses to the Fabric Interconnect from a Remote Location


          Note

          In a cluster setup, we recommend that you download and install licenses to both fabric interconnects in matching pairs. An individual license is only downloaded to the fabric interconnect that is used to initiate the download.

          Before You Begin

          Obtain the required licenses from Cisco.

          Procedure
            Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
            Step 2   On the Admin tab, expand All > License Management.
            Step 3   Click the node for the fabric interconnect to which you want to download the license.
            Step 4   In the Work pane, click the Download Tasks tab.
            Step 5   Click Download License.
            Step 6   In the Download License dialog box, click the Remote File System radio button in the Location of the Image File field.
            Step 7   Complete the following fields:
            Name Description

            Protocol field

            The protocol to use when communicating with the remote server. This can be:

            • FTP
            • TFTP
            • SCP
            • SFTP

            Server field

            The IP address or hostname of the remote server on which the files resides.

            Note   

            If you use a hostname rather than an IP address, you must configure a DNS server in Cisco UCS Manager.

            Filename field

            The name of the license file you want to download.

            Path field

            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.

            User field

            The username the system should use to log in to the remote server. This field does not apply if the protocol is TFTP.

            Password field

            The password for the remote server username. This field does not apply if the protocol is TFTP.

            Step 8   Click OK.

            Cisco UCS Manager GUI begins downloading the license to the fabric interconnect.

            Step 9   (Optional)Monitor the status of the download on the Download Tasks tab.
            Note   

            If Cisco UCS Manager reports that the bootflash is out of space, delete obsolete bundles on the Packages tab to free up space. To view the available space in bootflash, navigate to the fabric interconnect on the Equipment tab and expand the Local Storage Information area on the General tab.

            Step 10   Repeat this task until all the required licenses have been downloaded to the fabric interconnect.
            What to Do Next

            After all of the download tasks have completed, install the licenses.

            Installing a License

            Before You Begin

            Obtain the required licenses from Cisco.

            Procedure
              Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
              Step 2   On the Admin tab, expand All > License Management.
              Step 3   In the Work pane, click the Downloaded License Files tab.
              Step 4   Choose the license you want to install from the table.
              Step 5   Click the Install License button.
              Step 6   In the Install License dialog box, click Yes.

              Cisco UCS Manager GUI installs the license and activates the unlicensed port or feature.

              Viewing the Licenses Installed on a Fabric Interconnect

              Procedure
                Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
                Step 2   On the Admin tab, expand All > License Management.
                Step 3   In the Work pane, click the Installed Licenses tab to view the following details of all licenses installed on the fabric interconnect:
                Name Description

                License File ID column

                The unique identifier for the license.

                Operational State column

                The operational state of the license.

                Operational State Description column

                Details about the operational state.

                Scope column

                The fabric on which this license is installed.

                Version column

                The version of the license.

                Administrative State column

                The administrative state of the license.
                Step 4   Click a license in the table to view the following details of that license in the Contents tab below:

                You may need to expand the license file to view the details of individual licenses in the file.

                Name Description

                Name column

                A navigation tree that lets you view a particular component along with its subcomponents. You can right-click a component to view any actions available for that component.

                Total Qty column

                The total number of licenses available in the license package file.

                Type column

                The license type.

                Expiry column

                The date that the licenses expire.

                Quantity column

                The quantity of licenses of the given type in the license package file.

                PAK column

                Signature column

                The signature key associated with the licenses of the given type.

                Vendor column

                The company that issued the license package file.

                Version column

                The version of the license package file.

                Determining the Expiry Date of a License

                Procedure
                  Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
                  Step 2   On the Admin tab, expand All > License Management.
                  Step 3   In the Work pane, click the Installed Licenses tab.
                  Step 4   Click a license in the table to view the details of that license in the Contents tab below.
                  Step 5   In the Contents tab, expand the license file to view all licenses in the file.
                  Step 6   In the Expiry column, view the expiry date of the license.

                  Uninstalling a License


                  Note

                  Permanent licenses cannot be uninstalled if they are in use. You can only uninstall a permanent license that is not in use. If you try to delete a permanent license that is being used, Cisco UCS Manager rejects the request with an error message.

                  Before You Begin
                  • Back up the Cisco UCS Manager configuration.
                  • Disable the feature or port associated with the license you want to uninstall.
                  Procedure
                    Step 1   In the Navigation pane, click the Admin tab.
                    Step 2   On the Admin tab, expand All > License Management.
                    Step 3   In the Work pane, click the Installed Licenses tab.
                    Step 4   Choose the license you want to uninstall from the table.
                    Step 5   Click the Clear License button.
                    Step 6   If Cisco UCS Manager GUI displays a confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

                    Cisco UCS Manager deactivates the license, removes the license from the list of licenses, and deletes the license from the fabric interconnect. In a cluster setup, you must uninstall the license from the other fabric interconnect.