License Management

This chapter includes the following sections:

Managing Licenses in Cisco UCS Central

Domain licenses for each registered Cisco UCS Domains enable you to manage the domains from Cisco UCS Central. You can manage the Cisco UCS domain licenses using both Cisco UCS Central GUI and 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.

Note

Domain licenses are specific to the installed domain. If you registered a specific domain using one license, you cannot unregister that particular domain and use the license for a different domain.

Obtaining a 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.

Procedure
    Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
    Step 2   In the Navigation pane, click License Management.
    Step 3   In the Work pane, select the License tab.
    Step 4   In the UCS Central Details area, click GUID to copy the GUID to Clipboard. GUID is unique to each Cisco UCS Central instance for obtaining licenses.
    Step 5   Click Cisco SWIFT to open the License Administration Portal.
    Step 6   Login to the License Administration Portal, and click Continue to Product License Registration.
    Step 7   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 8   On the Assign SKUs to Devices page, check the Quantity Available checkbox next to the PAK that you entered.
    Step 9   Enter the GUID in the GUID field, and click Assign.
    Step 10   Click Next.
    Step 11   On the Review page, enter your email address, select the user ID, and check the License Agreement checkbox.
    Step 12   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 using Cisco UCS Central GUI, download the license into the system.

    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:

    • Obtained the license from Cisco and saved it to your local system.

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

    Procedure
      Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
      Step 2   In the Navigation pane, click License Management.
      Step 3   In the Work pane, click on the Licenses tab.
      Step 4   Under the Licenses tab, click Download.
      Step 5   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 6   Click OK.

      Cisco UCS Central begins downloading the license. You can monitor the status of the download on the Download Tasks tab.

      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:

      • Obtained the license from Cisco and saved it to the remote location from where you want to download. If that is a FTP, SCP or SFTP server, then the username and Password for access authentication.

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

      Procedure
        Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
        Step 2   In the Navigation pane, click License Management.
        Step 3   In the Work pane, click on the Licenses tab.
        Step 4   Under the Licenses tab, click Download.
        Step 5   In the Download License dialog box, click the Remote File System radio button.
        Step 6   Select a protocol to be used while communicating with the remote server.

        It can be one of the following protocols:

        • FTP

        • TFTP

        • SCP

        • SFTP

        Step 7   In the Server field, enter the IP address or host name of the server on which the license file resides.
        Step 8   In the License File Name field, enter the name of the license file you want to download.
        Step 9   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 10   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 11   In the Password field, enter the password for the remote server user name.

        If you selected TFTP, this field does not apply.

        Step 12   Click OK.

        Cisco UCS Central begins downloading the license. You can monitor the status of the download on the Download Tasks tab.

        Installing a License

        Make sure the license is downloaded in Cisco UCS Central.

        Procedure
          Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
          Step 2   In the Navigation pane, click License Management.
          Step 3   In the Work pane, click the Licenses tab.

          You can view lists of all downloaded licenses here. Check for licenses with Validated status in Overall License Status column. These are available for installation.

          Step 4   Choose the license you want to install and 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 License

          You can delete a 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.

          Procedure
            Step 1   On the menu bar, click Operations Management.
            Step 2   In the Navigation pane, click License Management.
            Step 3   In the Work pane, click the Licenses tab.
            Step 4   Select the license you want to uninstall.
            Step 5   Click Delete.
            Step 6   Click Yes in the confirmation dialog box. The license file is deleted from Cisco UCS Central.
            What to Do Next

            Delete the associated license download task from Operations Management > License Management > Download Tasks tab for this license. This removes any related instances of this license from the system.