Cisco License Manager

A. Cisco License Manager 2.0 is a secure client/server-based application to manage Cisco IOS© Software activation and licenses. It automates the workflow associated with Cisco IOS Software activation through its wizard-based GUI and scales for large network deployments. Cisco License Manager accelerates deployment of licenses using policy based license management and helps enable customers to rapidly roll out advanced services in their networks.

Cisco License Manager also provides full functionality Java and Perl Software Development Kits (SDKs) to integrate with customers' existing license or asset-management products and protects their investment in these assets.

A. At this time, Cisco License Manager 2.0 manages software activation and licenses only for Cisco IOS Software-based products such as Cisco Catalyst® 3750-E and 3560-E Series Switches.

A. Only Cisco License Manager users with the appropriate privileges can view full PAK strings. Other users will see either the user-assigned tag for a given PAK or only the last four characters of the PAK.

A. Cisco License Manager 2.0 requires encryption (K9) software to interact with the Cisco.com license server. The Cisco.com interactions are mandatory to automate licensing workflow, and this communication cannot be made optional. Therefore, a nonencryption (non-K9) version of the product is not available. Please work with your account team for getting export permissions.

A. No, Cisco License Manager does not require that any agent be configured on devices for license management. Cisco License Manager can manage licenses using Telnet, Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol and a command-line interface (CLI). In addition, it can communicate with license agents on devices using XML over HTTPS to manage licenses if the customer has enabled this facility.

A. Yes, Cisco License Manager allows you to specify the preferred connection method for autodiscovery so that you can try HTTPS first before using Telnet or SSH. Cisco License Manager device properties will show you the method that was used for device communication.

A. Yes, Cisco License Manager allows you to choose the polling frequency and also allows you to disable it altogether.

A. Yes, Cisco License Manager listens to notifications. For devices managed over HTTPS, Cisco License Manager listens to XML notifications, and for devices managed using Telnet, SSH, syslog is used.

A. Cisco License Manager uses ITU X.733 severity for all alerts, so it can be integrated easily into your event management systems.

A. Yes, Cisco License Manager uses HTTPS to securely interact with the Cisco.com license server. The username and passwords are always transferred in encrypted form for Cisco.com transactions.

A. Yes; you need to import these licenses in Cisco License Manager, and then they can be deployed to network devices. Please see the Cisco License Manager UserGuide.

A. Yes, if you have not obtained licenses for those PAKs, you can still manually use the Cisco Website to obtain licenses for them. However, Cisco License Manager does this for you automatically and also deploys the licenses to network devices using a wizard-based GUI.

Please note that in this case, Cisco License Manager will have no knowledge regarding the usage of the PAK, and if you try to obtain licenses using same PAK later on via Cisco License Manager, the request may fail if you have used all the available licenses in that PAK.

A. The customers must add PAKs received from Cisco to Cisco License Manager. Once the PAKs are added, Cisco License Manager can automatically download detailed feature SKU information associated with the PAKs and then can obtain licenses for those SKUs.

A. Cisco License Manager resides in the customer premises and needs Internet connectivity to the Cisco Website for many of its features. For isolated networks, Cisco License Manager supports two-stage license deployment where the customers can move Cisco License Manager to a network domain with Internet connectivity and obtain and save licenses to its database by securely communicating to the license server on the Cisco Website. Cisco License Manager can then be moved back to the original isolated network domain to deploy the previously obtained licenses to network devices. Please see the Deploying Cisco License Manager in Isolated Networks white paper located at http://www.cisco.com/go/clm for more details.

A. Cisco License Manager communicates to the Cisco Website only when the customer initiates Download PAK Info, Obtain License, and Resend License operations. It does not send any customer network information to the Cisco Website except the unique device identifier (UDI), which is required for obtaining licenses.

A. Cisco License Manager contacts the license server at the Cisco Website to obtain the RMA history for all managed devices, and typically it can process around ten devices per minute. The exact time will depend on a lot of factors such as WAN bandwidth, server load, and so on.

A. Yes, Cisco License Manager can obtain licenses even for predeployed or offline devices if the user adds them to Cisco License Manager using their UDI instead of their IP address.

A. The Cisco License Manager supports full functionality Java and Perl SDKs.

A. The Cisco License Manager SDKs provide all the functionality that is available through the GUI. Customers can use the SDKs to integrate their existing license and asset-management products with Cisco License Manager. For details, please refer to the Cisco License Manager API reference documentation.

A. Cisco recommends a maximum of five concurrent clients to Cisco License Manager. These clients can be either GUI clients or northbound clients using the Cisco License Manager SDK.

A. Cisco License Manager needs ActivePerl 5.8.8.

A. Cisco License Manager 2.0 GUI software supports the following operating systems:

A. Yes, this is supported as long as the minimum system resource requirements specified in the data sheet are met.

A. Cisco License Manager needs JRE 1.5, which is bundled as part of the installation CD.

A. No, Cisco License Manager includes an Oracle Berkeley DB embedded database. Cisco has purchased the license to embed this database in Cisco License Manager, and the customer does not need to purchase any license or support for this database.

A. Cisco License Manager facilitates collaboration by allowing users to share policies created by one user with others. The policies can be modified and executed by all Cisco License Manager users.

A. Cisco License Manager will skip devices that match the rules specified in the policy and that already have the appropriate license and will not obtain a new license.

A. Cisco License Manager is a standalone product and does not need any other Cisco network management product to work.

A. Cisco License Manager GUI client and server software is offered free of cost and is available only through download from http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/clm10. The Cisco License Manager SDKs are sold separately and can be purchased through the Cisco Website and authorized resellers.

A. Cisco License Manager client and server software and the optional SDKs have right-to-use (RTU) licenses. No license key registration is required for Cisco License Manager 2.0.

A. Cisco License Manager GUI client and server software is offered free of cost, and no service contract is needed. A service contract is available for the optional Cisco License Manager Java and Perl SDK products, and customers must purchase a Software Application Support (SAS) contract to receive access to technical assistance through the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) or the Cisco Website. Customers with active SAS contracts on the Cisco License Manager 2.0 SDK will be entitled to minor and patch release upgrades ( 2.x and 2.x.x for example). Major new releases of the Cisco License Manager SDKs will require the purchase of a new Cisco License Manager SDK.