Subscriptions

Subscriptions provide entitlements that bind devices such as Cisco 6000 series switches within an organization’s fabrics. Subscriptions are required to use Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric.

Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric subscriptions come with embedded support contracts. Subscriptions allow entitled device owners to access Cisco Technical Support for software and hardware related issues.

Entitlements overview

Entitlements are grants that allow devices to be used in a fabric. When a device is bound to a fabric, an entitlement is allocated to that fabric from a pool of entitlements granted by the subscriptions claimed by the organization.

The subscription entitlement levels are

  • Essentials: Enables you to design, deploy, and manage data center fabrics for general-purpose and Al workloads.
  • Premier: Extends capabilities to advanced Al clusters with design, deployment, and management of integrated fabrics, including networking, compute (GPUs and DPUs) and storage for high- performance, validated Al environments.

To maintain compliance, the entitlement level of all devices must be equal to or higher than the entitlement level of the fabric that these devices are bound to. For more information on fabric compliance, see How compliance works.

A fabric can be set to Essentials, regardless of whether a server group or an AI network is attached to the fabric. You can add server groups to a fabric regardless of the entitlement level. However, if you only have Essentials level when adding server groups, a warning message that indicates that the fabric is not in compliance with the current subscription is displayed.

After a fabric is set to Premier, the fabric cannot be changed to Essentials. You must delete the fabric and create a new one with Essentials entitlement level.

Add-on features

Add-on features unlock an optional device feature that requires separate licensing in addition to your tier subscription. You apply these features selectively to the specific devices or fabrics that require the advanced functionality. Add-on features

  • are required to use a specific feature on a supported device,
  • are redeemed the same way as a subscription,
  • provide no lending or borrowing across tier subscriptions, and
  • are consumed from a shared, organization-wide pool.

The system automatically allocates add-on feature licenses from the shared pool. You cannot assign an add-on feature to a specific fabric. When add-on feature licenses are limited, the system prioritizes them to the highest tiered fabrics.

 Note

When Nexus Hyperfabric reallocates add-on feature licenses between fabrics, it does not notify you. To view the current allocation, refer to Monitor subscription usage by product.

Subscription guidelines

Subscription guidelines define the requirements and management of entitlements for Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric devices and fabrics.

  • A valid Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric entitlement is required for every Cisco 6000 series switch bound to a network fabric.
  • A network fabric must have sufficient device subscription entitlements at the same or higher entitlement level.
  • Subscriptions grant pools of entitlements grouped by device model and service level.

Subscription entitlement management and consumption

These guidelines apply to subscriptions.

  • A subscription can grant any number of entitlements to use a given device model at a given level of service.
  • Subscriptions are claimed at the organizational level.
  • Each time a device of a given model is bound to a fabric of an entitlement level, an entitlement of that device model and entitlement level gets consumed from the pool of entitlements.
  • Organizations can manage multiple fabrics of different entitlement levels.
  • You can renew subscriptions.

Order a subscription

Step 1

If you do not have a preferred partner, locate one using the Cisco Partner Locator tool.

Step 2

With the help of a partner, order a subscription.

After your order is processed, Cisco sends a confirmation email to the contact email address provided in the Bill To section of your order. The email contains:

  • Subscription ID: The reference identifier for your subscription.
  • Claim code: A confidential, single-use authentication key (for example, 3d520886-a2d4-4406-8d9b-6c159bbffc1b) required to activate your entitlements.
  • Web order ID and purchase order number: Support reference numbers used when contacting Cisco TAC.

Redeem a subscription

Ensure that you have

  • the Administrator role to redeem and manage subscriptions (non-administrator roles can view)
  • your claim code from the email order confirmation email, and
  • have ordered the entitlements you need for your Essentials or Premier fabrics.

Step 1

Choose Subscriptions > Manage & redeem.

Step 2

For Redeem claim codes, enter a comma-separated list of claim codes, then select Redeem.

For each subscription that you have redeemed, you can view these details:

  • Subscription ID
  • Product ID: The hardware product ID
  • Quantity: The number of subscriptions available for that subscription ID
  • Description: The description of the subscription level
  • Valid from: The date from which the subscription is valid
  • Expires on: The date the subscription expires
 Note

A redeemed add-on feature license appears on the subscriptions page regardless of whether you have enabled the feature. The license is not consumed until you enable the feature on a supported device.

How compliance works

This section explains how to ensure compliance of your entitlement usage.

Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric entitlement has a one-to-one device-to-entitlement policy. Each device bound to a fabric must have a suitable entitlement. Specifically:

  • the entitlement level matches the fabric service level or higher.
  • the entitlement device model matches the model required by that node position in the fabric.

Add-on features follow a different compliance model from device entitlements. A fabric is compliant for a feature when the shared organization pool contains enough active add-on feature licenses for every device that has the feature enabled. Because add-on features are shared and are not lent between fabric tiers, enabling a feature on more devices than the pool supports makes one or more fabrics non-compliant until you claim more add-on feature licenses.

If this criterion is not met, the fabric will be out of compliance.

When is a fabric out of compliance?

A fabric is out of compliance when the Subscription guidelines for the fabric are no longer met. When a fabric has insufficient entitlements available for devices bound to it, the fabric is non-compliant.

When a fabric is out of compliance for an extended period of time, Cisco directly engages the network administrator of the organization to resolve the issue in accordance with Cisco’s general offer terms. Network administrators receive weekly email reminders when a fabric in their organization is out of compliance.

For help purchasing a new entitlement, see Subscription support.

How to restore compliance?

To restore the fabric entitlement-level compliance, you need to either

If you have questions regarding the type of subscriptions to be purchased, open a case at Cisco Support Case Manager.

If you are no longer using devices without subscriptions, you may remove these devices from the network dashboard.

Monitor subscription usage and compliance

You can review entitlement consumption across your organization to confirm compliance and identify where additional entitlements are needed. Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric provides two views to monitor usage:

  • Usage by fabric: Groups entitlement consumption by individual fabrics.
  • Usage by product ID: Groups entitlement consumption by hardware Product ID (PID) across an entire organization.

Monitor subscription usage by fabric

Use this view to ensure that a specific fabric is compliant. It tells you exactly which device models within this fabric are lacking entitlements so you can resolve compliance warnings for that specific environment.

Follow these steps to review entitlement consumption across your fabrics to confirm compliance and identify fabrics that need more entitlements.

Step 1

Choose Subscription > Usage by fabric.

Step 2

For each tier, review the entitlement summary:

  • Used in Premier fabrics: The number of Premier entitlements consumed by Premier fabrics.
  • Used in Essentials fabrics: The number of Essential entitlements lent to Essentials fabrics.

Step 3

Expand each fabric to review the entitlement summary:

  • Product ID: The product identifier for the device or service.
  • Used: The number of entitlements the fabric is currently using.
  • More needed: The number of additional entitlements required for the fabric to be compliant.
  • Total needed: The number of total entitlements required for the fabric to be compliant.

Step 4

If a fabric shows a red Total needed count, do one of the following:

  • Claim more entitlements for the affected product ID.
  • If the fabric is Essentials, confirm that Premier entitlements are available to lend.

A network fabric must have sufficient device subscription entitlements with the same entitlement level or higher.

Monitor subscription usage by product

This view allows you to see the total pool of entitlements for a product (switch model), how many are consumed across all fabrics globally, and how many are unallocated. This view eliminates the process of expanding every single fabric to tally up how many entitlements of a specific model are left.

Add-on feature subscriptions appear on the Usage by product page alongside entitlements. If you claim multiple concurrent subscriptions for the same add-on feature type, the system sums them into a single pool for that product ID, even when each subscription has a different term. The system counts an add-on feature subscription when it is enabled and has not expired.

Follow these steps to review entitlement consumption by product.

Step 1

Choose Subscriptions > Usage by product.

Step 2

Review the entitlement summary for your device:

  • Product ID: The product identifier for the device.
  • Total entitlements: The total number of redeemed entitlements available for this product ID in the organization.
  • Total used: The total number of entitlements currently assigned to devices across all fabrics.
  • Available: The number of unused entitlements remaining in your organization's pool.

Step 3

Use Search PID to find a specific product ID, or use the Needed for compliance filter to show only product IDs that need additional entitlements.

Subscription updates and fabric levels

Subscription updates and fabric-level updates are separate actions.

A Cisco partner manages subscription updates, renewals, cancellations, and transfers. Use the Nexus Hyperfabric GUI to change a fabric functional level.

A fabric-level change does not update the subscription. To maintain compliance, subscription entitlements must match or exceed the fabric functional level. When you upgrade a fabric functional level, obtain the required subscription entitlements through a Cisco partner.

Subscription update options

Contact a Cisco partner to update a subscription term, entitlement level, or quantity.

A partner can make the following changes:

  • Extend a subscription term at renewal or by purchasing a co-termination extension before renewal.
  • Upgrade an entitlement level.
  • Add subscription entitlements.

Co-termination means that all subscriptions in an organization have the same expiration date.

 Note

You cannot reduce a subscription term or downgrade an entitlement level. To use a lower entitlement level, order a new subscription that takes effect when the current subscription term ends.

Subscription renewal

Contact a Cisco partner to renew a subscription before it expires. Renewing subscriptions helps maintain compliance for the organization’s fabrics.

Subscriptions can renew automatically or manually. Auto renewal is optional.

A Cisco partner can enable auto renewal at least 30 days before a subscription expires. Auto renewal takes effect the day after the current term ends and extends the subscription for 1 year. The subscription ID, payment terms, SKUs, and feature set remain unchanged. No claim action is required.

If auto renewal is not enabled, contact a Cisco partner to arrange a manual renewal. The partner can renew the subscription by using the existing subscription ID or issuing a new subscription ID.

After expiration, complete the renewal within the 30-day grace period. An incomplete renewal enters a 30-day suspended state. If the renewal remains incomplete after 60 days, the subscription ID is removed from the organization’s available subscription pool.

A new subscription ID is sent to the Bill To contact and must be redeemed within 30 days. If the ID is not redeemed within 30 days, open a Cisco support case.

Subscription renewal periods

To maintain compliance of your organization’s fabrics, you must renew the existing subscription when it is nearing the end of the term.

This table describes the subscription renewal periods that are available for Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric.

Subscription period in months

Entitlement level

Default period

Initial permitted period with co-term

Auto renewal*

Manual renewal with co-term

Essentials

36

12 to 84

12

12 to 84

Premier

36

12 to 84

12

12 to 84

* Auto renewal of subscriptions is optional.

Subscription transfers

Contact a Cisco partner to transfer a subscription or change subscription ownership.

A subscription and its associated devices can be transferred to another organization only when they are not in use by a fabric in the current organization. A subscription and its entitlements cannot be used by more than one organization at the same time.

When possible, plan the transfer for the end of the current subscription term. The partner manages the transfer transaction and can create a subscription with the updated ownership details.

After the subscription transfer is complete, an organization administrator can add external users with the Administrator role to transfer operational control of the organization. This action does not transfer subscription ownership.

For Cisco transfer requirements, see the Software License Transfer and Re-Use Policy.

Subscription cancellation

Contact a Cisco partner to cancel a subscription.

A subscription can be canceled when it expires without renewal or when the subscription agreement is terminated early.

A canceled subscription is removed from the organization’s subscription ID pool after 30 days. Before canceling a subscription, confirm that the organization retains enough entitlements for every device in its fabrics. Otherwise, affected fabrics can become noncompliant.

Subscription support

For help with new purchases or to modify existing subscription purchases, contact your preferred Cisco reseller or partner. To locate a partner, use the Cisco Partner Locator Tool.

If you continue to experience purchasing issues, email Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric Sales Support at hyperfabric-sales@cisco.com.