Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric - Subscription
Subscriptions overview
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.
Order and claim subscriptions
After purchasing a subscription, you will receive an email with the subscription key or subscription ID. The email is sent to the mandatory email contact details provided in the Bill To section of your order.
The subscription ID is a single-use key, and you must use it within 30 days of the order start date. For more information on purchasing new subscriptions, see Subscription support.
Claim, manage, and use subscriptions
Follow these steps to claim, manage and use subscriptions for your organization through Subscriptions tab in the Hyperfabric UI.
Step 1 | Select subscriptions in the left pane of the Hyperfabric GUI. |
Step 2 | Select Management and click Add subscription. |
Step 3 | In the Add subscription dialog, add the subscription IDs and click Claim. When you order a subscription, an email is sent to the contact details provided in the Bill To section of the order. The email contains information about
The claimed subscription is added to the Management tab. 
For each subscription that you have claimed, you can view the following information.
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Step 4 | To unclaim a subscription ID, add the subscription ID in the Management tab and select unclaim. |
Step 5 | Select the Usage tab to view how the subscriptions are used by your organization. 
The Usage tab displays the subscription levels, Premier or Essentials and the details pertaining to the fabrics associated with these subscription levels.
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Entitlements overview
Subscriptions contains entitlements that bind devices, such as the Cisco 6000 series switches, to fabrics within an organization.
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.
Fabric entitlement and compliance
A fabric is compliant when the number of devices bound to the fabric does not exceed the entitled amount available for that model and entitlement level. You may bind a device to a fabric using an entitlement of the same level or higher than the fabric it is being bound to.
An organization is non-compliant if one or more fabrics are non-compliant.
Subscription guidelines
These guidelines apply to subscriptions.
- A valid Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric entitlement is required for every Cisco 6000 series switch that is bound to a network fabric.
- A network fabric must have sufficient device subscription entitlements with the same entitlement level or higher.
- 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.
- Collectively, subscriptions grant pools of entitlements grouped by device model and service 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.
Modify subscriptions and fabric levels
You can modify the subscription-level capabilities through Cisco Commerce Workspace (CCW) or Cisco Commerce Software Subscriptions and Services (CCW-R).
However, you need to use the Hyperfabric UI to modify the fabric functional-levels. Modifying the fabric functional-levels is independent of modifying subscriptions.
Subscription entitlements are per device type and entitlement level (RTU) of the subscription. The entitlement levels Essentials and Premier, must match the functional level of the fabric. Advantage fabric functional level requires subscription entitlements (RTUs) with Advantage type for each device model used, and same for Premier.
Any actions done through the Hyperfabric UI and downgrade and upgrade are fabric level changes; these are not subscription-level changes. All fabric-level changes must be supported with subscription change through paid transactions via the CCWor CCW-R.
Modify the subscription term
You can extend existing subscription terms; however, decreasing a subscription term is not supported.
Existing subscription terms may be extended
- At the time of renewal. For more information, see Renewing subscriptions.
- With the purchase of a co-term extension, prior to the time of renewal.
Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric term extensions may be co-terminated with other subscriptions. If you opt for co-term, all subscriptions will co-terminate at the same time. Co-termination means that for any given organization, regardless of how many subscriptions were applied or when they were applied, the subscription expiration date will be the same. Co-termination simplifies the renewal process; it may be an opportunity to consolidate all expiring subscriptions into a single renewal order.
Modify subscription levels
You can modify the existing entitlement level. To upgrade the entitlement level,
- modify an existing subscription with a co-term upgrade,
- create a new subscription with a co-term upgrade, or
- create a new subscription without a co-term upgrade.
Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric supports multiple concurrent subscriptions.
Downgrading an entitlement level is not supported; if a lower entitlement level is required, you can order a new subscription with a lower entitlement level at the end of the existing subscription term.
Modify the subscription quantity
When the subscription period ends, you can choose to renew the subscription with same or different quantity of entitlements.
You can add additional subscriptions any time by
- modifying an existing subscription with a co-term quantity add-on,
- creating a new subscription with a co-term end date, or
- creating an add-on subscription without co-term.
Renew subscriptions
To maintain compliance of your organization’s fabrics, you must renew the existing subscription when it is nearing the end of the term.
The two types of renewal orders are auto renewal and manual renewal.
This table describes the subscription renewal periods that are available for Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric.
|
Entitlement level |
Default period |
Initial permitted period with co-term |
Auto renewal* |
Manual renewal with co-term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Essentials |
36 |
12 to 60 |
12 |
12 to 60 |
|
Advantage |
36 |
12 to 60 |
12 |
12 to 60 |
|
Premier |
36 |
12 to 60 |
12 |
12 to 60 |
* Auto renewal of subscriptions is optional.
Auto-renew subscriptions
If your reseller has selected Auto Renew for your subscriptions, auto renewal is triggered at the end-of-term of an existing subscription.
Partners can activate the auto renewal option for your subscription at any point during its term, provided it is enabled at least 30 days before the subscription expires. Upon renewal, the Subscription ID is unchanged, and no claim actions are necessary.
The renewal takes effect automatically the day after your current subscription ends. Your subscription is extended by a period of one year. All aspects of your subscription, including payment terms, stock keeping units (SKUs), and feature sets, will continue unchanged. If your reseller or partner has already set up the auto renewal, no further action is required from your side.
NoteIf your subscription expires, it is critical to act within the 30-day grace period. During this time, only manual renewal of subscriptions is supported.
Manually renew subscriptions
At the end of the subscription period, you can renew your subscription manually, either using the existing subscription ID or using a new subscription ID. You must manually renew your subscriptions if your reseller or partner has not opted for the Auto Renew option.
Renew with the existing subscription ID
From the date of expiry, you have 30 days to renew the subscription. If the renewal order is incomplete, the subscription is moved to a suspended state for 30 days. If the order is not complete at the end of 60 days, the subscription ID is removed from the available pool of subscriptions.
Renew with a new subscription ID
You can manually renew subscriptions using a new manual order that triggers a new subscription ID activation email. The details of the subscription ID are emailed to the customer details provided in the Bill To section of the order. The subscription ID is a single-use key that you must use within 30 days of receipt. If you fail to activate the ID within the 30 days, open a Cisco support case.
Cancel subscriptions
Subscriptions can be canceled
- if a subscription expires and you do not renew it, or
- if you prematurely terminate the subscription agreement.
A canceled subscription is automatically removed from the pool of subscription IDs within the organization after 30 days. A canceled subscription can result in a network fabric being in a non-compliant state, if the number of subscriptions within the organization is insufficient.
Transfer subscriptions
For information about Cisco’s policy for transfer of subscriptions, see the Software License Transfer and Re-Use Policy.
We recommend that you wait until the end of the current subscription period before creating a new subscription with the adjusted ownership details.
An organization’s administrator can transfer users and roles to the new subscription. The administrator can transfer the control of the organization and subscriptions by adding external users with administrator roles to the organization. All administrators are granted full technical support entitlements for the subscription regardless of the identity of the subscription contract owner.
You can transfer a subscription and the associated devices to a secondary organization if these subscription entitlements and devices are not used in a fabric by the current organization. Subscriptions and the entitlements cannot be used by multiple organizations at the same time.
How compliance works
This section explains how to ensure compliance of your entitlement usage.
Cisco Nexus Hyperfabric entitlement has a 1:1 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.
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
- add new subscriptions. For more information, see Order and claim subscriptions, or
- renew subscriptions. For more information, see Renew subscriptions.
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.
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, contact: 
.