Smart Licensing and HyperFlex
Overview
Cisco Smart Software Licensing (Smart Licensing) is an intelligent software license management system that automates time-consuming, manual licensing tasks, such as procuring, deploying, and managing licenses across your entire organization. It provides visibility into your license ownership and consumption so you know what you own and how you are using it.
Smart Licensing introduces company-wide license pooling. Server-based licenses, or smart licenses, are not node-locked to devices so they can be used on any compatible device owned by your company. Using virtual accounts to organize licenses and product instances for your company into logical entities, for example, by business unit, product type, or IT group, makes it easy to transfer devices and licenses across virtual accounts.
The Smart Licensing feature integrates with Cisco HyperFlex and is automatically enabled as soon as you create an HX storage cluster. For your HX storage cluster to start reporting license consumption, you must register it with Cisco Smart Software Manager (SSM) through your Cisco Smart Account. A Smart Account is a cloud-based repository that provides full visibility and access control to Cisco software licenses and product instances across your company. Registration is valid for one year.
Registration enables HyperFlex to be identified to a Smart Account and allows license usage to be reported to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite. After registration, HyperFlex reports license usage to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite with the current license status. See the following License Status section for details.
Note |
You will need to open ports 80 and 443 to tools.cisco.com for all HyperFlex management IPs in order for this to work. |
After you register your HX storage cluster, communication messages are signed by a certificate used to identify HyperFlex to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite. HyperFlex automatically sends the following requests:
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A renew registration request every six months. In case the automatic registration renewal does not occur, use the
stcli license renew id
command to manually renew. -
A renew authorization request every 30 days is required by Smart Licensing. In case the automatic authorization renewal does not occur, use the
stcli license renew auth
command to manually renew. You need to manually renew Smart Licensing authorization only if connectivity is not available when renewal is attempted or your renewal time is outside of your connectivity window. -
A renew authorization request is also sent to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite whenever license consumption changes. This authorization is valid for 90 days. If HyperFlex doesn't contact Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite for 90 days to renew its authorization, licenses consumed by HyperFlex are reclaimed and put back in the pool.
License Status
Registration Status |
Description |
Verify Status |
System Functionality |
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Evaluation Mode |
Smart Licensing is enabled but your HX storage cluster is not registered to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite and in a 90-day evaluation period. |
To verify the status or check the remaining time left in the evaluation period, run
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No impact on features or functionality. |
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Evaluation Expired |
Smart Licensing is enabled but your HX storage cluster is not registered to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite. Your license is in the Initial Unidentified state and not considered out of compliance. |
To verify the status, run
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No impact on features or functionality.
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In Compliance |
Smart Licensing is enabled and your HX storage cluster is registered to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite. You are consuming less licenses than you own. |
— |
— |
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Out of Compliance |
You are consuming more licenses than you own.
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To verify the status, run
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No impact on features or functionality.
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Authorization Expired |
Smart Licensing is enabled and your HX storage cluster is registered to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite but has not communicated to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite for more than 90 days. |
To verify the status, run
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No impact on features or functionality.
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Export Control Flag Set to "Not Allowed" |
Smart Licensing is enabled and your HX storage cluster is registered to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite but cannot register to use Export Control. |
— |
Behavior is mostly controlled by the Cisco Smart Software Manager server.
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ID Certificate Expired |
Smart Licensing is enabled and your HX storage cluster is registered to Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite but your ID certificate has not renewed for more than six months. Your license is in the Subsequent Unidentified state and is considered out of compliance. |
To verify the status, run
To clear all conditions and return to In Compliance status, run the following command:
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Smart Licensing and Smart Software Manager Satellite
If you would prefer not to, or are not permitted to manage your installed base using an Internet connection, you can install Smart Software Manager Satellite on-premises to manage your licenses locally using a subset of Cisco Smart Software Manager. Download Smart Software Manager satellite.
stcli services sch set --portal-url http://<satellite-host>/Transportgateway/services/DeviceRequestHandler --email <user-email-address>
After Smart Software Manager satellite registers with Cisco Smart Software Manager and is fully functional, it needs to synchronize with Cisco Smart Software Manager every 30 days. There are two options for syncing:
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On-demand or scheduled synchronization when your network is connected.
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Manual synchronization by downloading and then uploading the license file.
Note |
Once the HX cluster is configured with a Smart Satellite server, the token can no longer be generated from the Smart Licensing registration from the Smart portal, as it needs to be generated from the Smart Satellite Server UI. |
Renewing Smart Licensing Authorization
Before you begin
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Verify that your HX storage cluster is registered with Smart Licensing using the following command:
# stcli license show status
Procedure
Step 1 |
Log in to a controller VM. |
Step 2 |
Renew the Smart Licensing authorization using the following commands:
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Step 3 |
Confirm that the HX storage cluster is renewed and authorized.
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Registering a Cluster with Smart Licensing
Smart Licensing automatically integrates with your HX storage cluster and is enabled by default. You need not install Smart Licensing. Your HX storage cluster is unregistered with Smart Licensing and in a 90-day EVAL MODE. Within the 90 days, you need to register your HX storage cluster to use full functionality.
Attention |
Before registering the HyperFlex cluster with Smart Software Manager satellite, ensure that proxy is not configured. If proxy is configured, remove proxy before registering the cluster with Smart Software Manager satellite. |
Before you begin
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Before you can begin using Smart Licensing, you need to have a Cisco Smart Account. You can create (or select) a Smart Account while placing an order, or create a Smart Account outside of placing an order and add new or existing licenses over time.
To create a Smart Account, see https://webapps.cisco.com/software/company/smartaccounts/home?route=module/accountcreation).
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You can register the HX storage cluster with Cisco Smart Software Manager (SSM) in one of the following ways:
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Registering a Cluster with Smart Software Licensing through HX Connect (Registering a Cluster with Smart Software Licensing through HX Connect)
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Registering a Cluster with Smart Software Licensing through a Controller VM
Creating a Registration Token
Registration Token is used to register and consume a product for smart licensing. You must create a token to register the product and add the product instance to a specified virtual account.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Log in to the software manager depending on which version you are using.
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Step 2 |
From the virtual account where you want to register your HX storage cluster, click General, and then click New Token. |
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Step 3 |
In the Create Registration Token dialog box, do the following, and then click Create Token:
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Step 4 |
From the New ID Token row, click the Actions drop-down list, and click Copy. |
Registering a Cluster with Smart Licensing
Recommended Registration Method
Cisco recommends registration of cluster with Smart Software Licensing through HX Connect.
Before you begin
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Verify that your HX storage cluster is running HyperFlex Data Platform 4.0 (2a) or later.
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You must have a product instance registration token. If you do not have a token, you can create a token in Cisco Smart Software manager. For more information on how to create a product instance registration token, see Creating a Registration Token.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Log in to HX Connect. |
Step 2 |
In the Dashboard page, click Cluster License not registered. Alternatively, you can do the registration by clicking the Register Now link in the System Information page. |
Step 3 |
In the Smart Software Licensing Product Registration dialog box, enter the registration token in the Product Instance Registration Token field. For more information on how to create a product instance registration token, see Creating a Registration Token. |
Step 4 |
Click Register. On successful registration, the license type and license status appears in the System Information page.
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Registering a Cluster with Smart Software Licensing through a Controller VM
This section covers the alternate method for registering a cluster with Smart Software Licensing.
Procedure
Step 1 |
Log in to a controller VM. |
Step 2 |
Confirm that your HX storage cluster is in Smart Licensing mode.
Feedback should show Smart Licensing is ENABLED, Status: UNREGISTERED, and the amount of time left during the 90-day evaluation period (in days, hours, minutes, and seconds). The Smart Licensing evaluation period starts when the HX storage cluster begins using the licensing feature and is not renewable. When the evaluation period expires, the Smart Agent sends a notification. |
Step 3 |
Register your HX storage cluster, where idtoken-string is the New ID Token from Cisco Smart Software Manager or Smart Software Manager satellite. For more information on how to create a token for product instance registration, see Creating a Registration Token.
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Step 4 |
Confirm that your HX storage cluster is registered.
Alternatively, you can confirm that your HX storage cluster is registered in .
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Deregistering a Cluster from Smart Licensing
You deregister an HX storage cluster when you want to release the licenses back into the pool to be used by another HX storage cluster or to remove Cisco Smart Software Manager registration; for example, if you want to decommission a cluster. After the HX storage cluster is deregistered, HyperFlex runs in evaluation mode, if any evaluation period remains. If not, HyperFlex is in evaluation expired status.
The Smart Agent contacts the licensing cloud and unregisters itself. All Smart Licensing entitlements and certificates on the platform are removed. All certificates and registration information on the trusted store are removed. The Smart Agent can unregister even if it is unable to communicate with Cisco to deregister. If you need to use Smart Licensing again, reregister your HX storage cluster. See Registering a Cluster with Smart Software Licensing through a Controller VM.
Before you begin
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Verify that your HX storage cluster is registered with Smart Licensing using the following command:
# stcli license show status
Procedure
Step 1 |
Log in to a controller VM. |
Step 2 |
Deregister your HX storage cluster from Smart Licensing.
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Step 3 |
Confirm that your HX storage cluster is deregistered.
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