- Introduction to Administering Cisco Prime Infrastructure
- Administrator Setup Tasks
- Prime Infrastructure Server Settings
- Maintaining Prime Infrastructure Server Health
- Backing Up and Restoring Prime Infrastructure
- Maintaining Network Health
- Managing Data and Collection Retention
- Configuring Controller and AP Settings
- Configuring High Availability
- Configuring Wireless Redundancy
- Controlling User Access
- Advanced Monitoring
- Managing Licenses
- Managing Traffic Metrics
- Planning Network Capacity Changes
- Appendix A: Prime Infrastructure Internal SNMP Trap Generation
- Appendix B: Best Practices: Server Security Hardening
- Appendix C: Configuring the Plug and Play High Availability Feature
Cisco Prime Infrastructure 2.2 Administrator Guide
- Updated:
- February 9, 2018
Chapter: Managing Licenses
Managing Licenses
The Administration > Licenses page allows you to manage Cisco Prime Infrastructure, wireless LAN controllers, and Mobility Services Engine (MSE) licenses.
Although Prime Infrastructure and MSE licenses can be fully managed from the Administration > Licenses page, you can only view Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers (WLC). You must use Cisco WLC or Cisco License Manager (CLM) to manage Cisco WLC licenses.
Prime Infrastructure Licensing
You purchase licenses to access the Prime Infrastructure features required to manage your network. Each license also controls the number of devices you can manage using those features.
You need a base license and the corresponding feature licenses (such as Assurance or Data Center licenses) to get full access to the respective Prime Infrastructure features to manage a set number of devices.
If you have installed Prime Infrastructure for the first time you may access the lifecycle and assurance features using the built-in evaluation license that is available by default. The default evaluation license is valid for 60 days for 100 devices. You can send a request to ask-prime-infrastructure@cisco.com if:
- You need to extend the evaluation period
- You need to increase the device count
- You already have a particular feature license and need to evaluate the other feature licenses
You will need to order a base license and then purchase the corresponding feature license before the evaluation license expires. The license that you purchase must be sufficient to:
- Enable access to all the Prime Infrastructure features you want to use to manage your network.
- Include all the devices in your network that you want to manage using Prime Infrastructure.
To ensure you have the licenses to achieve these goals, do the following:
1. Familiarize yourself with the types of license packages available to you, and their requirements. See the Cisco Prime Infrastructure 2.2 Ordering and Licensing Guide .
2. View the existing licenses. See Verifying License Details for help on ordering and downloading licenses.
3. Calculate the number of licenses you will need, based both on the package of features you want and the number of devices you need to manage.
4. Add new licenses. See Adding Licenses.
5. Delete existing licenses. See Deleting Licenses.
Purchasing Prime Infrastructure Licenses
Prime Infrastructure licenses control the features you can use and the number of devices you can manage using those features. For more information about Prime Infrastructure license types and how to order them, see the Cisco Prime Infrastructure 2.2 Ordering and Licensing Guide .
Note You can ignore warning messages like “Base license is missing” or “Multiple base licenses present, use only one” displayed in the Administration > Licenses > Files > License Files area.
Verifying License Details
Before you order new licenses, you might want to get details about your existing licenses. For example, you can verify your existing license type, product ID, device and interface limits, and number of devices and interfaces managed by your system.
To verify license details, choose Administration > Licenses .
Adding Licenses
You need to add new licenses when:
- You have purchased a new Prime Infrastructure license.
- You are already using Prime Infrastructure and have bought additional licenses.
Step 1 Choose Administration > Licenses .
Step 2 In the Summary folder, click Files, then click License Files .
Step 4 Browse to the location of the license file, then click OK .
Deleting Licenses
When you delete licenses from Prime Infrastructure, all licensing information is removed from the server. Make a copy of your original license file in case you want to add it again later. There are several reasons you might want to delete licenses:
- You installed temporary licenses and want to delete them before applying your permanent licenses.
- You want to move your licenses to a different server. You must first delete the licenses from the original server, then send an email to licensing@cisco.com requesting a re-host for your licenses. You can then apply the re-hosted licenses to the new server.
Step 1 Choose Administration > Licenses .
Step 2 In the Summary folder, click Files .
Step 4 Select the license file you want to delete, then click Delete .
Troubleshooting Licenses
To troubleshoot licenses, you will need to get details about the licenses that are installed on your system. Click Help > About Prime Infrastructure to access your license information.
When troubleshooting licenses, it is important to remember that Prime Infrastructure has five types of licenses:
- Base: Required for every Prime Infrastructure installation. The requirement stems primarily from the need to do accurate royalty accounting by knowing how many Prime Infrastructure instances have been purchased. A Base license is required for each instance of Prime Infrastructure, and is a prerequisite for all other license types.
- Lifecycle: Regulates the total number of devices under Prime Infrastructure management.
- Assurance: Regulates the total number of NetFlow devices under Prime Infrastructure management.
- Collector: Regulates the total number of NetFlow data flows per second that Prime Infrastructure can process.
- Data Center: Regulates the total number of data-center devices under Prime Infrastructure management.This license type was introduced in Prime Infrastructure version 2.2.
All five types of licenses are supplied as either evaluation or permanent licenses:
- Evaluation: These licenses permit or extend access to Prime Infrastructure for a pre-set period. You can apply only one evaluation license of each type (that is, only one Lifecycle evaluation license, one Assurance evaluation license, and so on). You cannot apply an evaluation license over a permanent form of the same license.
- Permanent License: These permit access to Prime Infrastructure features as specified and are not time-limited. Permanent licenses can be applied over evaluation licenses, and can also be applied incrementally (that is, you can have multiple permanent Assurance licenses, and so on).
Prime Infrastructure also performs the following basic license checks:
- A Lifecycle license is a required prerequisite for Assurance licenses.
- An Assurance license is a required prerequisite for Collector licenses.
- Lifecycle and Data Center licenses can be added independently of each other.
- Look for notifications of Lifecycle, Assurance, and Data Center license violations via the Administration > Licenses interface only.
- You will receive notifications of Collector license violations via the Administration > Licenses interface and also in the form of alarms. Alarms for Collector license violation are updated with new events every 15 minutes until the violation is corrected.
- Prime Infrastructure hides Assurance-related features, menu options and links until an Assurance license is applied. Even if you have purchased an Assurance license, these features remain hidden until you apply it.
- Whenever you apply an Assurance license, you automatically apply a Collector license permitting an instance of Prime Infrastructure to process up to 20,000 NetFlow data flows per second. Collector licenses permitting 80,000 flows per second can be applied only with the Professional or equivalent configurations, due to the hard disk requirements imposed by this data rate.
- You can add Lifecycle, Assurance and Data Center permanent licenses incrementally. However, you can add only one Collector 80K license, and then only with the Professional or equivalent configuration.
Table 13-1 provides some scenarios and tips for troubleshooting.
Controller Licensing
To view controller licenses, choose Administration > Licenses , then select Files > Controller Files from the left sidebar menu.
Note Prime Infrastructure does not directly manage controller licenses, rather it simply monitors the licenses. To manage the licenses you can use command-line interface (CLI) commands, Web UI, or Cisco License Manager (CLM).
This page displays the following parameters:
- Controller Name
- Controller IP—The IP address of the controller.
- Feature—License features include wplus-ap-count, wplus, base-ap-count, and base.
For every physical license installed, two license files display in the controller: a feature level license and an ap-count license. For example if you install a “WPlus 500” license on the controller, “wplus” and “wplus-ap-count” features display. There are always two of these features active at any one time that combine to enable the feature level (WPlus or Base) and the AP count.
Note You can have both a WPlus and Base license, but only one can be active at any given time.
- AP Limit—The maximum capacity of access points allowed to join this controller.
- EULA status—Displays the status of the End User License Agreement and is either Accepted or Not Accepted.
- Comments—User entered comments when the license is installed.
- Type—The four different types of licenses are as follows:
– Permanent—Licenses are node locked and have no usage period associated with them. They are issued by Cisco licensing portal and must be installed using management interfaces on the device. Upon installation of these licenses, you have the necessary permissions across different versions.
– Evaluation—Licenses are non-node locked and are valid only for a limited time period. They are used only when no permanent, extension, or grace period licenses exist. Before using an evaluation license, you must accept an End User License Agreement (EULA). Even though they are non-node locked, their usage is recorded on the device. The number of days left displays for the evaluation license with the fewest number of remaining active license days.
– Extension—Licenses are node locked and metered. They are issued by Cisco licensing portal and must be installed using management interfaces on the device. Before using an extension license, you must accept a EULA during installation.
– Grace Period—Licenses are node locked and metered. These licenses are issued by Cisco licensing portal as part of the permission ticket to rehost a license. They are installed on the device as part of the rehost operation, and you must accept a EULA as part of the rehost operation.
Note Types other than Permanent display the number of days left until the license expires. Licenses not currently in use do not have their counts reduced until they become “In Use.”
– In Use—The license level and the license are in use.
– Inactive—The license level is being used, but this license is not being used.
– Not In Use—The license level is not being used and this license is not currently recognized.
– Expired In Use—The license is being used, but is expired and will not be used upon next reboot.
– Expired Not In Use—The license has expired and can no longer be used.
– Count Consumed—The ap-count license is In Use.
Note If you need to filter the list of license files, you can enter a controller name, feature, or type and click Go.
MSE Licensing
The MSE packages together multiple product features related to network topology, design such as NMSP, Network Repository along with related Service Engines, and application processes, such as the following:
To enable smooth management of MSE and its services, various licenses are offered.
You must have a Cisco Prime Infrastructure license to use MSE and its associated services.
- MSE License Structure Matrix
- Sample MSE License File
- Revoking and Reusing an MSE License
- MSE Services Coexistence
- Managing MSE Licenses
MSE License Structure Matrix
Table 13-2 lists the breakdown of the licenses between the High end, Low end and Evaluation licenses for MSE, Location services, SCM, wIPS, and MIR.
Sample MSE License File
The following is a sample MSE license file:
FEATURE MSE cisco 1.0 permanent uncounted \
VENDOR_STRING=UDI=udi,COUNT=1 \
NOTICE="<LicFileID>MSELicense</LicFileID><LicLineID>0</LicLineID> \
SIGN="0C04 1EBA BE34 F208 404F 98ED 43EC \
45D7 F881 08F6 7FA5 4DED 43BC AF5C C359 0444 36B2 45CF 6EA6 \
1DB1 899F 413F F543 F426 B055 4C7A D95D 2139 191F 04DE"
This sample file has five license entries. The first word of the first line of any license entry tells you what type of license it is. It can either be a Feature or Increment license. A feature license is a static lone item to license. There can be multiple services engines running in MSE. An Increment license is an additive license. In MSE, the individual service engines are treated as increment licenses.
The second word of the first line defines the specific component to be licensed. For example, MSE, LOCATION_TAG. The third word depicts the vendor of the license, for example Cisco. The fourth word denotes the version of the license, for example 1.0. The fifth word denotes the expiration date; this can be permanent for licenses that never expire or a date in the format dd-mm-yyyy. The last word defines whether this license is counted.
Revoking and Reusing an MSE License
You can revoke an MSE appliance license from one system and reuse it on another system. When you revoke a license, the license file is deleted from the system. If you want to reuse the license on another system, then the license needs to be rehosted.
If you want to reuse a license with an upgrade stock keeping unit (SKU) on another system, then you must have the corresponding base license SKU installed in the system to which you want to reuse the upgrade SKU. You cannot reuse the upgrade license SKU in a system if the corresponding base license SKU is deleted from it.
When you revoke a license, MSE restarts the individual service engines to reflect the changes to the licenses. Then the service engines receives the updated capacity from MSE during startup.
MSE Services Coexistence
With MSE 6.0 and later, you can enable multiple services (Context Aware and wIPS) to run concurrently. Before Version 6.0, mobility services engines only supported one active service at a time.
The following must be considered with coexistence of multiple services:
- Coexistence of services might be impacted by license enforcement. As long as the license is not expired, you can enable multiple services.
Note Limits for individual services differ. For example, a low-end mobility services engine (MSE-3310) tracks a total of 2,000 CAS elements; a high-end mobility services engine (MSE-3350) tracks a total of 25,000 CAS elements.
A low-end mobility services engine has a maximum limit of 2000 wIPS elements; a high-end mobility services engine has a maximum limit of 3000 wIPS elements.
- Expired evaluation licenses prevent the service from coming up.
- If a CAS license is added or removed, this process restarts all services on the mobility services engine including wIPS. If a wIPS license is added or removed, the process does not impact CAS; only wIPS restarts.
- Other services can be enabled in evaluation mode even if a permanent license for the maximum number of elements has been applied.
Whenever one of the services has been enabled to run with its maximum license, another service cannot be enabled to run concurrently because the capacity of the MSE is not sufficient to support both services concurrently. For example, on MSE-3310, if you install a wIPS license of 2000, then you cannot enable CAS to run concurrently. However, evaluation licenses are not subject to this limitation.
Managing MSE Licenses
To view Mobility Services Engine (MSE) licenses, choose Administration > Licenses , then select Files > MSE Files from the left sidebar menu.
The page displays the MSE licenses found and includes the following information:
Note Because tag licenses are added and managed using appropriate vendor applications, tag licenses are not displayed in this page. Refer to the following URL for more information:
http://support.aeroscout.com.
Evaluation (demo) licenses are also not displayed.
Tag licenses are installed using the AeroScout System Manager only if the tags are tracked using Partner engine. Otherwise the tags will be counted along with the CAS element license.
- MSE License File—Indicates the MSE License.
- MSE—Indicates the MSE name.
- Type—Indicates the type of mobility services engine (client elements, wIPS local mode or wIPS monitor mode access points).
- Limit—Displays the total number of client elements or wIPS monitor mode access points licensed across the mobility services engine.
- License Type—Permanent licenses are the only license types displayed on this page.
– Permanent—Licenses are node locked and have no usage period associated with them. They are issued by Cisco licensing portal and must be installed using management interfaces on the device. Upon installation of these licenses, you have the necessary permissions across different versions.
Registering Product Authorization Keys
You receive a product authorization key (PAK) when you order a client, wIPS, or tag license from Cisco. You must register the PAK to receive the license file for installation on the mobility services engine. License files are emailed to you after successfully registering a PAK.
Client and wIPS PAKs are registered with Cisco.
Tag PAKs are registered with AeroScout. To register your tag PAK, go to this URL:
http://www.aeroscout.com/content/support
To register a product authoritative key (PAK) and obtain a license file for installation, follow these steps:
Step 1 Point your browser to www.cisco.com/go/license .
You can also access this site by clicking the Product License Registration link located on the License Center page of Prime Infrastructure.
Step 2 Enter the PAK and click SUBMIT.
Step 3 Verify the license purchase. Click Continue if correct. The licensee entry page appears.
If the license is incorrect, click the TAC Service Request Tool link to report the problem.
Step 4 In the Designate Licensee page, enter the mobility service engine UDI in the host ID text box. This is the mobility services engine on which the license will be installed.
UDI information for a mobility services engine is found in the General Properties area at Services > Mobility Services Engine > Device Name > System .
Step 5 Select the Agreement check box. Registrant information appears beneath the check box.
Modify information as necessary.
Ensure that the phone number does not include any characters in the string for the registrant and end user. For example, enter 408 555 1212 rather than 408.555.1212 or 408-555-1212.
Step 6 If registrant and end user are not the same person, select the Licensee (End-User) check box beneath registrant information and enter the end-user information.
Step 8 At the Finish and Submit page, review registrant and end-user data. Click Edit Details to correct information, if necessary, then click Submit.
Installing Client and wIPS License Files
You can install CAS element licenses and wIPS licenses from Prime Infrastructure.
Tag licenses are installed using the AeroScout System Manager. Refer to the following URL for additional information: http://support.aeroscout.com.
To add a client or wIPS license to Prime Infrastructure after registering the PAK, follow these steps
Step 1 Choose Administration > Licenses.
Step 2 From the left sidebar menu, choose Files > MSE Files.
Step 3 From the License Center > Files > MSE Files page, click Add to open the Add a License File dialog box.
Step 4 From the MSE Name drop-down list, choose the mobility services engine to which you want to add the license file.
Note Verify that the UDI of the selected mobility services engine matches the one you entered when registering the PAK.
Step 5 Enter the license file in the License File text box or browse to the applicable license file.
Step 6 Once displayed in the License File text box, click Upload. Newly added license appears in mobility services engine license file list.
Note A Context Aware Service (CAS) restarts if a client or tag license is installed; a wIPS service restarts if a wIPS license is installed.
Note Services must come up before attempting to add or delete another license.
Deleting Mobility Services Engine License Files
Step 1 Choose Administration > Licenses , then select Files > MSE Files from the left sidebar menu.
Step 2 Select the check box of the mobility services engine license file that you want to delete.
Step 3 Click Delete, then click OK to confirm the deletion.
Assurance Licensing
As explained in Purchasing Prime Infrastructure Licenses, licenses for Assurance features are based on the number of NetFlow-monitored devices and Network Analysis Module (NAM) data collection-enabled devices you have in your network. You manage, verify, and troubleshoot Assurance licenses much as you do with other feature licenses, as explained in Adding Licenses, Deleting Licenses and Troubleshooting Licenses.
In addition to these functions, Prime Infrastructure also lets you choose which NetFlow and NAM devices you want to manage using Assurance features. For example, if you have only 50 Assurance feature licenses and more than 50 NetFlow and NAM devices, you can choose to manage only your most critical devices. If you later purchase additional Assurance licenses, you can add license coverage for the devices previously left unmanaged.
Verifying Assurance License Details
Before you buy new Assurance licenses, you may want to get details about your existing Assurance licenses and how they are being used. You can find Assurance license information using the resources in Table 13-3 .
By default, the total count of Assurance licenses on the Assurance License Manager, Summary and Files pages is always updated whenever you add or delete Assurance licenses. Note that the addition or removal of devices covered under these added or deleted Assurance licenses takes place as part of a System Defined Job, which runs automatically once every 12 hours. So it can take up to 12 hours for the added or deleted devices to appear.
In addition to Administration > Licenses > Assurance License Manager , you can always access the Assurance License Manager page using the Assurance License Manager link in the upper right corner of the Summary and Files pages.
Adding License Coverage For NetFlow and NAM Devices
You want to add license coverage for NetFlow or NAM devices when:
- You have purchased new or additional Assurance licenses.
- You have NetFlow and NAM devices not already licensed for Assurance management.
Step 1 Choose Administration > Licenses > Assurance License Manager .
Step 2 Above the list of devices currently under Assurance management, click Add Device .
Step 3 Select the check box next to each device you want to put under Assurance management, then click Add License. Prime Infrastructure adds the devices immediately.
Step 4 When you are finished, click Cancel .
Deleting License Coverage for NetFlow and NAM Devices
You may need to delete license coverage for a NetFlow or NAM device when:
- You have too many NetFlow and NAM devices for the number of Assurance licenses you have.
- You want to stop using Assurance management features with one or more NetFlow and NAM devices
Step 1 Choose Administration > Licenses > Assurance License Manager . Prime Infrastructure displays the list of devices currently under Assurance management. It also displays the total number of Assurance licenses you have, and the total number of devices under Assurance management.
Step 2 Select the check box next to each device you want to remove from Assurance management, then click Remove Device.
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