Managing Smart Licensing with IoT- FND 4.6.1 and greater
Enable Smart Licensing in IoT FND
Smart License Options Available After Registration and Authorization
Smart Software Manager Satellite Interface
Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM)
First Published: 2020-08-25
Last Updated: 2020-10-2
Note : If you are an existing pre-paid license customer using IoT FND 4.6.1 and greater, you do not need to enable Smart Licensing.
Smart Licensing is used only to manage post-paid licenses. Additionally, you cannot manage both pre-paid and post-paid licenses at the same time.
However, if you accidentally turn on smart licensing in your network, you can go back to Classic Licensing by selecting Disable Smart Licensing at the main menu.
Figure 1 Disable Smart Licensing
Here is a summary of the products and supported licenses that you can manage with IoT-FND 4.6.1 and greater:
Smart Licensing allows FND 4.6.1 to track the status of licenses usage by product. Before you can use this capability you must do the following with Cisco:
1. Create a Smart Account if you do not already have one. See Cisco Smart Licensing and Smart Accounts on the Cisco.com website.
2. Create a Virtual Account. One virtual account per customer if FND is used in a way to manage multiple customer accounts.
3. Install satellite agent next to IoT FND/TPS. Refer to the following guide for details:
Smart Software Manager Satellite Classic Edition: Installation Guide (version 5.1).
Note: All references to ‘Satellite’ in this document refer to the Cisco Smart Software Manger satellite version 5.1. Please note that this satellite service has been renamed to Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem. However, MSLA only works with Cisco Smart Software Manager satellite version 5.1.
4. Place an order in Cisco Commerce Workplace (CCW). Link the order to the above created Cisco Smart Virtual Account.
5. Install and upgrade the FND instance.
6. Verify that the Licenses appear in the Satellite/CSSM with Billing column as By Usage under the Licenses tab.
7. Generate the token in the Satellite’s virtual account.
Note: All licensing updates for FND 4.6.1 are performed by satellite.
1. Go to ADMIN > SYSTEM MANAGEMENT > LICENSE CENTER page. Select the Classic Licenses tab (Opening Panel: Classic Licenses Page).
Figure 2 Opening Panel: Classic Licenses Page
Figure 3 Enable Smart Licensing From Classic Licensing Page (far-right corner of Classic Licensing Page)
2. To enable tracking of Smart Licensing on FND, click the downward arrow next to the COG icon (Enable Smart Licensing From Classic Licensing Page (far-right corner of Classic Licensing Page)) found in the far-right corner of the screen and select Enable Smart Licensing.
A new page appears with two tabs (New Smart License Page): License Summary and Smart Licenses.
The License Summary page lists all supported License Types being managed by FND 4.6.1 and indicates how many (count) of each device type (such as CGR1K) is being managed as noted in the Licenses Consumed column for each device.
Figure 4 New Smart License Page
3. When you select the Smart Licenses tab in the screen seen in (New Smart License Page) above, a new page appears as seen in (ADMIN > SYSTEM MANAGEMENT > LICENSE CENTER Opening Screen: Evaluation Mode) indicating that you are operating in Evaluation Mode, the transition period from Classic to Smart Licenses. Evaluation mode lasts for 90 days. The license counts in the license summary are updated instantaneously.
Note: Customers must register their systems within 90 days which is when the Evaluation Mode ends. After 90 days, FND will automatically place all devices in an Unmanaged State, so it is imperative to complete registration before the 90 day expiration date.
In the Smart Software Licensing Usage section, you can also track the usage level of the Smart Licenses for products being managed by FND. This information is summarized at the bottom of the screen (ADMIN > SYSTEM MANAGEMENT > LICENSE CENTER Opening Screen: Evaluation Mode).
Note: The counts noted in the Smart Software Licensing Usage section are updated nightly.
Figure 5 ADMIN > SYSTEM MANAGEMENT > LICENSE CENTER Opening Screen: Evaluation Mode
4. In the Smart Software Licensing Status section of ADMIN > SYSTEM MANAGEMENT > LICENSE CENTER Opening Screen: Evaluation Mode above, you must set the Transport Settings to: Gateway/Satellite.
To enter that information, click the View/Edit link (found next to Transport Settings) in the screen above to open a window in which you can enter the URL information for the Satellite (Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM) Transport Gateway Setting Screen).
Enter the following URL information for the satellite:
https://’IP_Address|FQDN:’port’/Transportgateway/services/DeviceRequestHandler
where https://’IP_Address|FQDN|’:’port’ refers to the Satellite HTTPS User Access link in the browser.
Note: The above link info is also specified in the first screen visible after you log in to the Satellite UI.
Figure 6 Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM) Transport Gateway Setting Screen
5. You must go to the Satellite to create a Registration Token. To do so, log into the satellite and under the General tab, click on New Token. After you connect to the satellite, you will be prompted to create a registration token (see CSSM Create Registration Token page).
Figure 7 CSSM Create Registration Token page
Note: Your Virtual Account is noted on the page.
a. Enter the number of days that you want the new token to be active.
b. Be sure to uncheck the box next to the statement, ‘Allow export controlled functionality on the products registered with this token’. (the box is checked by default). Add any relevant information in the Description field to describe the registration token.
c. Click Create Token button to generate the new Registration Token.
6. You will enter the Registration Token that you created in the previous step into the field, Product Instance Registration Token, within the Smart Software Licensing Registration screen that appears (Enter Registration Token at ADMIN > SYSTEM MANAGEMENT > LICENSE CENTER > Smart Licenses tab). The Registration screen appears when you click the Register button.
After registration completes, a panel appears confirming that all licenses are confirmed and authorized.(Confirmation Screen Showing Smart Licenses Registered and Licenses Authorized and Link to the Smart Software Manager).
Figure 8 Enter Registration Token at ADMIN > SYSTEM MANAGEMENT > LICENSE CENTER > Smart Licenses tab
Figure 9 Confirmation Screen Showing Smart Licenses Registered and Licenses Authorized and Link to the Smart Software Manager
The screen above confirms that smart licenses are registered (Registration Status) and authorized (License Authorization Status), as well as the date of registration (Registration Status), License Registration Status, Smart Account name, Virtual Account name, Product Instance Name, Export Controlled Functionality (Not Allowed) and Transport Setting (Gateway/Satellite) which notes how we connect to the Cisco Smart Account.
Note: After registration, any products being managed by IoT FND that are not one of the seven approved license types noted in Table 1: Supported IoT FND License Types will display with a status of ‘unmanaged’.
Additionally, it provides a summary of supported License Types, their Count and Status (Authorized). (The Status column, is not visible in Figure 8; however, you will find it located to the right of the Count column).
To view and manage Cisco Smart Licenses, go to the Cisco Smart Software Manager by clicking the Smart Software Manager link at the top of the page in the information panel (i).
After your licenses are registered and authorized, the following options will display under the COG icon drop-down menu:
Note: You should not have to use any of the five options noted above once your licenses are active in your network. These options will only be necessary if there are any issues in the registration and authorization process due to timeouts and lost connectivity to the satellite, and the devices have moved to an unmanaged state. As a reminder, you can only apply these actions to the seven license types supported as noted in Supported IoT FND License Types.
The screen below is the user interface for the Satellite.
Figure 10 Smart Software Manager Satellite User Interface
Note: The Synchronize Now button is found in the upper-right hand corner of the screen to the right of the date. It is not visible in Smart Software Manager Satellite User Interface.
In the left panel, select the Reports tab to review the Raw Utility Data Report (Sample Raw Utility Data Report for Satellite (partial view) Received by the Satellite from IoT FND) from the satellite.
FND sends count information every four hours to the Satellite via the Smart Agent. Each four hour period, contains 15 minute interval based count data for all types managed by FND.
Raw Utility Data report: Provides information about Device Types and their corresponding counts. You can identify the device type under the meta-entitlement_tag column. This report generally takes about 15 minutes to generate.The satellite in turn sends the collected count data to the CSSM back-end every 8 hours,.
For example, CGR1000 is identified as MSLA_CGR1K as seen in the following entitlement tag:
regid.2019-01.com.cisco.MSLA_CGR1K,1.0_e2b9d68c-6365-479f-9959-e65aa7e70de1
Similar entries can also found for the IR500, LORAWAN, BATTERY_ENDPOINT, ENDPOINT, IR800 and IR1100 under the meta-entitlement_tag column.
You will see this information along with other details on the product such as serial number and count within CSSM and the Satellite.
Figure 11 Sample Raw Utility Data Report for Satellite (partial view) Received by the Satellite from IoT FND
The CSSM user interface is primarily for managing a smart /virtual account. The virtual account is identified as an On-Prem Virtual Account and registration tokens need to be done from the satellite.
Figure 12 User Interface for CSSM
Note: The Synchronize Now button is found in the upper-right hand corner of the screen to the right of the date. It is not visible in User Interface for CSSM.
■In the Billing column for customers, By Usage will display.
■The In Use column shows how many FND instances are connected and consuming that device license. In addition, when you click on the number within the In Use column it will display a panel indicating the actual MSLA license and units consumed as well as a serial number. (See In Use Panel Subordinate MSLA License Panel <need screen that just shows by usage vs prepaid>)
Figure 13 In Use Panel Subordinate MSLA License Panel <need screen that just shows by usage vs prepaid>
Note: For further information on Smart Accounts and Managed Services, please refer to the following documents on Cisco.com: