Cisco UCS Central Getting Started Guide, Release 1.5
Bias-Free Language
The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product. Learn more about how Cisco is using Inclusive Language.
- Updated:
- November 17, 2016
Chapter: License Management
License
Management
Overview
Cisco Smart licensing is simple, flexible and a smart way of procuring, deploying and managing licenses in your environment. For more information on smart licensing, see http://www.cisco.com/web/ordering/smart-software-licensing/index.html
You can have smart licensing and traditional licensing in your system at the same time. But only one type of licensing can be active. The following table describes the differences between traditional and smart licensing:
| Traditional Licensing | Smart Licensing |
|---|---|
|
Licenses are associated with registered domains. |
Dynamic licensing. Licenses are associated with products and transferable within the virtual account. |
|
You must obtain a license and manually download and install it on each device in Cisco UCS Central. |
No license installation is necessary. The device initiates an HTTPS call home session and requests the licenses that it is configured to use. |
|
Licenses are associated with specific domains. |
License pools are account-specific. Any device in your company can use them. |
|
Licenses are not easily transferable from one device to another. |
Licenses can be transferred between product instances without any software installation. You can transfer unused licenses from one virtual account to another. |
Smart Licensing
Smart licenses are server based licenses. You will purchase, deploy and track licenses for servers instead of domains. Instead of registering individual products with license files or PAKs, Smart Licensing provides the option to create a pool of licenses that can be used across your company's portfolio.
Smart licensing uses Virtual Accounts, Product Instances and Registration Tokens to procure, deploy and manage licenses in your environment.
Virtual Accounts
Virtual accounts are collections of licenses and product instances. You can create virtual accounts in Cisco Smart Software Manager to organize the licenses for your company into logical entities. You can use virtual accounts to organize licenses by business unit, product type, IT group, or whatever makes sense for your organization. For example, if you segregate your company into different geographic regions, you can create a virtual account for each region to hold the licenses and product instances for that region.
All new licenses and product instances are placed in a virtual account. You choose the virtual account when you register a product instance. You can transfer existing licenses or product instances from one virtual account to another.
For more information on creating virtual accounts in Cisco Smart Software Manager, see http://www.cisco.com/web/ordering/smart-software-manager/docs/smart-software-manager-user-guide.pdf.
Product Instances
A Cisco UCS Central product instance has a unique device identifier (UDI) that is registered using a product instance registration token. You can register several instances of a product with a single registration token. Each product instance can have one or more licenses that reside in the same virtual account.Registration Tokens
Registration tokens are stored in the Product Instance Registration Token Table that is associated with your smart account. After you enable Smart Licensing in Cisco UCS Central, you can generate a new token in a virtual account on the Smart Software Licensing portal to register in Cisco UCS Central.
For more information on creating virtual accounts in Cisco Smart Software Manager, see http://www.cisco.com/web/ordering/smart-software-manager/docs/smart-software-manager-user-guide.pdf.
Obtaining Licenses
To obtain licenses using smart licensing, you will have to do the following:
-
Generate tokens in Cisco Smart Software Manager virtual accounts.
-
Register licenses for product instances in Cisco UCS Central.
The following illustrations explains the smart licensing process:
|
1 |
Registration request |
The Smart Licensing 90-evaluation period starts when the product instance begins using the licensing feature. It not renewable. When the evaluation period expires, the agent sends a notification to the platform. |
|
2 |
Authorization renewal |
Authorization requests can result in an Authorized or Out of Compliance (OOC) response, or in an error due to a communication failure. Authorization periods are renewed every 30 days as long as authorization requests return Authorized or Out of Compliance (OOC) responses. When the authorization period expires, the agent continues to retry renewal with authorization requests. If successful, a new authorization period starts. If ID cert renewal (authorization renewal) fails, the product instance moves to an Unidentified state and begins consuming the evaluation period. |
- Enabling Smart Licensing
- Registering UCS Central Using a License Token
- Renewing Authorization
- Renewing Registration
- Deregistering Smart Software Licensing
- Disabling Smart Software Licensing
Enabling Smart Licensing
Make sure you have enabled Smart Call Home before enabling Smart Licensing. Enabling Smart Call Home includes the following:
-
Specify a DNS server.
-
Set up Smart Call Home.
-
Make sure your Smart Call Home URL is correct. This is the URL the system uses to connect to the smart license server.
 Note | Although you must enable Smart Call Home, a Smart Call Home contract ID is not required to use Smart Licensing. |
Registering UCS Central Using a License Token
Make sure Smart Licensing is enabled.
You will receive notifications on registration in progress, successful registration or failure to register. If there are problems with your Smart Call Home settings, a Failed message will appear with a link to the Call Home Configuration.
Renewing Authorization
License authorization is used to show if you have enough licenses for your system, or if you are out of compliance. Authorization is renewed automatically by the Smart Licensing agent every 30 days, provided the network is up and Cisco UCS Central can reach the Smart License server.
If authorization is not renewed for 90 days, the authorization will expire.
Renewing Registration
The agent automatically renews the Smart Software Licensing registration certificate or the ID certificate every six months. Certification lasts for one year. If Cisco UCS Central cannot communicate with the Smart License Server, it may fail to renew the certificate. If this occurs, the certification will revert to evaluation state after one year.
Deregistering Smart Software Licensing
When you deregister a product instance from Smart Software Licensing, the product will not be associated with the license. The product will be removed from the list of registered products for the associated virtual account. You can use the license to register another product, or reregister a product that has been deregistered.
Disabling Smart Software Licensing
If you disable Smart Software Licensing, Cisco UCS Central automatically returns to the Traditional Licensing mode.
Note | Only one licensing mode is supported at a time. |
Traditional Licensing
Traditional PAK-based licensing uses domain-based licenses instead of the product-based license that Smart Licensing offers. You can manage domain licenses through the Cisco UCS Central GUI or CLI.
You have a 120 day grace period to evaluate Cisco UCS Central at no cost. The grace period is measured from the day you register your first Cisco UCS domain and is stored in the system. Unregistering a domain from the system does not reset the grace period. For example, if you register a domain, use 40 days of the grace period, and then unregister after 40 days, the system records the 40 days in association with that domain. If you register this Cisco UCS domain again, the grace period for the domain resumes and indicates that you have used 40 days.
You must obtain and install a valid domain license before the grace period expires. If you do not the system generates multiple faults as a reminder to procure a license.
- Obtaining a Traditional License
- Downloading a License from a Local File System
- Downloading a License from a Remote File System
- Installing a License
- Deleting a Traditional License
Obtaining a Traditional License
Obtain the Product Authorization Key (PAK) from the claim certification or other proof of purchase documentation.
What to Do Next
Unzip the license file and install it.
Downloading a License from a Local File System
To download a license from the local file system to Cisco UCS Central, make sure you have the following:
| Step 1 | Click the
System Configuration icon and choose
Licenses.
This launches the License information page. |
| Step 2 | Click Install License. |
| Step 3 | Click Local |
| Step 4 | In the
Filename dialog box, type the full path and the name
of the license.
If you do not know the exact path to the folder where the license is located, click Choose File to navigate and select the file. |
| Step 5 | Click
Install.
Cisco UCS Central downloads the license. |
Downloading a License from a Remote File System
To download a license from a remote location to Cisco UCS Central, make sure you have the following:
| Step 1 | Click the
System
Configuration icon and select
Licenses.
This launches a License information page. |
| Step 2 | Click Install License. |
| Step 3 | In the Download License dialog box, click Remote. |
| Step 4 | Select the protocol to use to communicate with the remote server. |
| Step 5 | In the
Path field, enter the absolute path to the license
file on the remote server, if required.
If you use SCP, the absolute path is always required. If you use any other protocol, you may not need to specify a remote path if the file resides in the default download folder. For details about how your file server is configured, contact your system administrator. |
| Step 6 | In the
User
Name field, enter the user name to log into the remote server.
If you selected TFTP, this field does not apply. |
| Step 7 | In the
Password field, enter the password for the remote
server user name.
If you selected TFTP, this field does not apply. |
| Step 8 | Click
Install.
Cisco UCS Central downloads the license. |
Installing a License
Make sure the license is downloaded in Cisco UCS Central.
| Step 1 | On the menu bar, click System Configuration icon and choose Licenses. |
| Step 2 | Click the
Install icon.
Launches the License Install dialog box. |
| Step 3 | In the License Install dialog box, select Local or Remote file location, enter required information and select the license file. |
| Step 4 | Click
Install.
The Overall License Status column displays the status of the installation. When you initiate the installation, the status in this column displays Install-pending. After the license is installed, the status changes to Installed. |
Deleting a Traditional License
You can delete a traditional license that is not associated with a registered UCS domain, from Cisco UCS Central. If you want to delete a license that is associated to a UCS domain, make sure to unregister the domain before deleting the license. When you delete a license, the system automatically adjusts the available license count.
Deleting a license from Cisco UCS Central removes only the license file from the system. If you try to download the same license after deleting it from the system, you might encounter a download license error. So when you delete a license, you must delete the associated download task for that license.
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