CISCO Smart Software Mana

Specifications

• License Type: Smart Licensing
• License Model: Server-based
• Management Tool: Cisco Smart Software Manager

Product Usage Instructions

License Management
Cisco Smart licensing simplifies the procurement, deployment, and management of licenses in your environment. Smart licenses are server-based, allowing you to manage licenses for servers instead of domains.

Smart Licensing Overview
Smart Licensing uses Virtual Accounts, Product Instances, and Registration Tokens to procure, deploy, and manage licenses.

Virtual Accounts:
All new licenses and product instances are placed in a virtual account. You can transfer licenses between virtual accounts if needed.

Product Instances
A Cisco UCS Central product instance has a unique device identifier (UDI) registered using a product instance registration token. Each product instance can have one or more licenses in the same virtual account.

Obtaining Licenses:

1. Ensure Smart Call Home is enabled.
2. Access the System Configuration icon and select Licenses.
3. Click on “Enable Smart Software Licensing” to activate smart licensing.

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.ht.ml.

Smart Licensing

• Dynamic licensing. Licenses are associated with products and transferable within the virtual account.
• No license installation is necessary. The device initiates an HTTPS call home session and requests the licenses that it is configured to use.
• License pools are account-specific. Any device in your company can use them.
• 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, own,n, 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.

Enabling Smart Licensing

Before you begin
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.

Procedure

Step 1

Step 2

• Click the System Configuration icon and choose Licenses.
• Click Enable Smart Software Licensing.
• The system enables smart licensing, and information related to traditional licensing is replaced with smart licensing-related information.

Registering UCS Central Using a License Token

• Before you begin
• Make sure Smart Licensing is enabled.

Procedure

Steps

1. Click the System Configuration icon and choose Licenses.
2. Click the Smart Software Manager link to go to the Smart Software Manager portal. In the Smart Software Manager portal:
   • a) Select a Cisco UCS Central virtual account.
   • b) Click New Token in the Product Instance Registration Tokens panel and select Copy.
3. In the Cisco UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel, click Register Smart Software Licensing.
4. In the Register Smart Licensing dialog box, paste the new token you generated in the Product Instance Registration Token text box.
5. Click Register.
6. 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.

Procedure

Steps

1. Click the System Configuration icon and choose Licenses.
2. In the Cisco UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel,
3. click the Tools menu. Select Renew Authorization Now.

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.

Procedure

• Step 1: Click the System Configuration icon and choose Licenses.
• Step 2: In the Cisco UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel, click the Tools menu.
• Step 3: Select Renew Registration Now.

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.

Procedure

• Step :1 Click the System Configuration icon and choose Licenses.
• Step 2: In the Cisco UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel, click the Tools menu.
• Step e: p 3 Select Deregister to remove Cisco UCS Central from Smart Software Manager.

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.

Procedure

• Step 1: Click the System Configuration icon and choose License
• Step 2tep:2: In the Cisco UCS Central Smart Software Licensing panel, click the Action menu.
• Step 3: Select Disable Smart Software Licensing.

License

FAQs

Q: What is Smart Licensing?
A: Smart Licensing is a server-based licensing model that simplifies license management by using Virtual Accounts and Registration Tokens.

Q: How do I transfer licenses between virtual accounts?
A: You can transfer licenses by accessing the Cisco Smart Software Manager and following the provided instructions for creating virtual accounts.

 

Documents / Resources

CISCO Smart Software Manager [pdf] User Guide Smart Software Manager, Smart Software Manager, Software Manager, Manager

References

• User Manual