I was introduced to this new Cisco IOS Software Activation and Licensing idea at a Partner Enablement session on the 6th of June and my first impression was “Windows Activation on steroids”. A post by Joe Harris has a visual workflow link that explains this process if this whole thing confuses you.
One of my questions to the presenter afterwards was what impact would this have on the simulation software packages like dynamips. My position being that I wasn’t able to build a lab simply for learning/studies even with Cisco discounts at this point in my career. He understood my point of view and knew of many other partners in similar positions but couldn’t really answer me.
What I gathered from my session on the 6th of June was that not all Router and Switch platforms will migrate to this new activation and licensing platform but it will happen over a period of time. This activation and licensing system is being implemented because the “gentlemans agreement” system Cisco has used in the past isn’t working where there is misuse of the current system.
That being said I did ask how this will directly affect me and the answer was that on initial order/sale not a whole lot. When a customer purchases a switch/router they generally purchase what they want with the licensing they want. On a scenario like that the IOS and feature is installed and activated before being shipped to the customer or me and then I go install.
This new system will start becoming a bother when upgrading from IP Base to another feature license. This will require the following steps:
- The order of a Product Authorization Key (PAK) from Cisco
- The Unique Device Identifier (UDI) from the Router/Switch
- Entered this information into the Cisco Licensing Portal
- Taking the information from the Portal and installing the license onto the Switch/Router
The installation of the license file can be done using the *.lic file that you receive from the Portal using the Command line interface or the Cisco License Manager software. Using the command line:
Switch#license install tftp://x.x.x.x/license.lic
Alternatively one can use the call-home feature and the PAK Number, this however would mean that you have an internet connection to the Router/Switch and you feel comfortable that you won’t have the *.lic file when things go wrong as the Switch/Router installs this directly from the License Portal:
Switch#license call-home install PAK PAK-NUMBER
CCO Username: abcdef
CCO Password:
!......................
Follow the prompts to install the license
There was talk about an emergency license availability for “emergency purposes” where say for example a customer has a current desperate need for an upgrade feature set this very instant and the order cycle would take a couple of days to fulfil. The emergency license would take a couple of hours at most and last for a finite period while the order process ran its couse.