Cisco Smart Licensing Client

Smart Licensing Client feature is a standardized licensing platform that simplifies the Cisco software experience and helps you to understand how Cisco software is used across your network. Smart Licensing is the next generation licensing platform for all Cisco software products.

This document provides an overview of the Cisco Smart Licensing Client feature and describes the several tools and processes required to complete the products' registration and authorization.

Finding Feature Information

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest caveats and feature information, see Bug Search Tool and the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the feature information table.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to https://cfnng.cisco.com/. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Prerequisites for Cisco Smart Licensing Client

  • Ensure that Call Home is enabled before using the Smart Licensing Client feature.

  • Ensure that the device is running the Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.6.1 version that supports the Smart Licensing mode.

Restrictions for Cisco Smart Licensing Client

  • Only one licensing mode, either the Cisco IOS Software License (CISL) and Cisco ONE or the Smart Licensing mode is supported at one point in time.

Information About Cisco Smart Licensing Client

Cisco Smart Licensing - An Overview

A licensing model, based on a single technology, Smart Licensing has been designed for Cisco, which is intended to provide Enterprise-level Agreements for all Cisco products. Smart Licensing provides a software inventory management system that provides Customers, Cisco, and selected Partners with information about Software Ownership and Software Utilization.

Smart Licensing is software based end-to-end license platform that comprises several tools and processes that authorizes customers to use and to report Cisco products. Smart licensing has the capability to capture a customer's order and to communicate with Cisco Cloud License Service through the Smart Call Home Transport Gateway. Additionally, the Smart Call Home Transport Gateway helps to complete product registration and authorization based on the desired performance and technology levels of Cisco products. To know more about Call Home, refer to Call Home .

Benefits of Smart Licensing are the following:

  • The Smart Licensing feature is aimed at giving users an experience of a single, standardized licensing solution for all Cisco products. Adding support for CiscoONE suites in the Cisco IOS Software License (CISL) and Smart Licensing mode, including the Foundation Suite and Active Directory Users and Computers (ADUC) Suite.

  • Smart Licensing feature provides the ability to switch between traditional licensing (CSL) and Smart Licensing mode

  • The Smart Licensing feature supports four software universal images NPE, NO-LI, NPE-NO-LI, and Non-NPE images.

Transitioning from CSL to Smart Licensing

In the Smart Licensing Model, customers can activate licensed objects without the use of a special software key or upgrade license file. Customers simply activate the new functionality using the appropriate product commands and configurations and the functionality is activated. A software reboot may or may not be required depending on the product capabilities and requirements.

Similarly, downgrading or removing an advanced feature, performance, or functionality would require removal of the configuration or command.

After either of the above actions has been taken, the change in license state is noted by the Smart Software Manager upon next synchronization and an appropriate action is taken.

Cisco ONE Suites

Cisco ONE Suites is a new way for customers to purchase infrastructure software. Cisco ONE offers a simplified purchasing model, centered on common customer scenarios in the data center, wide area network, and local access networks.

Smart Licensing supports Smart License Cisco ONE suite level licenses and image licenses, such as ipbase, Advanced IP Services (AIS), Advanced Enterprise Services (AES) and feature license and throughput performance, crypto throughput and port licensing on ASR 1000 Aggregation Series Routers.

To know more about Cisco One Suites, please refer to Cisco ONE Suites.

How to Activate Cisco Smart Licensing Client

Enable Smart Licensing

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. enable
  2. configure terminal
  3. license smart enable
  4. exit
  5. write memory
  6. show license all

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

enable

Example:


Device> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

configure terminal

Example:


Device# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

license smart enable

Example:


Device# license smart enable

Activates Smart Licensing on the device.

Note 

When you enable Smart Licensing, the Cisco Software License (CSL) and all licensing calls pass through the Smart Agent.

For the ‘no’ case, if Smart Licensing is already registered, the Smart Agent performs the ”license smart deregister” operation that deactivates Smart Licensing. Reload the device to activate the CSL on the device.

Step 4

exit

Example:


Device# exit

Exits the global configuration mode.

Step 5

write memory

Example:


Device# write memory

Saves the running configuration to NVRAM.

Step 6

show license all

Example:


Device# show license all

(Optional) Displays summary information about all licenses.

Smart License Disable

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. enable
  2. configure terminal
  3. no license smart enable
  4. exit
  5. write memory
  6. reload
  7. show license all

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

enable

Example:


Device> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

configure terminal

Example:


Device# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

no license smart enable

Example:


Device(config)# no license smart enable

Deactivates Smart Licensing on the device.

Note 

When you enable Smart Licensing, the Cisco Software License (CSL) and all licensing calls pass through the Smart Agent. For the ‘no’ case, if Smart Licensing is already registered, the Smart Agent performs the ”license smart deregister” operation that deactivates Smart Licensing. Reload the device to activate the CSL on the device.

Step 4

exit

Example:


Device(config)# exit

Exits the global configuration mode.

Step 5

write memory

Example:


Device# write memory

Saves the running configuration to NVRAM.

Step 6

reload

Example:


Device# reload

(Optional) Restarts the device to enable the new feature set.

Note 

Reload the device if you have not reloaded the device after configuring the Cisco One Suites.

Step 7

show license all

Example:


Device# show license all

(Optional) Displays summary information about all licenses.

Device Registration

SUMMARY STEPS

  1. enable
  2. license smart register idtoken idtoken [force]
  3. license smart deregister
  4. license smart renew [ID | auth]

DETAILED STEPS

  Command or Action Purpose
Step 1

enable

Example:


Device> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

license smart register idtoken idtoken [force]

Example:


Device# license smart register idtoken 123
Registers the device with the back-end server. Token id can be obtained from your virtual a/c in the Smart Licensing server.

  • force : To forcefully register your device irrespective of either the device is registered or not.

Note 
The device supplies the token ID to the Cisco server, which sends back a “Device Certificate” that is valid for 365 days.
Step 3

license smart deregister

Example:


Device# license smart deregister

Deregisters the device from the backend server.

Step 4

license smart renew [ID | auth]

Example:


Device# license smart renew ID

(Optional) Manually renews the ID certification or authorization.

Troubleshooting for Cisco Smart Licensing Client

You can troubleshoot Smart Licensing enabling issues using the following commands on the device:

  • show version

  • show running-config

  • show license tech support

  • show license entitlement

  • show license feature

  • show license certificate

  • debug smart_lic error

  • debug smart_lic trace

Configuration Examples for Cisco Smart Licensing Client

Example: Enabling Smart Licensing

The following example shows how to use the license smart enable command to confirm if the Cisco ONE Suite is enabled. 

Device# license smart enable 
Currently only Cisco ONE license suites are supported by Smart Licensing.
Please make sure your Cisco ONE suites are enabled before turning on Smart Licensing. Any other licenses outside of Cisco ONE suites would be disabled and made unusable in Smart Licensing. If you have any questions, please get in touch with your Cisco representative before using this mmode.
Please confirm Cisco ONE suites are enabled? [yes/no]: yes

Additional References for Cisco Smart Licensing Client

Related Documents

Related Topic

Document Title

Cisco IOS commands

Cisco IOS Master Commands List, All Releases

Cisco License Manager Application

User Guide for Cisco License Manager

Software Activation Conceptual Overview

“Cisco IOS Software Activation Conceptual Overview” module

Software Activation Commands

Software Activation Command Reference

Integrated Services Routers Licensing

Software Activation on Cisco Integrated Services Routers

Standards and RFCs

MIBs

MIB

MIBs Link

CISCO-LICENSE-MGMT-MIB

To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco IOS releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/mibs

Technical Assistance

Description

Link

The Cisco Support website provides extensive online resources, including documentation and tools for troubleshooting and resolving technical issues with Cisco products and technologies.

To receive security and technical information about your products, you can subscribe to various services, such as the Product Alert Tool (accessed from Field Notices), the Cisco Technical Services Newsletter, and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds.

Access to most tools on the Cisco Support website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/support/index.html

Feature Information for Cisco Smart Licensing Client

The following table provides release information about the feature or features described in this module. This table lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.
Table 1. Feature Information for Cisco Smart Licensing

Feature Name

Releases

Feature Information

Cisco Smart Licensing Client

Cisco IOS XE Polaris 16.5.1

The Smart Licensing feature is a standardized licensing platform that simplifies the Cisco software experience and helps you understand how Cisco software is used across your network. Smart Licensing is the next generation licensing platform for all Cisco software products.

This feature is platform-independent.

The following commands were introduced or modified by this feature: license smart enable , show license all