Smart Licensing is a cloud-based, software license management solution that enables you to automate time-consuming, manual licensing tasks. The solution allows you to easily track the status of your license and software usage trends.

Smart Licensing Features

• Your device initiates a call home and requests the licenses it needs.

• Pooled licences - licences are company account-specific, and can be used with any compatible device in your company. You can activate or deactivate different types of licenses on the device without actually installing a license file on the device.

• Licenses are stored securely on Cisco servers accessible 24x7x365.

• Licenses can be moved between product instances without a license transfer. This greatly simplifies the reassignment of a software license as part of the Return Material Authorization (RMA) process.

• Complete view of all Smart Software Licenses used in the network using a consolidated usage report of software licenses and devices in one easy-to-use portal.

Cisco Smart Account

Cisco Smart Account is an account where all products enabled for Smart Licensing are deposited. Cisco Smart Account allows you to manage and activate your licenses to devices, monitor license use, and track Cisco license purchases. Through transparent access, you have a real-time view into your Smart Licensing products. IT administrators can manage licenses and account users within your organization's Smart Account through the Smart Software Manager.

When creating a Smart Account, you must have the authority to represent the requesting organization. After submitting, the request goes through a brief approval process. See http://software.cisco.com to learn about, set up, or manage Smart Accounts.

Cisco Smart Software Manager Overview

Virtual Accounts

A Virtual Account exists as a sub-account withing the Smart Account. Virtual Accounts are a customer-defined structure based on organizational layout, business function, geography or any defined hierarchy. They are created and maintained by the Smart Account administrator. Smart Licencing allows you to create multiple license pools or virtual accounts within the Smart Software Manager portal. Using the Virtual Accounts option you can aggregate licenses into discrete bundles associated with a cost center so that one section of an organization cannot use the licenses of another section of the 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 the default virtual account in the Smart Software Manager, unless you specify a different one during the order process. Once in the default account, you may choose to transfer them to any other account as desired, provided you have the required access permissions.

Use the Smart Software Manager portal to create license pools or transfer licenses.

Product Instance Registration Tokens

A product requires a registration token until you have registered the product. On successful registration , the device receives an identity certificate . This certificate is saved and automatically used for all future communications with Cisco. Registration tokens are stored in the Product Instance Registration Token Table associated with your enterprise account. Registration tokens can be valid from 1 to 365 days.

Product Instances

A product instance is an individual device with a unique device identifier (UDI) that is registered using a product instance registration token (or registration token). You can register any number of instances of a product with a single registration token. Each product instance can have one or more licenses residing in the same virtual account. Product instances must periodically connect to the Cisco Smart Software Manager servers during a specific renewal period. If you remove the product instance, its licenses are released and made available within the virtual account.

The figure below depicts a working model of Smart Licensing that involves a three-step procedure.

1. Setting up Smart Licensing: You can place the order for Smart Licensing, to manage licenses on Cisco.com portal. You agree to the terms and conditions governing the use and access of Smart Licensing in the Smart Software Manager portal.

2. Enabling and Use Smart Licensing: Smart Licensing is enabled by default. You can use either of the following options to communicate:

   • Smart Call Home: The Smart Call Home feature is automatically configured when Smart Licensing is enabled. Smart Call Home is used by Smart Licensing as a medium for communication with the Cisco license service. Call Home feature allows Cisco products to periodically call-home and perform an audit and reconciliation of your software usage information. This information helps Cisco efficiently track your install base, keep them up and running, and more effectively pursue service and support contract renewals, without much intervention from your end. For more information on Smart Call Home feature, see http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/smart_call_home/SCH_Deployment_Guide.pdf.

   • Smart Software Manager Satellite : is a component of Cisco Smart Licensing and works in conjunction with Cisco Smart Software Manager (SSM). It helps customers intelligently manage product licenses, providing near real-time visibility and reporting of the Cisco licenses they purchase and consume.

     For security-sensitive customers who do not want to manage their installed base using a direct Internet connection, the Smart Software Manager satellite is installed on the customer premises and provides a subset of Cisco SSM functionality. After you download the satellite application, deploy it, and register it to Cisco SSM, you can perform the following functions locally:

     • Activate or register a license

     • Get visibility to your company's licenses

     • Transfer licenses between company entities

     Periodically, the satellite needs to synchronize with Cisco SSM to reflect the latest license entitlements.

     For more information about Smart Software Manager satellite, see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/buy/smart-accounts/software-manager-satellite.html.

3. Manage and Report Licenses: You can manage and view reports about your overall software usage in the Smart Software Manager portal. Compliance reporting describes the types of Smart Licensing reports.

The consumption model is a new pricing model for line cards. This provides a flexible deployment model with the ability to increase bandwidth to meet your demands. The consumption model is described in the table below.