Smart Licensing for the Firewall System
Cisco Smart Licensing is a flexible licensing model that provides you with an easier, faster, and more consistent way to purchase and manage software across the Cisco portfolio and across your organization. And it’s secure—you control what users can access. With Smart Licensing you get:
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Easy Activation: Smart Licensing establishes a pool of software licenses that can be used across the entire organization—no more PAKs (Product Activation Keys).
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Unified Management: My Cisco Entitlements (MCE) provides a complete view into all of your Cisco products and services in an easy-to-use portal, so you always know what you have and what you are using.
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License Flexibility: Your software is not node-locked to your hardware, so you can easily use and transfer licenses as needed.
To use Smart Licensing, you must first set up a Smart Account on Cisco Software Central (software.cisco.com).
For a more detailed overview on Cisco Licensing, go to cisco.com/go/licensingguide
Cisco Smart Software Manager
When you purchase one or more licenses for the FTD device, you manage them in the Cisco Smart Software Manager: https://software.cisco.com/#SmartLicensing-Inventory. The Cisco Smart Software Manager lets you create a primary account for your organization.
By default, your licenses are assigned to the Default Virtual Account under your primary account. As the account administrator, you can create additional virtual accounts; for example, for regions, departments, or subsidiaries. Multiple virtual accounts help you manage large numbers of licenses and appliances.
Licenses and appliances are managed per virtual account; only that virtual account’s appliances can use the licenses assigned to the account. If you need additional licenses, you can transfer an unused license from another virtual account. You can also transfer appliances between virtual accounts.
When you register a device with Cisco Smart Software Manager, you create a Product Instance Registration Token in the manager, and then enter it in FDM. A registered device becomes associated with a virtual account based on the token that is used.
For more information about the Cisco Smart Software Manager, see the online help for the manager.
Periodic Communication with the License Authority
When you use a Product Instance Registration Token to register the FTD device, the device registers with the Cisco License Authority. The License Authority issues an ID certificate for communication between the device and the License Authority. This certificate is valid for one year, although it will be renewed every six months. If an ID certificate expires (usually in nine months or a year with no communication), the device reverts to a de-registered state and licensed feature usage is suspended.
The device communicates with the License Authority on a periodic basis. If you make changes in the Cisco Smart Software Manager, you can refresh the authorization on the device so the changes immediately take effect. You also can wait for the device to communicate as scheduled. Normal license communication occurs every 12 hours, but with the grace period, your device will operate for up to 90 days without calling home. You must contact the License Authority before 90 days have passed.
Smart License Types
The following table explains the licenses available for the FTD device.
Your purchase of a FTD device automatically includes a Base license. All additional licenses are optional.
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License |
Duration |
Granted Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
|
Base |
Perpetual |
All features not covered by the optional term licenses. The Base license is automatically added to your account when you register. You must also specify whether to Allow export-controlled functionality on the products registered with this token. You can select this option only if your country meets export-control standards. This option controls your use of advanced encryption and the features that require advanced encryption. |
|
Threat |
Term-based |
Required to use the following policies:
|
|
Malware |
Term-based |
File policies (the Threat is also required). |
|
URL |
Term-based |
Category and reputation-based URL filtering. You can perform URL filtering on individual URLs without this license. |
Impact of Expired or Disabled Optional Licenses
If one of the following optional licenses expires, you can continue using features that require the license. However, the license is marked out of compliance and you need to purchase the license and add it to your account to bring the license back into compliance.
If you disable an optional license, the system reacts as follows:
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Malware—The system stops querying the Secure Malware Analytics Cloud, and also stops acknowledging retrospective events sent from the Secure Malware Analytics Cloud. You cannot re-deploy existing access control policies if they include file policies. Note that for a very brief time after a Malware license is disabled, the system can use existing cached file dispositions. After the time window expires, the system assigns a disposition of Unavailable to those files.
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Threat—The system no longer applies intrusion or file policies. You cannot re-deploy existing policies that require the license.
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URL—Access control rules with URL category conditions immediately stop filtering URLs, and the system no longer downloads updates to URL data. You cannot re-deploy existing access control policies if they include rules with category and reputation-based URL conditions.
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