License Management

This chapter includes the following sections:

Managing Licenses in Cisco UCS Central

Domain licenses for each registered Cisco UCS Domains enable you to manage the domains from Cisco UCS Central. You can manage the Cisco UCS domain licenses using both Cisco UCS Central GUI and CLI.

Grace Period

When you start using Cisco UCS Central for the first time, you can register up to five Cisco UCS domains for free, for up to 120 days grace period. If you register any domain after the fifth, you get a 120 grace period for each new registered domain. After the grace period ends, you need an active domain license to manage the domain using Cisco UCS Central. The grace period is measured from the day you register the Cisco UCS domain until the day you obtain and install a license.

The use of grace period for a registered Cisco UCS domain is stored in the system. Unregistering a domain from the system does not reset the grace period. For example, if you register a domain for free and use 40 days of the grace period unregister after 40 days, the system records the 40 days in association with that domain. If you register this Cisco UCS domain again, the grace period for the domain resumes and indicates that 40 days have been used. You must obtain and install a license before the grace period expires. If you did not obtain a license before the grace period expires, the system generates multiple faults as a reminder to procure a license.

License Types

The following are the two available license types:

  • Initial License: Initial license includes the initial activation license for Cisco UCS Central and five domain licenses. After installing the initial license, you cannot delete it from the system. You can still delete the download task for the initial license, that does not have any impact on the initial license installation status.
  • Domain License: If you plan to register more than five domains in Cisco UCS Central, you must purchase domain licenses. After obtaining and downloading the domain licenses, when you register a Cisco UCS domain, you can select the domain and assign a license.

Downloading and Installing a License

Using the Cisco UCS Central CLI, you can download a license to Cisco UCS Central from a remote file system.


Note

If you have the license file saved in your local file system, use Cisco UCS Central GUI to download the license file into Cisco UCS Central.

Before You Begin

To download a license from the local file system to Cisco UCS Central, make sure you have the following:

  • Obtained the license from Cisco and saved it to your local system or remote file system.

  • Administrative permission for Cisco UCS Central to perform this task.

Procedure
     Command or ActionPurpose
    Step 1UCSC # connect service-reg  

    Enters service registry mode.

     
    Step 2UCSC (service-reg) # scope license  

    Enters the licensing configuration mode.

     
    Step 3UCSC (service-reg) /license # download license protocol:// license file location  

    Downloads the license using the specified protocol to connect to the location of the license. You can specify FTP, SFTP, TFTP or SCP as the protocol. For example, in the command download license scp://user@1.2.3.4/a.lic, SCP is the protocol specified, and 1.2.3.4 is replaced with the IP address of the server where the license file, a.lic file is saved.

    If you specify TFTP, then you are not prompted to enter the user name and the password.

     
    Step 4UCSC (service-reg) /license # install file license file name  

    Installs the license.

     

    The following example shows how to download and install a license using the Cisco UCS Central CLI: 

    UCSC # connect service-reg
UCSC (service-reg) # scope license
UCSC (service-reg) /license # download license scp://UCS-A@1.2.3.4/ws/ucsa-sjc/license_file/newFiles/DOMAIN_REG_2.lic
Password: *****
myPassword(service-reg) /license # 
UCS-A(service-reg) /license # install  file DOMAIN_REG_2.lic

    Deleting a License

    You can delete a license that is not associated with a registered UCS domain, from Cisco UCS Central. If you want to delete a license that is associated to a UCS domain, make sure to unregister the domain before deleting the license. When you delete a license, the system automatically adjusts the available license count.

    Important:

    Deleting a license from Cisco UCS Central removes only the license file from the system. If you try to download the same license after deleting it from the system, you might encounter a download license error. So when you delete a license, you must delete the associated download task for that license.

    Procedure
       Command or ActionPurpose
      Step 1 UCSC # connect service-reg  

      Enters service registry mode.

       
      Step 2UCSC (service-reg) # scope license  

      Enters licensing configuration mode.

       
      Step 3UCSC (service-reg) /license # clear file license file name  

      Deletes the specified license from the system.

       
      Step 4UCSC (service-reg) /license # commit-buffer  

      Commits the transaction to the system.

      Note   

      Continue with the following steps to delete the download-task.

       
      Step 5UCSC (service-reg) /license # delete download-task license file name   Deletes the download task associated with the specified license file.  
      Step 6UCSC (service-reg) /license # commit-buffer  

      Commits the transaction to the system.

       

      The following example shows the process to clear a license file and delete the download task from Cisco UCS Central CLI: 

      UCSC # connect service-reg
UCSC (service-reg) # scope license
UCSC (service-reg) /license # clear file UCSC_123_ini.lic
UCSC (service-reg) /license* # commit-buffer
UCSC (service-reg) /license # delete download-task UCSC_123_ini.lic 
UCSC (service-reg) /license* # commit-buffer