ACI Essential License (ACI-ES-XF) Installation

[lukasb95]

Hi all,

Recently I have deployed an ACI Fabric, and the evaluation mode got expired. Our company bought several "ACI-ES-XF" license to license the leaf switches.

(cmiiw, only the switch need to be licensed right? Spine and APIC Controller are not consume license?).

Feature-wise, I read that ACI Essentials is enough for our deployment. 
However, I don't see any options on how to register that particular license into the ACI fabric. All I found is about registering using the Smart License method.

Tried contacting the Cisco Licensing TAC, and so far I haven't got any good enough answer. They just insist that "ACI-ES-XF" PID is not a Smart License PID and havent tell me how to consume (configure) that ACI-ES-XF license.

Any advice how to configure that license into the fabric and remove that non-stop evaluation period expired warning using the license that we already bought?

Thanks before.

[Sergiu.Daniluk]

Hi,

Yes, that is correct. The license is only required for ACI Leaf switches, and the tier is dependent on the features configured on the leaf switch. When a higher tier feature is enabled in policy and applied to a switch, that switch reports that it is consuming a tier of license that matches that feature set. When all policies of a higher tier are removed, the switch will report requiring the next lowest tier of license that matches its currently enabled feature set.

To register your ACI licenses, I would suggest first to get familiar with the smart account and smart licensing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oTh4RPWBsM (short intro)

https://community.cisco.com/t5/smart-licensing-enterprise/software-on-demand-training-resources-for-customers/ta-p/3639797 

Then, you should read the ACI Smart Licensing documentation, where you will find how to register the licenses: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/all/smart-licensing/b_Smart_Licensing.html 

Regards,

Sergiu

[lukasb95]

Hi Sergiu,

So, is the ACI-ES-XF license is compatible with the Smart Licensing?

Because the TAC say the PID bought (ACI-ES-XF) is not supported for smart licensing deployment. This is really makes me confused on how to configure licensing on the ACI fabric without smart licensing.

And my company smart account is not delivered with the "ACI-ES-XF" license even we are buying it. This is why I contact the Licensing TAC at the first place, and got that reply. Also, the TAC responsiveness is really bad & can't give a definite answer. Not usual cisco-quality TAC.

I am quite familiar with the Smart licensing behaviour and procedures for the Cisco Catalyst 9K, but haven't got any experience with this Cisco ACI Licensing.

Regards,
Lukas

[Sergiu.Daniluk]

Hi,

I am not sure if the ACI-ES-XF is a correct smart license PID, but as I see it listed here, it seems to be good:

PIDs for Non-Cisco ONE Perpetual Tier-Based Licenses for ACI+NX-OS (Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches)

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/nx-os/licensing/guide/b_Cisco_NX-OS_Licensing_Guide/b_Cisco_NX-OS_Licensing_Guide_chapter_01.html 

BTW, just wanted to mention that the case you opened for the license issue is not with Cisco TAC. The case is handled by licensing team. They are not technical, they just follow procedures.

If you do not find the license listed in your account, then you should ask the Licensing team to add the licenses to your smart account. Share with them the link above pointing that everything is correct. If they do not know how to do it, then ask them to escalate the case.

Regards,

Sergiu