CME Endpoint v14 licenses not consumed

[neilhunter45355]

I have a number of ISR4431 routers running XE 16.12, each with some directly connected SIP 'phones in CME mode.  I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that this IOS means the routers are running CME v12 but I don't know how to confirm.   Needing more endpoint licenses, I got some but they come as CME v14 (seems the v12 sort aren't available now).  The licenses load OK, but don't get consumed - instead, 'show licinse summary' shows they remain 'not in use' and another type of CME_EP license (v12 maybe?) is shown as 'not authorised'.  Functionally everything seems to work, but it doesn't look right.

Question 1 is how can I confirm what version of CME the router is running? 

Question 2 is how do I get it to (correctly) consume the CME_V14 endpoint licenses? 

Question 3 is [assuming my v12 and v14 licenses can't coexist on the same platform] do I have to 'upgrade' all the existing v12 licenses to get any of the v14 ones to work?

Thanks for your help!

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

Question 1 is how can I confirm what version of CME the router is running? 

Show telephony-service will show the cme version

Question 2 is how do I get it to (correctly) consume the CME_V14 endpoint licenses?

 I believe with version 14 it’s smart licensing.Activate smart licensing on cme.

Question 3 is [assuming my v12 and v14 licenses can't coexist on the same platform] do I have to 'upgrade' all the existing v12 licenses to get any of the v14 ones to work?

what I remember is there is some option to migrate those license. Better to talk to local Cisco SE.

[neilhunter45355]

Nithin

Thanks for the response. 

Re (1), strangely 'show telephony service' says 'no service running' (there is - there's a call in progress!  All the phones are SIP though, maybe that's got something to do with it)

Re (2) The licenses are loaded OK - the platform is on 'specific license reservation' in Smart licensing.  But although they're there, CME doesn't want to use them for some reason I don't understand.  That's the main symptom here.

NH

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

if sh telephony-service doesn't give anything. try below.

jlrvg#sh voice register global
CONFIG [Version=10.5]
========================
Version 10.5
Max-pool is 0

Re (2) Did you enabled smart licensing  on CME router ? if not enabled go through the below guide and enable it.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucme/admin/configuration/manual/cmeadm/cmeover.html#Cisco_Concept.dita_aa0ab797-a59c-44fc-a26b-b991840d28eb

[neilhunter45355]

That helped thanks - yes, the router is running Version CME 12.6.

Smart licensing is working fine, the platform is in specific license reservation mode and has many other licenses loaded OK.

On another platform, using 'show license summary' I can see that one consumes "CME v12 Endpoint License" and there are a number in use.  On this one, though, a license called "CME V14 Endpoint License" is present but isn't being used ("not in use") but another type (with the same entitlement tag "CME_EP", which I now assume to be a v12 endpoint license, is shown as "not authorised".

What I want is for it to pick up and use the v14 license which is loaded onto the platform and not put out a 'not authorised' status.

The v14 license should work shouldn't it?!

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

AFAIK, if you are using CME 12.X it will consume CME-12 license and CME-14 license will only be used when you are in CME-14 version.

I would recommend to Open a licensing TAC case.

[neilhunter45355]

Update - a ticket has been raised with TAC but they seem to be struggling to respond - it's been open for two weeks now and all they've done is ask for logs giving the same information as I've already described (!)  I'll post any resolution here.

[neilhunter45355]

Update.  It appears that through a process called 'level 3 substitution' it's possible to issue v12 tags against a v14 license using the smart licensing manager.  The total number of available v12 licenses is the number of (existing) v12 ones plus the number of (new) v14 ones (though only the new ones can be issued as v14 ones).  So this turns out just to be a problem with the way I was using smart licensing and isn't a bug.  What's rather irritating here is the elapsed time and the number of transactions with Cisco TAC to resolve such a straightforward issue.  Anyway, fixed now.