Is there anyone that can explain UCL licensing?

[ahochau_2]

Greetings,

I have a customer that is going to CUCM 7,1(5) which supports UCL licensing.  They currently have the DLU licensing but since going forward DLU will not be supported we have purchased UCL licensing for 3 new sites that are coming online.  The problem is, not even Cisco Licensing seems to understand Cisco licensing.  I have opened 2 cases with Cisco Licensing to see if they can tell me how to get from DLU to UCL, and the response was "we don't do that, you need to contact the reseller."  I am the reseller.  So I contacted the PDI helpdesk and the response was "we don't do licensing, contact partner help".  So I went to the partner helpdesk and they don't have an option for licensing either.

My question is can I install UCL and DLU on the same server?  Worst case I  guess I just wait for the PAKs to arrive for the new sites and see if I can install them.  If anyone could provide me with a better understanding of how the UCL works before then, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Mark

[Jose Mendez]

Mark as far as I understand its either UCL or DLUs. Two separate models:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6788/vcallcon/ps7273/data_sheet_c78-587917.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/8_0_1/ccmfeat/fslicense.html

http://www.nojitter.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223101050&pgno=2

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

Yes you can mix DLU and UCL licenses because, for now, none of the products are UCL/UWL-aware. When you get the PAKs they will just be for DLUs anyways.

There is supposed to be a one-time migration process performed with the Cisco AM to get ESW/UCSS entitlement SKUs switched over to UCL from DLU. I would bet you a drink they don't understand this either yet.

[Jose Mendez]

In good theory, CUCM 7.1.5 and 8.x are aware of the licensing model applied. So, what happens if the customer goes for a system patch in 7.1.5 is, that there will be no change in pricing, until he wants to add more users, which  at that point would need to be UCL licensed.

Again, that is "in good theory". It would be helpful if Mark posts his experience after processing the PAKs.

[ahochau_2]

Here is the response I got from the BU"

"From a backend licensing, we are still enforcing with DLUs.  UCL is just the sales arm of this.  You will still have DLUs."

I will go forward on the assumption that it will all just work and then post what actually happens.

[James Hawkins]

My understanding is that DLU's and node licenses will be retained under the hood for UCL CUCM 8.0 and 8.5 deployments and that proper user based licensing will be introduced and enforced in version 9.0 and later.

When you register a PAK for a UCL user you will receive a license file for an amount of DLU's in the same way that you do for CUWL.

If you wanted to you could use these DLU's to license multiple phones (e.g. 2 x 7911 at 3 DLU per handset) for multiple users but you would be breaking the tems of the license and inviting trouble in the future when DLU's are replaced and user based enforcement is introduced.

One of the most confusing things about UCL is how Extension Mobility users are licensed in shift work scenarios - e.g. 100 IP phones and 200 users.

. I have heard three answers to this:

1. Every user needs to but an Enhanced User license even if they will not be logged in concurrently.
2. The first 100 users need an Enhanced User licenses and the other 100 users need an Essential License
3. The 100 phones should be licensed as Public Space devices and each user (200 total) need an Essential License

The latter answer was recieved from the Cisco PM team during the recent UC8.5 beta training. For partners with the approproate access you can see my question and response re. this at the link below:

https://www.myciscocommunity.com/thread/15949?tstart=0

UCL licensing does seem to be in a bit of a muddle at the moment.I think the decision to allow mixed CUWL and UCL clusters will cause lots of issues with license tracking - I certainly will not be positioning this for my customers.

Hopefully the ordering guides will be updated soon which should make things clearer.