UCM Upgrade to 8.6 - Feature license question

[thisisshanky]

Every upgrade requires a SW feature license. There is a pak associated with this. This is typically obtained via product upgrade tool where you use your UCSS on your callmanager to order discs for the next version...at that point when they ship the CDs to you, you should have received a paper with a PAK in it..this should be registered to the publishers mac in order for 8.6 callmanager service to activate...

HTH

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

That has not been the case historically. Over the last several years a PUT order (and a new feature license) were only required for major version upgrades (i.e. 7.x to 8.x). I have done many upgrades and could point to dozens of clusters that are running without issue on a minor version different than the feature license (e.g. 8.5 for an 8.0 license).

I am surprised along with Torsten here. If CUCM is in fact requiring a new feature license for every minor version upgrade the PUT tool will be crushed with orders and everyone will be quite upset. CCX is the one product that doesn't follow this model and it continues to take a verbal beating from partners/customers for doing so.

Is it possible that the license files were lost or corrupted during the upgrade? If you open the Licensing Report from System > Licensing, do you see any version listed for your feature license? It should say 8.0. If it does I would open a TAC case.

[barry]

I may be barking up the wrong tree here, but I think Torsten was mentioning that he was using the demo licenses.

In which case, the demo licenses don't work on upgraded systems. They only work on clean installs. This is documented on CCO somewhere.

Barry

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

Oops. You're right Barry, I will settle down. For some reason I had interrupted it to mean his license file was not there and he was working off the demo license instead. Too much caffeine perhaps.

[barry]

No worries Jonathan; nice that I'm not indeed barking up the wrong tree for a change

Net result Torsten; if you upgrade from a system with a demo license, the license disappears. You can't upgrade them and keep the demo license.

Barry

[torsten.brink]

Hi Barry,

Hi Jonathan,

thank you very much for your replies... and yes, as this is just a home-lab enviroment I´m using just the demo-license so I´m not sure if this is the same behaviour on real licenses.

It´s new for me that, demo-license didn´t work on minor upgrades, because I have tried it several times (7.0 > 7.1 | 8.0 > 8.5) and it was always fine...

Here´s what I´ve tested so far:

• CUCM 8.0 =>    CUCM 8.5     => Demo-Licenses (incl. Feature License) work
• CUCM 8.5 =>     CUCM 8.6     => Demo-License work

                                                         Feature Demo-License doesn´t work (see screenshot)

• CUCM 8.0 =>     CUCM 8.6     => Demo-License work

                                                         Feature Demo-License doesn´t work (see screenshot)

So then I requested a trial license at https://tools.cisco.com/SWIFT/Licensing/PrivateRegistrationServlet?FormId=626 and received a valid license for 8.6....but:

Of course the license above is also just for 8.0 version and works with 8.6... I´m pretty confused now, as this is nothing different than what you can see in CUCM 8.0 or CUCM 8.5 with a demo-license...

I guess something was changed or maybe the demo-feature license is no migrated when upgrading on 8.6

Thank to all for answering

Cheers

Torsten

[Rob Huffman]

Hey Guys,

Excellent thread and really interesting topic. This is something to always

keep in mind for our Lab setups to be sure.

Shanky is back!! Yahoo!! Welcome back my friend +5

Jonathan .....too much caffeine ......I know the feeling! You work is always stellar +5

Barry, great tips for sure buddy! +10

I remembered this thread from a year back where Wes Sisk @ Cisco and

Chris Ward @ Cisco highlight this fact

From Wes;

"that is correct. upgrade removes demo files and there is no way to restore
> them. this is the reason for the nasty text on ccmadmin page now when demo
> files are in use."

From Chris;

"Demo SW feature licenses don't survive upgrades. You need to do a fresh
install of 7.0.2 or purchase the lab SKU from Cisco for actual licenses
that will survive upgrades."

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/cisco/nsp/106191

Cheers!

Rob

[thisisshanky]

@Rob - man this feels like Dejavu....i came here to post a question and found myself responding to atleast 5 posts yesterday....feels like i have been here before

PS: Sorry Torsten - didnt mean to spam this post and go off topic!!

[torsten.brink]

Hi Rob,

thanks for the link, sounds really interesting.

Maybe I understood the thread wrong, but it seems for me that they did a major upgrade from 6.x to 7.x. For this reason I would assume that of course a feature license for 6.x is not valid for a cucm with 7.x.

But in my case, it´s from my point of view just a minor update, where it should keep the feature Lic.

I´ll try it with a TAC case and keep you up2date..

Cheers

Torsten

[Ruud van Strijp]

Hello Torsten,

Any news on this yet? I just upgraded my 8.5 demo environment to 8.6 as well, and now the CallManager service won't start anymore because it lacks the feature license. Shouldn't a demo license always be in place?

Ruud

[jkempisty]

Very interested in the results on this. We have many labs running right now.

Johnny K.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[kvancoil]

Hi everyone,

As this was working before we have raised a new defect to address this:

CSCtr77210.

However demo licenses are not meant to do upgrades as detailed on the below link:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/8_5_1/ccmfeat/fslicense.html#wp1156544

"

Cisco Unified Communications Manager contains a starter license that you  can use to begin new installations of Cisco Unified Communications  Manager before you install the production license. Starter licenses,  which are available in limited quantities, have no expiration date. You  can use starter licenses only for fresh installations; you cannot use  them for upgrades or migrations from previous releases. Starter licenses  support only one Cisco Unified Communications Manager node and up to 50  device license units.

The system overwrites the starter licence when you obtain and upload  your production licenses.

"

Thanks,

Kristof

[PATRICK GESCHWINDNER]

Is there any update in this matter or do we need to take it as given that demo-updates of minor versions were working in the past but from 8.6 this functionality is gone?

Cheerio

   Patrick

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Patrick,

There doesn't appear to be a fixed-in version yet;

CSCtr77210 - Feature demo-license is removed after minor upgrade to 8.6

Description

Symptom:When doing a minor upgrade to CUCM 8.6 the demo license still works, however the feature demo-license does not work anymore. It shows as "Missing".Conditions:Minor upgrade to CUCM 8.6Workaround:Request new demo licenses

Details

1st Found-in:

More

Less

Status:

Open

Last Modified:

Oct 02,2011

Known Affected Versions:

More

Less

Fixed-in:

More

Less

Product:

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CallManager)

Platform:

Dependent

Severity:

4 - minor

Customer Reported:                          (1)

Cheers!

Rob