VM Migration and Licensing

[Scott Hanson]

All,

If I migrate my UC virtual machine infrastructure (CUCM 8.6, CUC 8.6) to new hardware at what point will I be prompted to get an updated license?  I just did this for the 2nd subscriber in a cluster and it did not say anything about requiring a new license but I am thinking when I migrate the publisher it will.    

Thanks and I rate replies.          

[Jaime Valencia · Accepted solution]

When you change some of the many parameters that compose the hash from which the license MAC is built from, if you don't change any of them, the license MAC will remain the same.

All those are parameters within CUCM/CUC/CUPS/etc, they are not related to the UCS C or B series.

HTH

java

if this helps, please rate

www.cisco.com/go/pdihelpdesk

[Rob Huffman · Accepted solution]

Hi Scott,

Just in case

New licensing procedure customer impact

Cisco Unified Communications Manager on Virtualized Servers uses a different licensing model than Cisco Unified Communications Manager on an MCS server. The MAC address of the NIC card is no longer used to associate the license to the server.

Instead, the license gets  associated to a license MAC, which is a 12 digit HEX value created by  hashing the following parameters that you configure on the server:

• Time zone
• NTP server 1 (or "none")
• NIC speed (or "auto")
• Hostname
• IP Address (or "dhcp")
• IP Mask (or "dhcp")
• Gateway Address (or "dhcp")
• Primary DNS (or "dhcp")
• SMTP server (or "none")
• Certificate Information (Organization, Unit, Location, State, Country)

The ways to obtain the license MAC are as follows:

• Before installation, use the Answer File Generator (http://www.cisco.com/web/cuc_afg/index.html). When you generate the answer file, you also get the license MAC.

  Note	If you use this method, ensure that you enter the identical parameter values in the Answer File Generator and the Cisco Unified Communications Manager installation program, or the license will be invalid.

• After installation, navigate to Show > System in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration.
• After installation, use the CLI command show status.

Obtaining New Licenses

The  process to redeem a Product Activation Key (PAK) for licenses at  www.cisco.com/go/license is changed for a license MAC. When redeeming a  PAK for a license MAC at this URL, you get prompted to select the type  of license that you want to obtain:

• A physical MAC address — this is used when Cisco Unified Communications Manager will be installed on an MCS server.
• A license MAC address — this is used when Cisco Unified Communications Manager will be installed on Cisco Unified Communications Manager on Virtualized Servers.

After you make this selection, the generation and installation of the license file follows the same process.

Obtaining Rehosted Licenses When You Change License MAC Parameters

When  you change any of the parameters that create the license MAC, the  license that you obtained with it becomes invalid. You must request a  rehosting of the license to obtain a valid license. The old license  continues to work for a 30-day grace period.

To rehost your licenses, you  must open a case with the licensing team to obtain a license for your  replacement server. Contact the licensing team at licensing@cisco.com.

During the grace period, you  can change the settings back to the licensed values to make your  original license valid again. If you need more than 30 days of grace  period, change your settings back to the licensed values, then change  them back to the new values that you want to use. You will get another  30- day grace period.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/virtual/CUCM_BK_CA526319_00_cucm-on-virtualized-servers_chapter_00.html#CUCM_RF_N2F7FB0A_00

Cheers!

Rob

"Why not help one another on the way" - Bob Marley

[Scott Hanson]

Gentlemen,

thank you both!

[Chris Deren]

In addition just heads up for future migrations if you go to version 9 all of this becomes irrelevant as License MAC goes away and all licensing gets tied to ELM.

Chris