VM lisences for VM ova applices

[zohaibmuzaffar7]

hi

My question is regarding  ISE licensing. How one can obtain licences for OVA based ISE appliances that are available through Cisco for a 90 day trial period. What type of licences one needs to order to have those appliances permanently in ones prod environment after the trial period is finished. The Cisco partner i have talked to so far are only suggesting me to ISO-based VM¨s(NO PAK needed)  either in number 1 or 5  but they have no answer for how to install /activate OVA ISE appliances running on a trial licence.

Regards

Zohaib Muzaffar

[zohaibmuzaffar7]

a little correction, i have those appliances installed currently but want to have licences for those so that they keep on working after trial period.

[paul]

First of the VM license is a RTU license with no enforcement.  If you are doing a PoC you can download either the .iso or OVA and build your ISE VM.  All ISE installs come with a 90 day 100 count base/plux/apex eval license.

[zohaibmuzaffar7]

so it means if I am extending an existing ISE environment, with these  OVA files and want to have permanent licenses on them, it's not possible, have to buy VM packages from Cisco.In my case, i had an environment running on version 2.2.470 with 3 policy service nodes ,one monitor node and one admin node. I installed 3 more nodes(one admin(sec), one monitor(Sec) and one policy service node). Suited me well just to download the same version of  OVA from cisco website and import it to the current environment with correct certificate chains etc . But now my challenge is how can i obtain permanent VM licences for these 3 appliances or my approach had been wrong all along .?

[paul · Accepted solution]

Well now you are telling more to the story.

With traditional licensing the licensing covers the whole deployment whether you have one node or 50 nodes in the deployment. So if you want to expand your deployment, build more VMS and add them to the deployment. To be whole with Cisco you should buy the VM license packs you need to cover the VMs you want to add. Again those licenses are Right to Use licenses and have nothing to do with actual ISE enforced licensing.

With smart licensing the licensing covers your organization. So you could have 50 deployments all consuming the same pool of licenses. Again you still need to pay for the VM licenses for each VM you spin up.

[zohaibmuzaffar7]

thanks for a detailed reply so irrespective of which lisening method is used  (traditional-smart), I have to buy VM licenses or in other words buy VM for extra new  VM's that i plan to set up in my envrionment.

Is it possible to buy VM or  PAKs' for a specified version?. As far as I haved checked,  ISE version available by default with the (VM package) is 2.3 . I plan to upgrade  to the said version  but not right now, so, I am looking for an option where i can license my VM's with version 2.2,470 with an option to upgrade later to version 2.3

[paul]

You are missing the point on the Right to Use concept.

Let’s say you spend $10k to by a 5 VM license pack. (don’t hold me to pricing) Do you know what you get for that 10K? You get a virtual piece of paper that basically says “Congratulations you can have 5 ISE VMS.” Cisco doesn’t come knocking on your door asking for the piece of paper. They don’t check how many VMs you have installed. The VM licensing is pennies compared to the ISE licenses that are counted (base, plus, apex, etc.)

As good corporate citizens we buy the pieces of paper because it is the right thing to do, but at the end of the day you are just buying a piece of paper.

[zohaibmuzaffar7]

I agree with what you have said, I am just trying to clarify my misconceptions here. I agree with the fact that the price for the VM's is peanuts as compared to the end point licences, (base, plus or apex) but what i  was a bit confused about, why e-delivery from Cisco is giving me a VM on version 2.3   and no mention of the server lisences or associated  PAK's.

[gbekmezi-DD]

Because the PAKs aren’t correlated with the servers at time of purchase. You redeem your PAKs and associated them with up to two ISE admin nodes when you are ready for that step.

[zohaibmuzaffar7]

can you explain how do I redeem PAK  for the bought VM's? I have bought one VM and was delivered through e-delivery  , but I didn't find /receive any link for the registration fo the PAK neither a PAK code.Am I missing something here or should I contact my cisco partner again? any explanation in that regard shall be much appreciated.

[paul]

You don’t have to do anything. The PAK is your virtual piece of paper. You are over thinking this whole thing. You paid Cisco their money, build your VMs and install ISE software. The OVAs and .iso files are all available on the ISE download page.

Don’t worry about doing anything with the VM licensing assuming you already bought the licenses to cover your VMs. Work on expanding your VM deployment.

Paul Haferman

Office- 920.996.3011

Cell- 920.284.9250

[zohaibmuzaffar7]

thanks for a detailed answer.