Smart Licensing Offline Activation

[NagiswarenUtheyakumar5553]

Hi All,

I have private network in banking environment. I have C9200 and C9300 would need to activate the licenses. The site strictly with no internet access. I have seen there is offline option( copy paste) method to activate the device licenses, but i cant see any guideline how to do it. Btw, the site only has 8 devices, so it wont be pain for us to do it manually, so pls don't suggest to use satellite server. 

Can anyone pls guide ? 

[Leo Laohoo]

Recently, there are two working solution to the Cisco Smart License (CSL) "feature":  

1.  Upgrade to, a minimum, 17.3.2 (New Deployment Method for Smart Licensing); or 

2.  Do nothing.  When the timer hits zero, nothing happens.  No enforcement will occur.

[NagiswarenUtheyakumar5553]

Hi, currently our version is  16.12.05b (C9300). And when i show license, its says License Authorization status in EVAL mode, and will expiry in 90 days. So if i leave it as it is without registering with CSSM, the device will continue to work as usual even after 90 days ? I thought this applicable only for C3800 series ?

[Arshad Safrulla]

Hi You can use SLR, previously you need to open a case with Cisco licensing team to enable this feature under your smart account. But for the new accounts I saw this was enabled by default. 

Please follow the below guide for more information, let me know if you have nay points to be cleared.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst_slr/b-169-9000-series-SLR-cg/b-169-9000-series-SLR-cg_chapter_00.html

[mgrabovs]

Hello,

If you wish to configure Smart Licensing Using Policy on your switches, which is mandatory since IOS-XE 17.3.2, you can use the below guide:

Smart Licensing using Policy on Catalyst Switching Platforms 

Since you've mentioned that your switches don't have internet access, I suggest using the CSLU tool or the offline mode, both documented in the link above. Just keep in mind that offline mode might require a bit more manual work because the report needs to be generated on the switch and manually uploaded to CSSM, and from there get the ACK file and upload it back to the switch so that the switch becomes aware that CSSM acknowledged the license usage report. Hence, going for a tool such as CSLU might automate all this.

Thank you.

Marin Grabovschi