Hi Bill,
Thanks for the clarification. I will attempt to answer your questions below.
Bill Branch wrote:
Fantastic!
I am looking for just licensing answers, sorry. I have heard that there are two parts of the licensing to get a codec connected to TMS. 1) a device access license for the connection to TMS and 2) Support and Maintenance of #1
There is only one part to a TMS license--the license itself. There is no need for support and maintenance on the license itself. Just install the license and you will be good to go.
One thing to keep in mind here, however, is the difference between a TMS license and a TMS release key. A release key is needed to upgrade TMS itself, and in order to get a TMS release key, you need to make sure TMS is actively under maintenance.
Bill Branch wrote:
I have also heard that Cisco has discontinued this practise of #2
I personally am not aware that the practice of #2 ever existed. It has always worked according to my statement above, to my knowledge.
Bill Branch wrote:
Can you confirm what you mean by "We have TMS and we need to have our codecs access it"? Do you mean you have endpoints that you need to add to TMS? Yes, that is correct.
The process of adding systems into TMS is pretty straight-forward and doesn't appear to be the nature of what you're asking. Please don't hesitate to post another thread here if you're running into issues adding systems into TMS.
Bill Branch wrote:
Regarding your question about what's required to enable the codecs to receive automatic updates, are you referring to the TMS server's ability to automatically download the newest software versions? If so, then nothing special is required; TMS does this in the background automatically if it's enabled.
Please note, TMS no longer supports automatically upgrading codecs; it needs to be scheduled manually by a TMS administrator. This seems like conflicting information Automatic vs manual
There are two parts that need to be distinguished between:
- TMS will automatically download the latest software packages to the TMS server.
- TMS will not automaticall upload that software package to the codec; this would need to be manually scheduled by a TMS administratior.
Please let me know if you still have any questions regarding this and I will be happy to answer.
Bill Branch wrote:
Can you please confirm what you mean by "other features provided by the TMS"? TMS is a very feature-rich platform, so any specifics you could give us would help greatly in answering your questions. OK, sorry, I am not very familar with the TMS system. Let me ask it this way: what features are not available if #2 above is applicable yet the service has expired (not paid)
I hope this helps and thank you very much for your assistance...
As covered above, #2 is not applicable. There is however something to keep in mind:
A primary feature in TMS is that TMS automatically monitors the service contract status of a codec. The main/primary reason for this is to automatically generate release keys for the devices you wish to upgrade. If the codec itself is not covered under maintenance, TMS will not be able to generate the release key. Please note, however, that this is a seperate concept than licenses.
As we've discussed, licenses themselves require no additional service or support--once they're installed, they're permanently installed and no further features/functions are needed. The only caveat to this is if your sales team provides you a demo license key, in which case that key will expire and you will need a permanent key if you decide to purchase TMS.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions regarding this.
Thanks,
Justin
