NFR or LAB Licence for CUCM 11.5

[glennp]

I am in right pickle with Cisco licencing for my CUCM 11.5 Lab setup.

I am just venturing into the world of Cisco Unified Communications and I had intended to set up a 12.5 Lab to learn however my handsets were deprecated with version 12 leaving me no option but to go with 11.5 for my initial learning lab setup but the demo expires in 60 days and while I'm happy to pay for NFR licences they're now past EoS and EoL so I cant order them.

Surely Cisco can offer something for a product that's now no longer sold or supported for someone who just wants to learn the basics with the hardware he has and then move to a supported version down the track when I can get later revision hardware for a reasonable price.

I'd rather put the effort into learning Cisco UCM than going down the Asterisk route with FreePBX or similar but if I cant licence my CUCM 11.5 then I'll have no choice.

Any help or support greatly appreciated.

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

Surely Cisco can offer something for a product that's now no longer sold or supported:-There won't be any option to get the Licensing for an EOS devices. 

Use 12.5 for lab. Or us 60 days Demo period to test all your licenses.

[glennp]

Did you not read what I wrote?  I cant use 12.5 because my handsets were deprecated in CUCM 12 and I'm not going to go out and buy new expensive handsets to learn on.

If cisco cant at least support some licencing option or demo extension on 11.5 then I will ditch CUCM and go with an Asterisk solution to learn instead.

I am not going to throw away perfectly good handsets that work just fine on CUCM 11.5.

My other alternative is to go obtain a hacked version of 11.5 but I'd rather not go down that path unless I have no other choice.

This is the sort of thing cisco drive you insane with.

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

I have read your post.

I never heard of hacked CUCM version.

Getting  licenses for an eos version  won’t be possible.

Cisco is providing you demo period to test all features.

[Roger Kallberg]

@Nithin Eluvathingal No point to bother with this post. We don’t condone with pirate licensing in the community.

@glennp From the sound you’re best off going down the Asterisk path.

[glennp]

Man this is some support forum, or should I say lack of support forum!  It seems so far all the responses I've got is from people that want to beat up on me or state the bleeding obvious.

Where did you even get that I condone pirate licencing?  I came on here because I want to purchase or legitimately obtain GENUINE licences for the product I am using.  I made that pretty clear from my original post.  I DO NOT CONDONE PIRACY and I never would, I simply stated the fact that it exists and enlightened Mr Nithin as he seemed to believe that wasn't the case.  Paying pirates or sourcing free pirated software or licences undermines the industry we work in, that is why I always do whatever I can to obtain genuine NFR/Lab/Eval licencing when I am testing and learning new products.  I agree I have left my run on this a little late thanks for the most part due to Covid19, had that not occurred I would have been able to buy the licences I need simply and easily from Cisco.

I have come here in the hope that someone from Cisco or someone in the general community might be able to assist me in obtaining what I need.  Perhaps someone who has CUCM 11.5 licences they no longer need or someone from Cisco kindly providing what I need for a small administration fee.  I did not come here to be berated over commenting on piracy.

Here's a little nugget you might find interesting.  Microsoft still support Windows XP!  They don't support it publicly however if your a big enough corporate client and you have essential custom core software that will only run on XP they'll still support it and provide security updates and ongoing licencing.  Several big banks in my country are in this position so based on that I know if Cisco wanted to they could supply me with the licences I need but I'm simply not a big enough customer for them to be bothered doing it.

So once again I will say it, if you don't have something constructive to offer in solving the issue I face then please keep your comments to yourself.

[Roger Kallberg]

Licenses in pre 12 versions are tied to a license MAC, that is not the same as the actual network card MAC address. This license MAC is derived based on a number of values from the specific system. With this you would not be able to use licenses that you get from someone that is not using them anymore. Licenses have to be generated for your specific system to match your license MAC.

However long and enlightening your point on support for XP was it’s not really related as your likely not representing a large corporation, so Microsoft would not bestow you with this support either.

If you have a need for official support from Cisco this is not the appropriate place for that. The people answering post on the community is doing so on their own time with not correlation to Cisco. For licensing support it is advisable to reach out to Ciscos global licensing support organisation, GLO for short.

[TONY SMITH]

Just by the by, as far as I can see CUCM 11.5 can be ordered right now as a new subscription.  See screenshot from CCW.  I think Cisco has hopeless confused the situation with their EOS notices that refer to perpetual licensing, ie those notices indicated end of sale of a particular licensing model rather than the underlying product. Not helped by them updating or backdating announcements either. 

[Nithin Eluvathingal]

If i am not wrong he is referring the below Offer from Cisco. AFAIK if you have a CCO-Id you can buy it using a credit card. . Which comes only on 12 and 14 versions.

NFR through CCW can only be placed by a partner. and it should be approved by your AM. Yes in CCW 11.X is  still order able.

With Saas promotion if you are entitled you can even get in 0 $.

https://ciscosoftware.mediuscorp.com/

2.12.0.0

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

Just by the by, as far as I can see CUCM 11.5 can be ordered right now as a new subscription.

2.12.0.0

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Not likely for the OP's use case. Perpetual licenses end of sale was in January 2021 but new annuity subscriptions of 11.x went end of sale a few months later in May 2021. Only customers with active subscriptions are able to add incremental capacity until May 2022 for 11.x.

https://ciscosoftware.mediuscorp.com/

This is only available to partners, but it also isn't 11.x as the OP has insisted.

[TONY SMITH]

That comes back to what I was saying about Cisco's mixed messages. We ordered two new Flex 3 subscriptions with on-premise 11.5 during 2021 One in July and one in November. The only limit was that the subscription term couldn't extend beyond the end of support date that Cisco was working to at that time.

The screenshot I showed earlier was an Estimate, not a Deal, but it gives every indication that it could have become an order. This could be more misinformation again, but you can't normally add products to an estimate if they're past their end of sale.