UCS Ethernet Port Activation Licensing

[CiscoMedMed]

I moved a pair of FIs from a DR data center and was hoping to make use of them. But I noticed warnings

about ethernet port usage being in grace period. Will the ports stop working if in "grace period" state?
Perhaps the engineer who installed these just never applied the Ethernet ports license? How would I

find that out? Eventually I'd like to be able to use any all and all 32 ports and add the expansion module 
which would come from another UCS. That UCS just says Eth ports license OK. Any insight appreciated.

ABC-FI-A-A /license # show usage

Feat Name                      Scope Default Total Quant Used Quant Subordinate Quant    State                Peer Count Comparison   Grace Used

------------------------------ ----- ------- ----------- ---------- -------------------- -------------------- ----------------------- ----------

ETH_PORT_ACTIVATION_PKG        A     12      12          32         0                    License Graceperiod  Matching                1951200

ETH_PORT_C_ACTIVATION_PKG      A     0       0           0          0                    Not Applicable       Matching                0

ETH_PORT_ACTIVATION_PKG        B     12      12          32         0                    License Graceperiod  Matching                1951200

ETH_PORT_C_ACTIVATION_PKG      B     0       0           0          0                    Not Applicable       Matching                0

[Kirk J · Accepted solution]

Greetings.

I'm guessing you have 6200 series FI based on port/licensing count...

The 6200 series came with:

6248 - 12 licenses towards pool

6296 - 18 licenses towards pool

16-Port-GEM - adds 6 licenses towards pool

When a port goes from unconfigured to any other role (uplink, server, appliance, etc) it consumes a port license.

If the ports are not in use, putting them back into unconfigured state, will drop the license usage count.

Based on your output, you have the default included 12 ports.

Actual Usage beyond 12 would require purchase of additional port licenses.

It is unlikely the original user purchased additional licenses, but didn't bother to install them.  To confirm, you will need to call into TAC and open a licensing case to have them check the serial #s of the FIs.

Kirk...

[CiscoMedMed]

That's very helpful. Thank you. So FI-A has currently four uplink ports four server ports configured. 

I wonder if there's any way to transfer port licenses from one UCS to another. What I'm doing is migrating from one cage to another chassis by chassis. I didn't realize this port licensing issue would come into play. The FIs I'm migrating from are fully licenses and have a GEM card. 

[Kirk J · Accepted solution]

For FIs, you can't transfer the default/included licenses.

You may be able to transfer/rekey additionally purchased licenses, if you are deprecating one FI, and using another (has to be same FI model). You would need to open TAC licensing case for that.

The GEM module will automatically add another 6 default port licenses once it is physically installed.

Kirk...

[CiscoMedMed]

One other question - if I add chassis as server ports beyond the 12 licensed ports, what happens? Do they not function at all? Function for a while? Function forever but you could run into issues getting TAC support later on?