New licensing / DNA Centre

[herve.carpentier]

I manage a network using about 30 network devices, which we need to expand and upgrade. The network is not and cannot be connected to the internet. We have decided that we do not need the function of the DNA centre at this point in time. 
I understand that the licensing is changing, and read about it on the Cisco site. I also have found contradictory information between this and the info supplied by the reseller.
I have found information on how to get a license token from the website and import it to validate the licence. Is this process going to change? Are we going to be required to have a DNA centre on the network in order to validate the licenses?
In normal operations, will our new devices (9000s, 4000s, 8000s) need to have to connect back to the internet or cisco cloud for any reason? This would be a real issue.

[Leo Laohoo]

1. What are the platforms (exact models)?
2. What firmware are they on? 
3. What license level (Essentials or Advantage)?

[Preston Chilcote · Accepted solution]

Here is your authoritative source for the state of the art in Cisco Licensing: "Smart Licensing using Policy"

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/sl_using_policy/b-sl-using-policy/info_about.html#Cisco_Concept.dita_d830a4d4-b159-412e-87bb-cc5d105b0358

You will probably want to install a Cisco Smart Licensing Utility instance on site to collect license data from your devices.  It does not have to be connected to the internet, but instead there is a manual process to perodically send the license reports (RUM files) to the Cisco Licesning portal (see figure 4 in the above guide.)

[herve.carpentier]

Thank you Preston and Leo, that really got me started in the right direction. Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I can understand after digging further, Network essential and Network Advantage have perpetual licenses and do not need the reporting to the CSSM, except may be for the first time for the authorisation code.

A thing that concerns me for the future is that if we ever need the functionalities of the DNA licences is the extra work associated with having to send the usage report at least every 90 days for every device on an air-gapped network. I also was not able to find the detail or example of the information that would be sent in the RUM report. I would need to inspect each report before transferring them to the CSSM. I know this is "based" on ISO 19770-4, but "based" can mean anything. 

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

The gist is this:  Use a firmware that either does not support CSL or use one with "better management".  For switches, CSL starts from 16.9.X (router starts at 16.10.X).  

From 17.3.2, CSL is "easier" to manage because there is no need to manually "enrol" each friggin' device.  

And finally, if each device have Network Essentials license, even better -- Do not even bother with CSL because nothing is going to happen when the license expires.  No roll-back, no "enforcement".