In brief, Smart Licensing is a simplified license management system in which all customers’ licenses (for products that are smart license enabled) are managed through a central Cisco smart license cloud portal. The cloud portal maintains an account of what the customer has bought and what they are using. The portal alerts the customer if they go out of compliance.
This Q&A covers smart licensing only as it relates to wireless controllers.
Q: Do all wireless controllers support smart licensing? If not, are there any plans to have it available on all wireless controllers?
A: No. Smart licensing support is available only on the Cisco 5520 and 8540 Wireless Controllers and the Cisco Virtual Wireless Controller (vWLC) with AireOS Release 8.2 or later. It is also planned for converged access controllers in upcoming 16.x releases. There are no plans to enable smart licensing on other existing controllers (the Cisco 2504, 5508, and 8510 Wireless Controllers; the Cisco Flex 7510 Wireless Controller; and the Cisco Wireless Services Module 2 [WiSM2]).
Q: Does the customer need to buy different SKUs to use smart licensing?
A: No. The customer can continue to buy existing SKUs for the 5520 and 8540 and the vWLC.
Q: How would the customer use smart licensing for new license purchases and for already purchased 5520, 8540, and vWLC licenses?
A: Step1: If the customer does not already have a smart account, the customer (or partner for a partner-managed account) would need to create a smart account for the customer’s company. (You need only one smart account per company.) The customer (or partner) can review the details of the smart account creation process or register for live training on smart account creation at https://communities.cisco.com/docs/ DOC-56985.
Step2: After the licenses have been purchased, the customer should contact the Cisco Global Licensing Operations team by email, using the template below, with appropriate information to request the migration of their vWLC, 5520, and 8540 license entitlements to the customer’s smart portal. Note that this migration may take up to 72 hours. The customer should continue using right-to-use (RTU) licensing until the license migration is complete.
Email template:
To: Licensing@cisco.com
Subject: Smart License Migration for Wireless Controllers
Email Text:
Cisco.com ID: #####
Request: Migrate the following wireless controller licenses to smart licensing.
Smart account domain ID (domain in the form of “xyz.com”): #####
* Smart virtual account name: #####
Serial numbers of the devices on which the licenses were purchased (for non-adder licenses): #####
Number of adder licenses and SKUs that were purchased: #####
PO/SO number: #####
* Virtual accounts are subaccounts that a customer can create inside their company’s smart account to virtually separate different entities within organization. Virtual account creation is optional.
More information regarding virtual accounts can be found in the General Smart Licensing Q&A at: https://www.cisco. com/web/ordering/smart-software-licensing/index.html.
Step3: Enable smart licensing on smart-enabled wireless controllers (refer to the deployment guide for details). By default, the 5520, 8540, and vWLC will continue to enable RTU licensing.
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