Nexus N6K license question

[hanoon]

Hello - I purchased 3 N6001-64P switches off eBay at a decent price, I was able to upgrade them without issue, Now whenever I try to enable any feature I get the message LAN_Enterprise_Services_PKG grace period 120 days

I do show license - return nothing and no .lic files in bootflash

Does that mean it will expire after 120 days and switch won't work?
Will it become right to use license - that can be used unlimited?

What can be done to utilize those switches presentably?

If the license is needed, will cisco provide with host-id without proof of purchase? I assume they had a license at some point.

Thanks in advance.

 

[cesmith9999]

Cisco will need you to be under a service contract and then extra $$$ for the license.

The Cisco sales guy would not really care if they are first or second or third hand...

Chris

 

[Skud]

I’m thinking you ran into the smart licensing. I had the same thing happen to me with my 3650. It had a permanent right to use IP Services license that was removed and replaced with an eval after I upgraded to the latest IOS. The latest versions no longer support right to use.

you would need to setup a smart licensing account and the switch would need to call home. Now, if you can take that switch’s RTU and load it into the smart licensing account without being the original owner I don’t know.

Luckily, rolling back got me the RTU licensing working again.

Riley

 

[fohdeesha]

I’m thinking you ran into the smart licensing. I had the same thing happen to me with my 3650. It had a permanent right to use IP Services license that was removed and replaced with an eval after I upgraded to the latest IOS. The latest versions no longer support right to use.

you would need to setup a smart licensing account and the switch would need to call home. Now, if you can take that switch’s RTU and load it into the smart licensing account without being the original owner I don’t know.

Luckily, rolling back got me the RTU licensing working again.

Riley

latest IOS relies on phoning home to unlock features? big oof

 

[Skud]

Yup. Good ‘ole Cisco.

Smart Licensing Guide for Access and Edge Routers - Migrate from Traditional Licensing to Smart Licensing [Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam 17.1.1]

We’re looking at all new switching for a new DC. Cisco has been courting us and whenever I bring this up their response is always “yes, but they won’t just “stop working” if they can’t call home”.

I can see where this is going with them. That’s the way it is NOW. But I bet in another 3-5 years that might not be the case. They’re slowly moving in that direction. If they think it’s OK to remove my permanent RTU licenses and make my switch call home periodically to maintain “authorized” status then I don’t trust them.

If I have a dark site and I need to maintain my licensing then I need to stand up a smart license server and manually transfer licenses to it every 30 days.