Users Guide

Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 515
53-1002920-02
Chapter
21
Administering Licensing
In this chapter
•Licensing overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
•Brocade 7800 Upgrade license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
•ICL licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
•8G licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
•Slot-based licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
•10G licensing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
•Temporary licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
•Viewing installed licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
•Activating a license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
•Adding a licensed feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
•Removing a licensed feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
•Ports on Demand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
Licensing overview
Feature licenses are often part of the licensed paper pack supplied with your switch software; if
not, they can be purchased separately from your switch vendor, who provides the transaction keys
to activate the associated feature or features. Each product, each feature, and each individual
switch within a fabric requires its own license key.
Licenses may be associated with a feature version. If a feature has a version-based license, that
license is valid only for a particular version of the feature. If you want a newer version of the
feature, you must purchase a new license. If a license is not version-based, then it is valid for all
versions of the feature. Likewise, if you downgrade Fabric OS to an earlier version, some licenses
associated with specific features of the version you are downgrading may not work.
NOTE
To preserve licenses and the functioning of features associated with the licenses installed on your
switch, use the configUpload command before you upgrade or downgrade Fabric OS.
You can use the licenseShow command to display the license keys on a switch. Save the output to
a text file in a secure location. If licenses are lost or removed from the switch, you can use the saved
output to recover or add the lost licenses.
Fabric OS includes basic switch and fabric support software, and support for optionally licensed
software that is enabled using license keys.