Secure Voice on Cisco Integrated Services Routers; Cisco 1861 and Cisco 2800, 3800, 2900, 3900, and 3900E Series Integrated Services Router Interoperability with Cisco Unified Communications Manager Data Sheet (PDF - 1 MB) Cisco ISR & ASR Application Experience Routers Ordering Guide (PDF - 158 KB) End-of-Life and End-of-Sale Notices. Cisco 2911 Router. This G2 series router adds voice expansion options over the 1941 that will allow it to be upgraded for voice with additional hardware. The standard option is the base license router.

In this article we will discuss Cisco IOS licensing and take a closer look at:

• New licensing model

The Cisco IOS software is a single file that is downloaded from the Cisco website, copied on the router or switch and then installed. This hasn’t changed for decades. What has changed is what is found in these images.

% Error: Install failed. UDI CISCO2911:FCZ16337V6J on license does not match any device. 0/1 licenses were successfully installed. 0/1 licenses were existing licenses. 1/1 licenses were failed to install. UDI should be CISCO2911 /K9:FCZ16337V6J and not CISCO2911:FCZ16337V6J. Missing the /K9 bit. The PID was incorrectly filled. Visit: Follow us: Need Tech Support? Tags: Cisco 2911 License Cisco Licenses on Cisco ISR G2. Posted on September 1, 2014 by RouterSwitch Tech. So in this article we will talk about Cisco router.

In the IOS context, each version corresponds to a major revision of the IOS software while each release only includes smaller changes to IOS.

Cisco builds software images separately for each routing and switching family and for each version and release.

Old Licensing Model

In the original packaging model, a software image was developed for each feature set combination. A feature set is a group of features that are related to each other. For instance, the voice feature set has features related only to voice and it is different from the security feature set.

The reason for having feature sets is that not all customers need all the possible feature sets that Cisco can provide on that specific platform.

There are a few feature sets that Cisco has support for. IOS software can have one or more feature sets integrated. This means that there can be multiple combinations to accommodate any customer feature requests. Then the customer will need to know exactly what feature plans to use to get the right image. This was the old way of providing the feature sets to customers.

New Licensing Model

In the new IOS packaging, Cisco built one image that has all the feature sets, though there will still be a different image for every platform family and for each version and release.

With the introduction of the Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 (ISR G2) series, the use of universal images with software activation was introduced as well. This means that users can download the universal image that has the basic feature set already activated. Then if they want to activate the security feature set, they will still use the same software image, but will need to install a license key to activate the additional feature set.

For ISR G2, the following are the four feature sets that can be used, including a short description of what they contain:

The licenses can be applied when the device is ordered so that when the customer receives it, the license will be already activated. The licenses can also be purchased later and activated when the customer realizes the need for another feature set.

IOS Software License Activation

There are two ways to manage software licensing on Cisco devices. One is by using Cisco License Manager and the other is by manually activating the licenses.

Usually, customers who have several devices whose licenses need to be managed use Cisco License Manager. This software can be installed on different operating systems and can do the following:

• Communicates with Cisco’s Product License Registration Portal
• Communicates with network devices to install licenses and activate the proper feature sets

This is more of a plug-and-play way to manage the licences and also allows you to look at detailed information about what licenses are installed on which devices.

The other method to install licenses is manually. To do this, you will need information from the device on which the feature set will be installed.

Each device that supports licensing has a unique identifier called Unique Device Identifier (UDI). The UDI is composed of the Product ID (PID) and serial number (SN).

Another component that comes into place when a license is installed is the Product Authorization Key (PAK). This is the proof that the license was purchased and it is used in combination with the UDI to provide the license file (via email or direct download from the Cisco website).

Basically these are the steps to install a license file:

• At the Cisco Product License Registration Portal, provide the UDI and the PAK.
• Copy the license file to the router/switch.
• Reload the router/switch to activate the license.

You can find the UDI of the device using the command “show license udi”:

As you can see, this is a Cisco 2911 and you can see from the above output the PID and the SN.

To find out what feature sets you can install on the device, you need to use the command “show licence feature”:

As you can see, we only have the ipbasek9 license installed which is the default.

If you want to know more about the license installed, you can use “show license detail” command to find what type of license it is and for how long you will be able to use it.

Install License Cisco 2911 Router Configuration

The above output was taken from Packet Tracer, but it is not that much different from the output from a real device. As you can see, the “security9k” feature set is an evaluation license and it is inactive.

There are two types of licenses: permanent and right to use licenses. Packet Tracer doesn’t support permanent license installation, not even as a test. The permanent ones are the licenses downloaded from the Cisco website and once they are installed, they will never expire. The right to use licenses are evaluation licenses. This means that you can install them for a predefined period of time so you can test the features from the feature set before deciding whether or not to purchase the license.

This is how you install a permanent license for the data9k feature set (you will need to have the file copied on a USB flash drive):

After a reboot, you should see something similar when you are checking the details for the feature sets:

Install License Cisco 2911 Router Setup

As you can see, the license is active.

Cisco 2911 Manual

How do you install a right to use license? You will need to use this command and then choose the feature set that you want to test:

The license will be added in the configuration file and it will be active after rebooting the device:

After the reboot, you can see that security9k is enabled and that it is an evaluation (right to use) license and not a permanent one.

These are the details about how long the license will be active (remember that this output was taken from Packet Tracer and the output from a real device might be slightly different).

One other way to check what licenses are installed on the device is to use “show version” command and then look for this:

And that would be all on managing Cisco IOS licensing. We saw how the old software licensing model worked and how it differs from the current one. We saw how to install a permanent and right to use license on a Cisco 2900 platform.

Working with licenses is not a technically complicated job but rather an administrative burden. If you have many devices where licenses need to be installed, most likely Cisco License Manager will be your friend. Otherwise, you will have to use the manual approach and install the licenses one by one.

References:

1. Cisco CCNA Routing and Switching ICND2 200-101 Official Cert Guide – Wendell Odom