Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide 373
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Time-based licenses 16

Upgrade/downgrade considerations

When a Slot-based license is present on the switch, firmware downgrade to pre-Fabric OS v6.3.0 is
allowed, but the Slot-based features that were licensed will not be functional.

Adding a license to a slot

1. Connect to the switch and log in using an account assigned to the admin role.
2. Enter the licenseSlotCfg -add command to add the license the appropriate slot.

Removing a license from a slot

To remove a Slot-based license from a blade slot and move the license to another slot, the following
steps must be performed:
1. Connect to the switch and log in using an account assigned to the admin role.
2. You must deconfigure the application that uses the licensed feature on the blade slot.
3. The Slot-based license feature must be deconfigured.
4. Enter the licenseSlotCfg -remove command to remove the license from slot.

Time-based licenses

A Time-based license applies a try-before-you-buy approach to certain features so that you can
experience the feature and its capabilities prior to buying the license. Once you have installed the
license, you are given a time limit to use the feature. The following lists the types of licenses that
have this feature:
10GbE license
Advanced Extension
Advanced FICON Acceleration license
Adaptive Networking
Advanced Performance Monitoring
Fabric
Fabric Watch
Extended Fabric
High Performance Extension over FCIP/FC
Integrated Routing
Trunking
If you downgrade your switch to a version earlier than 6.1.0, the Time-based license will no longer
be available. The license will remain on the switch, but you will not be able to use it.
Once the Time-base license is installed you cannot change the time of the switch until the
Time-based license is removed. To change the time, you must remove the license, change the date,
and then re-install the license on the switch. However, if there is any other mechanism that exists to
change time, such as NTP, then it is not blocked. If you are using NTP to synchronize the time
between your network devices, including switches or enterprise-class platforms, then do not
attempt to change system date and time when a time-based license is installed.