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9-5
Cisco MDS 9000 Family Fabric Manager Configuration Guide
OL-6965-03, Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.x
Chapter 9 Obtaining and Installing Licenses
Licensing Model

Licensing High Availability

As with other Cisco MDS SAN-OS features, the licensing feature also maintains the following high
availability standards for all switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family:
•Installing any license in any switch is a nondisruptive process.
•Installing a license automatically saves a copy of permanent licenses to the chassis in all switches.
•Enabling a license feature without a license key starts a counter on the grace period. You then have
120 days to install the appropriate license keys or disable the use of that feature. If at the end of the
120 day grace period the switch does not have a valid license key for the feature, the feature is
automatically disabled by the switch.
Directors in the Cisco MDS 9500 Series have the following additional high availability features:
•The license software runs on both supervisor modules and provides failover protection.
•The license key file is mirrored on both supervisor modules. Even if both supervisor modules fail,
the license file continues to function from the version that is available on the chassis.
Fabric Manager Server
(FM_SERVER_PKG)
•Multiple physical fabric management
•Centralized fabric discovery services
•Continuous MDS health and event monitoring
•Long term historical Fibre Channel performance monitoring
•Performance reports and charting for hotspot analysis
•Web-based operational view
•Fabric Manager Web Client for operational view
•Performance Thresholds
•Fabric Manager server proxy services
Storage Services Enabler •Provides the underlying infrastructure and programmatic
interface to enable network-based storage applications when
used with the Advanced Services Modules (ASMs) and Storage
Services Modules (SSMs).
•The network-based storage applications running on the ASM
and SSM that require the SSE license are as follows:
–
VERITAS STorage Foundation for Networks
•The intelligent fabric applications running on the SSM that
require the SSE license are as follows:
–
SANTap
–
Network-Accelerated Serverless Backup (NASB)
–
Third-party partner applications
Table 9-1 Feature-Based Licenses (continued)
Feature License Features