Reserve Licenses

License reservation is a feature mostly used in highly secure networks.

Specific license reservation (SLR) is a manual feature which allows you to reserve software license(s) on your device (product instance) through CSSM.

Factory installed license reservation is an automatic feature which allows you to reserve software license(s) on your device without connecting to Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM). The authorization code will be preinstalled on your device before leaving the factory. CSSM automatically shows the device as reserving licenses after ship confirmation of the order.

Any time you attempt to reserve licenses on a product instance, you are allowed to reserve only the available quantity of licenses in the virtual account.

Note	Please note: If the device (product instance) has the option of reserving reporting only licenses, CSSM will allow for reserving an unlimited quantity of such licenses.

Once the Specific PLR flag has been set to Enable, you can reserve licenses by clicking License Reservation under Inventory → Licenses. This will open the Smart License Reservation screen where you will go through either a 4- or 5-step process to reserve licenses. When the Add to Inventory flag is set to Enabled (see License Configuration in the Preferences section) and when the product for which you are reserving licenses is entitled to have additional licences, then the reservation becomes a 5-step process.

Procedure


Step 1	Enter Request Code You can reserve licenses for product instances that are unable to connect to the internet for security reasons. To reserve licenses, you must have a surplus of the licenses in the Virtual Account and also have generated a Reservation Request Code from the Product Instance that will be using the licenses. You can manually enter (copy/paste) the Reservation Request Code or click Browse to search for the file and then Upload. Click Next.
Step 2	Add to Inventory (Visible only when the product for which you are reserving licenses is entitled to have additional licenses, otherwise this step is omitted and the reservation becomes a 4-step process.) The licenses that are available to add are displayed in table format with the following column headers: License (name) Expires Available Add to Inventory In the Add to Inventory column, enter the number of licenses to add to your inventory in the field(s) provided. These licenses can then be used by this product by reservation and can also be used by other product instances in the future. Please note: This action can be performed only once per license per product instance.
Step 3	Select Licenses The surplus licenses are displayed in table format with the following column headers: License (name) Description Expires Available Quantity to Reserve Under Licenses to Reserve, depending on the number and/or type of licenses you have, choose Reserve a specific license by clicking either the appropriate radio button or the Reserve drop-down menu. A grid displays a list of standard (perpetual and term) and reporting only (perpetual) licenses that are in inventory (including the quantities added in the Add to Inventory step above, if any). Reserving standard licenses is limited to the quantity in the Available column. Reserving reporting only licenses have no quantity limitations. The Expires column provides additional information for the available perpetual and/or terms licenses on the Product Instance with the: Expiration date for term licenses Never status for perpetual licenses Multiple terms (link) when there is a combination of perpetual and term licenses or terms with different expiration dates To reserve licenses, enter the number in the Quantity to Reserve field. Please note: leaving the field blank is assumed to be zero (0). For the licenses that have multiple terms, the you have the option to click on the multiple terms link to see a breakdown of the licenses that comprise the available quantity and can enter/adjust the number in the Quantity to Reserve field.The Total Quantity to Reserve cannot exceed the value displayed under Maximum. Please note: For standard licenses, the quantity cannot exceed the value under the Available column. Reporting only licenses can be reserved in unlimited quantities. Click Next.
Step 4	Review and Confirm Review and confirm the selected licenses and quantity. If edits are needed, click Back to go to the previous step. To review the licenses selected for reservation also to be added to inventory, you can toggle between Licenses to Reserve and Licenses To be added to Inventory by clicking on the respective tab links. Please note: If you did not click on the multiple terms link in Select Licenses step above to adjust the quantities, this link will not be clickable in this step. Click Generate Authorization Code.
Step 5	Authorization Code After clicking Generate Authorization Code in Review and Confirm step above, the reservation has been successful. Please note: If you did not click the multiple terms link to adjust the quantities, the system will default to the perpetual licenses being reserved first followed by term licenses that end with the furthest expiration date. The Reservation Authorization Code has been generated. It will need to be entered into the product instance’s Smart Licensing settings in order to complete the reservation. When the code has been entered, a Reservation Confirmation Code is generated. The Authorization Code can either be downloaded as a text file (XML) by clicking Download as File or copied by clicking Copy to Clipboard. Click Close.

Note	Only when the reporting only licenses are reserved, will they display in the license pool as reserved. If the product instance that is reserving reporting only licenses is deleted, the licenses will not be released back to the license pool.