Building up our first UCS / Nexus design has been fun, but several times now when we thought we were done, one of the Cisco guys will point out a “Licence” we’re missing for some fundamental function.
I’ve never been a fan of hardware-based licensing (the concept that you buy hardware cheaper and turn on features with Licenses)…and Cisco is particularly fond of this sort of thing. While some may point out that it lets you get some hardware at less cost if you don’t need the features activated by the licenses, my experience has always been one of buying something based on the feature list, and then after discussing cost it comes up late in the purchasing process (or sometimes after it has been bought) that a feature we really need requires an expensive license added on.
Sometimes I think it’s intentionally misleading. If the hardware just cost what it would if there were no licenses involved, I might look at other options.
The concept isn’t going anywhere (especially with Cisco) though, so the best defence is to just ask about what licences are available / required early in the evaluation process.
When looking at the Nexus Switches and the UCS platform, there are Four different licenses to keep in mind:
- Layer 3 Advanced License
- Storage Protocol Services (SPS)
- Datacenter Network Manager (DCNM) License
- Fabric Interconnect Port Licenses
Here is some information on what each one of these is for:
Layer 3 Advanced License
Part Number: N55-LAN1K9=
Approximate Cost: ~$7000.00 US
One of the major features of the Nexus 5500 series switches over the older 5000 series is the capability to add a Layer-3 daughtercard or module to add Layer-3 networking capabilities. When you purchase this addon card you get a “Layer 3 Base License” included. You can expand the Layer 3 capabilities with a Layer 3 Advanced License. A feature comparison is below:
| Feature License | Part Number | Features |
| Layer 3 Base Services Package (LAN_BASE_SERVICES_PKG) |
N55-BAS1K9= |
Note: OSPF scalability is limited to 256 dynamically learned routes |
| Layer 3 Enterprise Services Package (LAN_ENTERPRISE_SERVICES_PKG) |
N55-LAN1K9= |
|
Storage Protocol Services (SPS) License
Part Number: N55-8P-SSK9 (Nexus 5500 Series, 8 ports)
Approximate Cost: ~$2000.00 US
The Nexus 5000/5500 series switches are capable of acting as full Fibre Channel / FCoE storage switches, and if you’re using them with UCS in many cases this is one of the huge selling features of these devices. A Storage Services license is required for every 8 ports you plan to use for direct storage connectivity (that means connecting to SAN devices, not hosts). With this license you get everything you would expect from an MDS series Fibre Channel Switch.
Datacenter Network Manager License
Part Number: (several)
Approximate Cost: ~$6000.00 US (DCNM for SAN, Advanced Edition)
This one is a management software package that strictly speaking isn’t ever necessary; it just makes it easier to configure your switches. It’s a consolidation of a couple different packages Cisco used to have for managing SAN and LAN environments. You can read a bit more about it Here.
DCNM is still sold in different editions, despite the intention to make it a unified tool. With MDS switches you get “DCNM for SAN, Essentials Edition” for free; with Nexus switches you get “DCNM for LAN, Essentials Edition” for free. There is then a licence you can purchase for “DCNM for SAN, Advanced Edition” and “DCNM for LAN, Advanced Edition”.
DCNM for SAN Advanced Edition adds capabilities such as performance monitoring and trending, virtual machine-aware path analysis, event forwarding, and management across multiple data centers.
DCNM for LAN Advanced Edition adds capabilities such as configuration management, image management, virtual device contexts (VDCs), and Cisco FabricPath.
Fabric Interconnect Port Licenses
Part Number: N10-L001
Approximate Cost: ~$1400.00 US
The UCS system currently can be configured with one of two models of Fabric Interconnects, which are the brains behind the UCS system. The 6120XP has 20 ports (plus a single expansion slot), where the 6140XP has 40 ports (and two expansion slots). The catch here is that you can’t use all those ports out of the box due to “port licensing”. The 6120XP has only 8 ports licensed for “free”, where the 6140XP has 16 ports licensed. These are not licensed for specific uses, they are needed if you use ports for anything at all (switch uplinks, chassis downlinks, etc). If you’re attaching a UCS to a switch using only 1GB uplinks, you’re in for an especially nasty shock since you likely need to use a lot more ports for this purpose.
For each additional port you wish to use, you need to pay for a port license at about $1400.00 US a pop. In my opinion, this is a ridiculous requirement.
It should be noted that when you add any of the expansion modules, all ports on those modules are licensed. The modules are all around $2000.00 or so in price, so this can be a much more effective expansion option for smaller setups. The only caveat is that ports on expansion modules cannot be used for chassis downlinks; they can be used for uplinks out of the UCS system only.