Brocade FastIron Ethernet Switch Software Licensing Guide - Manual (Page 9)

Software Licensing Overview
● Software licensing overview..............................................................................................7
● How software licensing works........................................................................................... 7
● Seamless transition for legacy devices............................................................................. 8
● License types.................................................................................................................... 8
● Software licensing terminology......................................................................................... 8
● Licensing rules.................................................................................................................. 9
● Viewing software license information from the Brocade software portal.........................11
● Obtaining a license..........................................................................................................12
Software licensing overview
Prior to the introduction of software licensing, Brocade supported hardware-based licensing, where an
EEPROM was used to upgrade a Layer 2 or base Layer 3 switch to a premium or advanced Layer 3
switch. With the introduction of software licensing, one or more valid software licenses are required to
run licensed features on the device.
Software licensing is designed to work together with hardware-based licensing. The first release of
software licensing employed a combination of hardware-based and software licensing. A Brocade
device can use hardware-based licensing, software licensing, or both. Current releases that support
software licensing use software licensing only, eliminating the need for a customer- or factory-installed
EEPROM on the management module or switch backplane.
Software licensing provides increased scalability and rapid deployment of hardware and software
features on the supported Brocade family of switches. For example, for premium upgrades, it is no
longer necessary to physically open the chassis and install an EEPROM to upgrade the system.
Instead, the Web is used to generate, download, and install a software license that enables premium
features on the device.
NOTE
An ICX device only supports software licensing. Hardware-based licensing is not supported on ICX
devices.
How software licensing works
A permanent license (for select features on specific units) can be ordered pre-installed in a Brocade
device when first shipped from the factory, or later ordered and installed by the customer. In either case,
additional licenses can be ordered as needed.
When a license is ordered separately (not pre-installed), an entitlement certificate or e-mail message,
along with a transaction key, are issued to the customer by Brocade as proof of purchase. The
transaction key and license ID (LID) of the Brocade device are used to generate a license key from the
Brocade software portal. The license key is contained within a license file, which is downloaded to the
FastIron Ethernet Switch Software Licensing Guide 7
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