Brocade Fabric OS Software Licensing Guide (Supporting Fabric OS v7.3.0) - Manual (Page 11)

Software Licensing Overview
● Licensing overview............................................................................................................9
● How software licensing works........................................................................................... 9
● License types.................................................................................................................. 10
● Software licensing terminology....................................................................................... 10
● Obtaining a license..........................................................................................................10
● Viewing software license information from the Brocade licensing portal........................ 13
Licensing overview
Feature licenses are often part of the licensed paper pack supplied with your switch software; if not,
they can be purchased separately from your switch vendor, who provides the transaction keys to
activate the associated feature or features. Each product, each feature, and each individual switch
within a fabric requires its own license key.
Licenses may be associated with a feature version. If a feature has a version-based license, that license
is valid only for a particular version of the feature. If you want a newer version of the feature, you must
purchase a new license. If a license is not version-based, then it is valid for all versions of the feature.
Likewise, if you downgrade Fabric OS to an earlier version, some licenses associated with specific
features of the version you are downgrading may not work.
Fabric OS includes basic switch and fabric support software, and support for optionally licensed
software that is enabled using license keys.
Refer to Available Fabric OS licenses on page 15 for the list of the optionally licensed features that
are available in Fabric OS.
How software licensing works
A permanent license (for select features on specific units) can be ordered pre-installed in a Brocade
switch when first shipped from the factory, or later ordered and installed. 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 you by Brocade as proof of purchase. The transaction key
and license ID (LID) of the Brocade switch are used to generate a license key from the Brocade
software licensing portal. The license key is contained within the license file, which is downloaded to
your PC. You can add the license key to a switch using the licenseAdd command.
Once a license is installed on the Brocade Fabric OS switch, the licensed feature is generally available
immediately without requiring to reboot the switch. However, some licenses may require that you reboot
the switch to activate the license; the licenseAdd command will prompt you to reboot the switch. For
the port-related licenses, use the portEnable command to enable a port, or disable and re-enable the
switch to make all newly added ports available simultaneously.
When a temporary license expires, the commands and CLI related to the feature are disabled, but the
feature itself cannot be disabled until the system reloads.
Fabric OS Software Licensing Guide 9
53-1003139-01