Why is Cisco Licensing so terrible?
Well, it's been a while since I've written anything here. Since my last post, a lot of things have happened. One of those things perfectly illustrates a poorly thought out aspect of Cisco Licensing, especially for Unified Communications running on VMware. I've believed forever that using the Primary DNS and NTP servers as part of the License MAC generation was a bad idea, but I never really thought about how unpleasant it could be.
I recently traveled to Brazil to deploy our UC-on-UCS environment there, and built out all of the servers. When I first arrived onsite, I contacted our systems team and requested they send me the DNS/NTP information that I would need to use for the build (and licensing). They sent me the information without any hassle, which was a huge bonus. Fast forward, installation is done, I'm back home, and I set up RTMT. Low and behold, I'm getting alarms that the Primary NTP server is inaccessible. Hmmm, that's odd, but sure enough, I can't ping it. So, I contact the systems team and ask what's wrong with the NTP server. Oh, there isn't anything wrong with it, they just used a different IP address when they installed it. Wait, what? But you sent me the IP information while I was onsite, how did it change so quickly? Well, they actually built out the NTP server while I was onsite, since it wasn't already live. When they did, they realized that they allocated an IP address from the DMZ instead of the Internal network, and so they had to assign a different IP address...
So now, here I sit, with a completely installed and in-production UC system, that needs a DNS/NTP server change, and doing so will invalidate my licenses. Awesome. Better than that, Cisco's Answer File Generator bites, for multiple reasons.
1) When I change from CUCM to CUC, for some inexplicable reason, the AFG changes from Virtual Machine to Physical Server. Why? If this setting is tied to the Product, then the Product should be listed first, not second.
2) I need to generate a License MAC for a redundant Unity Connection server, and I've never been able to get this to work right for some reason. If I actually list it as a second node, it shows the same License MAC for both boxes, which certainly isn't right. If I try to create the second node just using the regular settings, the resultant License MAC certainly doesn't match up to what the Production box has now, so obviously it's not going to match after I change my settings.
Cisco: this is stupid. Please remove the License MAC tie to NTP/DNS (and SMTP Location); it's a lame dependency that is not always under my control. I've worked for several companies now where these functions are managed by other teams, and communication is never as good as it should be. The other setting that I think is lousy: NIC Speed/Duplex. Granted this setting should never change in a Virtual Environment, but if it does have to change for some unusual reason (let's say you upgraded your host from 1 Gig to 10 Gig uplinks, that would also affect the virtual link speed), it's a really silly reason to have to get a new License.
At least fix the crummy AFG so that it actually works.
Now, let's move on to Tandberg Licensing. We ordered 5 C40s and an EX60 for our offices in Brazil, and for some reason, we are missing SmartNet on them. Either we somehow didn't buy it (even though it was on the Quote), or our VAR jacked something up. That part is still a mystery that will apparently never be solved - no one can seem to produce anything showing what we actually bought, and our account folks from the VAR speak minimal English, so they can't even understand what we are trying to tell them. So, whatever, I wrote it off as a lost cause; I'll fix it next year when I renew everything else.
So, I fire these bad boys up, only to discover that they are loaded with 4.x software. Ok, no problem, I'll just drop 5.x software on them and get a new release key - after all, they just arrived in the mail, so they should be under warranty at least. Guess what. Nope. Cisco (or Tandberg) apparently must start the warranty ticking the day that these things are ordered, and by the time you add in even the most insignificant lead time, these thing arrive on the doorstep with an expired warranty. Thankfully, I was able to bug enough people to get the appropriate release keys (thank you to whoever the product manager is), but come on - this is ridiculous.
First of all, in CCW, the only software that is even select able is 5.x software, but they ship with 4.x software, then you get all twitchy when I try to order the "upgrade"? Then the warranty is expired before I even get them? What kind of shady deal are you running here, Cisco? Thinking this was an anomaly, and something unique to International orders, we ordered two additional EX60s in the US. Guess what? The exact same thing happened. Shipped with 4.x software, warranty expired before they even arrived! VAR hadn't registered Smartnet yet, so I didn't have contract information. I was not happy, to say the least. So, I complained again, and again received new keys (again, thanks to the product manager). C'mon Cisco, this is bad. I don't care if the unit is covered by Warranty or SmartNet - if the product is only orderable with 5.x software, I should get a 5.x release key in the box, I shouldn't have to beg for it.
I recently traveled to Brazil to deploy our UC-on-UCS environment there, and built out all of the servers. When I first arrived onsite, I contacted our systems team and requested they send me the DNS/NTP information that I would need to use for the build (and licensing). They sent me the information without any hassle, which was a huge bonus. Fast forward, installation is done, I'm back home, and I set up RTMT. Low and behold, I'm getting alarms that the Primary NTP server is inaccessible. Hmmm, that's odd, but sure enough, I can't ping it. So, I contact the systems team and ask what's wrong with the NTP server. Oh, there isn't anything wrong with it, they just used a different IP address when they installed it. Wait, what? But you sent me the IP information while I was onsite, how did it change so quickly? Well, they actually built out the NTP server while I was onsite, since it wasn't already live. When they did, they realized that they allocated an IP address from the DMZ instead of the Internal network, and so they had to assign a different IP address...
So now, here I sit, with a completely installed and in-production UC system, that needs a DNS/NTP server change, and doing so will invalidate my licenses. Awesome. Better than that, Cisco's Answer File Generator bites, for multiple reasons.
1) When I change from CUCM to CUC, for some inexplicable reason, the AFG changes from Virtual Machine to Physical Server. Why? If this setting is tied to the Product, then the Product should be listed first, not second.
2) I need to generate a License MAC for a redundant Unity Connection server, and I've never been able to get this to work right for some reason. If I actually list it as a second node, it shows the same License MAC for both boxes, which certainly isn't right. If I try to create the second node just using the regular settings, the resultant License MAC certainly doesn't match up to what the Production box has now, so obviously it's not going to match after I change my settings.
Cisco: this is stupid. Please remove the License MAC tie to NTP/DNS (and SMTP Location); it's a lame dependency that is not always under my control. I've worked for several companies now where these functions are managed by other teams, and communication is never as good as it should be. The other setting that I think is lousy: NIC Speed/Duplex. Granted this setting should never change in a Virtual Environment, but if it does have to change for some unusual reason (let's say you upgraded your host from 1 Gig to 10 Gig uplinks, that would also affect the virtual link speed), it's a really silly reason to have to get a new License.
At least fix the crummy AFG so that it actually works.
Now, let's move on to Tandberg Licensing. We ordered 5 C40s and an EX60 for our offices in Brazil, and for some reason, we are missing SmartNet on them. Either we somehow didn't buy it (even though it was on the Quote), or our VAR jacked something up. That part is still a mystery that will apparently never be solved - no one can seem to produce anything showing what we actually bought, and our account folks from the VAR speak minimal English, so they can't even understand what we are trying to tell them. So, whatever, I wrote it off as a lost cause; I'll fix it next year when I renew everything else.
So, I fire these bad boys up, only to discover that they are loaded with 4.x software. Ok, no problem, I'll just drop 5.x software on them and get a new release key - after all, they just arrived in the mail, so they should be under warranty at least. Guess what. Nope. Cisco (or Tandberg) apparently must start the warranty ticking the day that these things are ordered, and by the time you add in even the most insignificant lead time, these thing arrive on the doorstep with an expired warranty. Thankfully, I was able to bug enough people to get the appropriate release keys (thank you to whoever the product manager is), but come on - this is ridiculous.
First of all, in CCW, the only software that is even select able is 5.x software, but they ship with 4.x software, then you get all twitchy when I try to order the "upgrade"? Then the warranty is expired before I even get them? What kind of shady deal are you running here, Cisco? Thinking this was an anomaly, and something unique to International orders, we ordered two additional EX60s in the US. Guess what? The exact same thing happened. Shipped with 4.x software, warranty expired before they even arrived! VAR hadn't registered Smartnet yet, so I didn't have contract information. I was not happy, to say the least. So, I complained again, and again received new keys (again, thanks to the product manager). C'mon Cisco, this is bad. I don't care if the unit is covered by Warranty or SmartNet - if the product is only orderable with 5.x software, I should get a 5.x release key in the box, I shouldn't have to beg for it.
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