If you are using Cisco’s Nexus platform in your virtual labs you may run into the issue where you cannot enable any of the features. In my case I get an output of “Feature grace period is disabled”. In this post we are going to cover how to license the Cisco Nexus device for a free trial period to allow you to use it and all of its features within your virtual lab environment.

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1. SECTION I – Feature grace period is disabled
   1. FIGURE 1 – Unable to Enable OSPF Feature
2. SECTION II – Enable Free Trial License on Nexus Platform
3. SECTION III – Enable Features on Nexus Platform
   1. FIGURE 2 – Enable OSPF Feature

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SECTION I – Feature grace period is disabled

In the below figure you can see I am trying to enable the OSPF feature on the Nexus device but I just get the following error:

Feature grace period is disabled

FIGURE 1 – Unable to Enable OSPF Feature

SECTION II – Enable Free Trial License on Nexus Platform

The issue seen in the Section I is caused by the Nexus platform not being licensed. Now I am assuming like me you aren’t going to have lots of Cisco Nexus licenses just sitting around waiting to be used in your virtual networking lab. Even so we still need to get it licensed. Luckily you can enable a trial or evaluation license that gives you 120 days of use on the device.

In order to enable the trial or evaluation license enter the following command in the global configuration mode:

license grace-period

SECTION III – Enable Features on Nexus Platform

Now that the grace period license is enabled you can run the following command to enable the features you want from the global configuration mode:

feature (feature name)

FIGURE 2 – Enable OSPF Feature