In this post, we are going to go over a simple solution I have had to implement to solve a problem with Cisco Smart License Utility (CSLU) within an on prem Cisco Smart Software Manager (SSM) instance.

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1. Section I – The Problem
2. Section II – The Solution

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Section I – The Problem

I have an on premise Cisco SSM instance set up that I register all my virtual Cisco networking devices to. I am able to license the devices initially using Smart Transport as the method to license then. However, once the devices are licensed they switch over to using CSLU as their transport method.

For some reason, and I’m not sure if it is a bug or just my instance of SSM but, devices are unable to communicate with my SSM instance using CSLU. If i browse to the Smart Transport Application Programmable Interface(API) address it returns OK as you would expect. However, if I browse to the CSLU address it doesn’t return anything.

The main issue that this causes is now every month when my network devices try to re-authenticate their licenses they cannot communicate with the SSM server they are registered to. After a few attempt over a period of time the device will drop its license resulting in the device either going back into evaluation mode and throttling its throughput to 100Kbps or it will enter into restricted mode.

Section II – The Solution

As a quick solution to keep devices up and working and give myself some piece of mind that all the network devices aren’t going to drop their licenses soon I have implemented a simple Embedded Event Manager (EEM) script to take care of re-authenticating my license.

event manager applet LICENSE_RE_AUTH authorisation bypass
	event timer cron name WEEKLY cron-entry "0 1 * * 1"
    action 1.0 cli command "enable"
    action 1.1 cli command "conf t"
    action 1.2 cli command "license smart transport smart"
    action 1.3 cli command "license smart utrl https://hostname.domain/SmartTransport"
    action 1.4 cli command "exit"
    action 1.5 cli command "license smart renew auth"