Overview

Smart Software Licensing enables you to manage and monitor Cisco Content Security Management appliance licenses seamlessly. To activate Smart Software licensing, you must register your appliance with Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM) which is the centralized database that maintains the licensing details about all the Cisco products that you purchase and use. With Smart Licensing, you can register with a single token rather than registering them individually on the website using Product Authorization Keys (PAKs).

Once you register the appliance, you can track your appliance licenses and monitor license usage through the CSSM portal. The Smart Agent installed on the appliance connects the appliance with CSSM and passes the license usage information to the CSSM to track the consumption.

See https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/technology/mesh/8-2/b_Smart_Licensing_Deployment _Guide.html to know about Cisco Smart Software Manager.

• Make sure that your appliance has internet connectivity.

• Contact Cisco sales team to create a smart account in Cisco Smart Software Manager portal (https://software.cisco.com/#module/SmartLicensing) or install a Cisco Smart Software Manager Satellite on your network.

  See https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/technology/mesh/8-2/b_Smart_Licensing_ Deployment_Guide.html to know more about Cisco Smart Software Manager user account creation or installing a Cisco Smart Software Manager Satellite.

  For users who do not want to directly send the license usage information to the internet, the Smart Software Manager Satellite can be installed on the premises, and it provides a subset of CSSM functionality. Once you download and deploy the satellite application, you can manage licenses locally and securely without sending data to CSSM using the internet. The CSSM Satellite periodically transmits the information to the cloud.

  Note	If you want to use Smart Software Manager Satellite, use Smart Software Manager Satellite Enhanced Edition 6.1.0.

• The existing users of classical licenses (traditional) should migrate their classical licenses to smart licenses.

  See https://video.cisco.com/detail/video/5841741892001/convert-classic-licenses-to-smart-licenses?autoStart=true&q=classic.

• The system clock of the appliance must be in sync with that of the CSSM. Any deviation in the system clock of the appliance with that of the CSSM, will result in failure of smart licensing operations.