HOWTO license a Nexus SWITCH

This post will show you the few & simple steps with licensing a feature license on Nexus switch. The process is non-service impacting and takes approx 5 mins or  even less.


1st you need to find your license information as provided via the reseller. Take note of the circled info.

NOTE: The PAK is provided and will be applied to the device via serial #

Now, you need to  browse over to the cisco activiation website and fill in a few details such as the device PAK id and serial number of the device. You can use the "show inventory" cmd for gaining your system serial#.

Upon completion,   you will receive the license file in a zip format via the email associated to your CCO profile, just unzip the file copy the license.lic file to the device via SCP or some other means.

Now the fun part begins;

1:  make a backup of the running cfg ( copy run start ) and ( copy run bootflash:mybackup.cfg )

2:  backup your existing license via the  ( copy license  ) cmd;

note: the file-name specified has to end with an  .tar  extension or the system will fail.  If  you  try to backup against a name already defined, it too will fail also


3:  now you can install the new license that you copy to the device from bootflash or usb1; or wherever  you have it installed;

If you ever should need to remove a license, repeat the backup steps mentions above, but now use the following command;

Ken Felix
NSE ( Network Security Expert) and Route/Switching Engineer.
kfelix  -----a----t---- socpuppets ---dot---com

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