My company just purchased an 8-pack On Demand port activation for two Cisco MDS 9124 SAN Fiber channel switches. We are currently adding additional VMware hosts with dual-port HBAs. Each host will be single connected to each fiber channel switch. In the future we might add additional HBAs so that each host is dual connected to each fiber channel switch. Which is why we have purchased two 8-packs from CDW.com (each fiber channel switch needs it’s own 8-pack) Before you start shooting down CDW, just know I don’t control the finances, so I don’t get to pick our vendors.

Purchasing the On Demand license is pretty straight forward. On each switch you’ll need the serial number for Cisco’s authentication methods. Each serial number gets assigned it’s own license that must match exactly. Open an SSH session on the fiber channel switch and do a show hardware.
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switch# sh hardware

  Switch is booted up
  Switch type is: MDS 9124 (1 Slot) Chassis
  Model Number is DS-C9124-K9
  H/W version is 5.1
  Part Number is 73-102934-09
  Part Revision is AO
  Manufacture Date is Year 14 Week 1
  Serial number is FOX2014TRKB
  CLEI code is COMTU10ARV

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Grab the serial number. Send it to your authorized reseller.

After the purchase is complete Cisco will send you an electronic EULA and On Demand license activation request. Paste the link for cisco.com/go/license and paste the activation request number and apply the license. You will receive a confirmation email as well as the instant download through cisco licensing portal. Download the zip file and unpack it.

Before you can add the license to the switch you’ll need a TFTP server to send the license file to the switch. I downloaded SolarWinds free TFTP server.

SolarWinds resources: SolarWinds TFTP Server Download

After it’s installed it will create a folder on your PC in c:\TFTP-Root which will be the root folder for the TFTP server. Copy the license file to this new location. Make sure you start the TFTP Server Service (UDP – 69). Open an SSH session and copy the license file and install it.

Copy the license file from the TFTP server to bootflash (persitent storage)
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switch# copy tftp://172.0.0.1/name_of_license_file.lic bootflash:/

Trying to connect to tftp server.....
Connection to server Established. Copying Started.....
|
TFTP get operation was successful

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Install the license
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switch# install license bootflash:name_of_license_file.lic 
Installing license ......done

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Now that the new port license is installed you need to verify that it is working.
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switch# show license 
name_of_license_file.lic:
SERVER this_host ANY
VENDOR cisco
INCREMENT MAINFRAME_PKG cisco 1.0 permanent uncounted \
	      HOSTID=FOX0646S017 \
        NOTICE="<LicFileID></LicFileID><LicLineID>0</LicLineID> \
        <PAK>dummyPak</PAK>" SIGN=EE9F91EA4B64

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Cisco resources:  Obtaining and Installing Licenses