One of the nice things about SAN-OS (and also NX-OS) is that you can enable features, even if you do not have full licenses installed. What happens is the devices come with a “try before you buy” licensing model where you can try out the features for I believe 120 days. Here is a bit on how this works:

1. This is known as Grace Licensing, think “Grace Period”, and it allows you to use the feature without actually having a license installed.

2. It is limited to 120 days. This means that the countdown starts as soon as the feature is activated. For example, as soon as you enable FCIP, the “SAN Extension” license would start counting down.

3. If you disable a feature, the countdown stops.

4. The countdown only keeps going while the feature is active. So if you power down the device or disable the feature the countdown stops.

What this means is you end up with 120 days of “run time”, not 120 days of “calendar time. This is great news for working in the lab.

One of the issues with buying used equipment, or using lab equipment, is that at some point someone may have used up all the grace licensing. The grace licensing status is stored on the SPROM. And it is possible to actually clear this out. In fact, in earlier versions of SAN-OS doing an “init system” would clear the grace licensing.

“init system” is done at the (boot) prompt. Its very destructive, as it wipes out all code, kickstart, system, and configuration. So no one in their right mind would run this in production, as its very disruptive to do so (every 120 days!). However, Cisco decided to remove this functionality for whatever reason. So if you run out of grace license you are hosed.

Now a 9216a costs maybe $400 (give or take) on ebay. What does licensing cost? Well, if you factor in all the licenses: MAINFRAME, FM SERVER, SAN EXT, ENTERPRISE, etc. Its about $80,000 list. Yes, that’s right, you will pay At least $40,000 or so to turn on all the licensing on your $400 9216a .

There is a way however. A way for those who have labs. Like most of the information on my site, you can’t get this by searching the Internet, or asking TAC, the truth is most TAC engineers are not actually aware of this.

There is a command “clear license sprom 0″ I believe, and that is an interesting command. What is more interesting is actually going into the OS itself, and looking at the scripts/executables which show how the licensing is setup, and how it can be….manipulated. The licensing was in part written by Macrovision (remember those old Cable TV scramblers?). In any case, no need to mess with the shell or sprom. Here is the easy way.

1. Get to the (boot) prompt
2. issue the “init system” command.
3. Once completed reboot
4. You will need to treat this like a MDS with no code, after all you just wiped out everything on it. Download SAN-OS 3.2(1a). Load it onto the MDS.
5. Do the install all procedure to get the kickstart and system images all hooked up and working.
6. Reboot
7. Drop to the (boot) prompt, re-issue “init system”
8. Now reboot and re-install 3.3(5) (or whatever you like)
9. Grace licenses should be reset.

Now I ask that no one do something stupid like try to run this in production. This is for LAB study. This takes time, its not fun to do. However, I will tell you that the average SAN study student will only need to do this at most 1 time. I believe it takes roughly 350-500 hours of on rack time to be fully prepared for the CCIE Storage lab. 120 days of actual runtime is ALOT more than that. So no worries.

If this was helpful please share your comments.

Best of luck!

Something came over me the last few days and I was hell bent on picking up a guitar.  So I set off on a search that included 3 Sam Ash’s in South Florida and 3 Guitar Centers, and all of Craigslist.  I did not have much luck with Craigslist.  Many people are just very unresponsive, and I also worried about the condition of some of the instruments.  I decided that I really wanted a Fender Stratocaster (SSS) and set out to find one.

I found one in Lake Placid Blue at Sam Ash in Margate, Fl.  I was really happy with this purchase.  To go with it, I found a VOX VT20+ amp on Craigslist for a great deal.  Really like that amp, has a tube for the pre-amp stage and uses solid state for the finals, for a real nice sound.  It’s a modeling amp similar to the Line 6 Spider series.  I am not new to music, as I have been playing piano and keyboards since I was about 14, not constantly but on and off.  So all the music theory is a breeze for me and I am just concentrating on getting my fingers in order.

So it wasn’t before long, that I realized it was something Scarlett and I could enjoy doing together and so she got a guitar too.  A Fender Stratocaster (Black Top, HH) with a Fender Mustang II modeling amp.  The amp is very cool, you can plug it into your computer via USB and download the presets into it, which is a pretty neat feature, its 40 watts too so has some good power for practicing.

Picked up Guitar for Dummies and a few other books, ordered the Gibson Learn and Master Guitar DVD’s, which look very promising, a chord and exercise book, and was set.  Spent the last few days learning basic open chords like A, Am, E, Em, C, G, D, F…….and basically practicing chord progressions trying to get my fingers to toughen up, which could take weeks or months.

Also through the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos on my iPod, some of which I was familiar with but a lot of it I was not, so it gives me a whole new way to look at music.  So I am pretty stoked about this.  Below is a picture of my Guitar:

Fender Stratocaster and Vox VT20+ amp

I sold my CCIE storage lab as there was no practical reason to keep it after passing and have purchased a new lab, this time a fitness lab. At the heart of it is the Powertec Power Rack with Lat Attachment, Powertec Utility Bench, and leg attachment. I put down 3/8″ commercial gym flooring, flecked black, Tamita Scale, Bowflex SelectTech 552 dumbbells and finally a True PS300 treadmill.

So far it’s really working out well. I have already dropped several pant sizes in a few months, lost about 10 lbs total and gained a good bit of muscle mass.

Here are some pics:

Also I am taking some supplements.  Universal Animal Pack vitamin pack, L-Glucosimine, BSN NO-Xplode (pre-workout), BSN Cellmass (creatine, post-workout), Syntrax Nectar (protein, post-workout).  These seem to work out well.  I have also been trying to keep it at 1400 calories or less, and typically I have been doing less.

My short run is up to 2mi now and I hope to steadily start raising that.  It took about 2 months before I got through all the soreness with running, lots of core strengthening my legs had to do.  I am also mixing in some in-line skating which is still pretty good cardio but not nearly as hard on my joints.