Weird Appxk9 license active

[GarryG]

Hi,

we have a weird case of unwanted license package activity ...
To begin with, we have a decent number of ISR routers out at customers, so it's not our first rodeo ... one of the sites recently had an upgrade of their WAN link, in order to actually use it we needed to upgrade their 4331 to a more current IOS (16.12.4), and activate the booster throughput. This worked fine initially, though at some point a colleague noticed the box had the Application license active. Which is weird because I never activated it - AND the router still said it had boost performance license running (which shouldn't work together with Appxk9). We did some tests and can't get the stupid license package to deactivate - the only thing we got to change is that the box is no longer running the booster license ...

There is no "license boot level ..." command in the config, adding it with the appxk9, rebooting, then removing and rebooting again didn't help. We still get it as "next reboot" option ..

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Technology    Technology-package           Technology-package
             Current       Type           Next reboot   
------------------------------------------------------------------
appxk9           appxk9           Smart License    appxk9
uck9             None             Smart License    None
securityk9       None             Smart License    None
ipbase           ipbasek9         Smart License    ipbasek9

Any idea what might be wrong here? We're almost at the point of replacing the router, but would like to avoid the trouble ... (though, considering what we already tried, probably less trouble than trying to fix this without having a clue ...)

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

I think you might be running into the bug below (FoundationSuiteK9 is being mentioned, but the same thing probably applies to appxk9 as well).

Unable to disable FoundationSuiteK9 suite when SLR enabled
CSCvx46507
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Description
Symptom:
show license summary is reporting a status of "NOT AUTHORIZED" due to Foundation Smart license not being purchased with the device yet is enabled.

When attempting to disable the Foundation Smart license you get the following errors:
Router(config)#no license boot suite foundationSuiteK9
License Configuration for suite feature FoundationSuiteK9 is not accepted due to unavailability of the license in SLR mode
%PARSE_RC-4-PRC_NON_COMPLIANCE: `no license boot suite foundationSuiteK9 '

Conditions:
license boot suite FoundationSuiteK9 is configured
show run | i boot or show version

Using SLR (Smart License Reservation)
show license summary
Registration:
Status: REGISTERED - SPECIFIC LICENSE RESERVATION

Workaround:
Must return reserved Smart Licenses following our documentation
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/smart-licensing/qsg/b_Smart_Licensing_QuickStart/b_Smart_Licensing_QuickStart_chapter_01000.html#id_105438

Remove the license boot level:
conf t
no license boot suite FoundationSuiteK9
exit

Reactivate your SLR per our documentation, set proper license boot levels (if applicable), save config, and reload
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/smart-licensing/qsg/b_Smart_Licensing_QuickStart/b_Smart_Licensing_QuickStart_chapter_01000.html#id_106617

Have a look at the thread below:

https://community.cisco.com/t5/cisco-one-discussions/unable-to-remove-ciscoone-foundationsuitek9-advucsuitek9-when/td-p/4275834

[GarryG]

We're not using any license reservation ... the "license boot" line isn't even present ... we now reset the smart license registration and will see whether that maybe fixed it ... 

[GarryG]

Getting even worse ... in order to get the booster license activated again, we replaced the router.

I now have the "weird one" here with me ... even a "erase startup" didn't help ... still booting the appxk9 license (along with the throughput)

Even erasing the nvram - no change. Still both appxk9 and throughput license are still used.

Booted an old IOS, got this:

Router#show license feature  
Feature name             Enforcement  Evaluation  Subscription   Enabled  RightToUse  
appxk9                   yes          yes         no             yes      yes         
uck9                     yes          yes         no             no       yes         
securityk9               yes          yes         no             no       yes         
ipbasek9                 no           no          no             yes      no         

Still can't see where the appxk9 is selected to be used ...

Tried using a 16.9 to possibly get some conversion to smart license done, though when doing that, it says the appxk9 was out of compliance, even though 16.4 said it was a permanent license ... WTF?

[GarryG]

And the weirdness continues ...

After downgrading to 16.9, I was finally able to first select appxk9 as boot level, reboot, then remove the command, and after the following reboot, appxk9 was finally not used anymore.

Until I re-installed 16.12.5 ... even though the boot level command was not present in the config, the system once again reverted to using it ...
Now tried 17.3, same behavior, except that now even with appxk9 enabled, I can still use boost mode for unthrottled throughput ...

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

very odd indeed. I don't want to be cheap. but I would just contact Licensing Support:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/licensing/licensing-support.html