Converting PAKs to Smart Licenses

First, convert existing PAKs to smart licensing by going to the Traditional Licensing Portal, selecting the PAK, and from the “Smart Accounts” tab, select “Convert selected PAKs to smart licensing”.

Note that PAKs entered via the Smart Licensing portal are not automatically converted.

Router CLI Configuration

In config mode, enable DNS resolution on the device to communicate w/ Cisco

ip domain-lookup
ip name-server 8.8.8.8

Configure Smart Call-home

service call-home
call-home
 contact-email-addr me@mydomain.com
 profile "CiscoTAC-1"
  active
  destination transport-method http
  no destination transport-method email

In software versions prior to 16.12, Smart Licensing will need to be enabled in config mode:

license smart enable

Creating and Applying Smart License Tokens

Visit the Smart Licensing Portal, select the PAK, and generate a token.

In enable mode, paste the token in via CLI:

license smart register idtoken XXXXXXX

Verify token has been accepted and registration successful

show license status

Finish by configuring and verifying any features added by the license

platform hardware throughput level mb 250
Wait for 250M license request to succeed

license boot level ax
% use 'write' command to make license boot config take effect on next boot

Router# show platform hardware throughput level 
The current throughput level is 250000 kb/

Re-initializing Licenses after Software Downgrade

When upgrading or especially downgrading IOS-XE versions, you’ll typically see an error the that license has already been used:

Router#show license status
Smart Licensing is ENABLED

Registration:
  Status: UNREGISTERED - REGISTRATION FAILED
  Export-Controlled Functionality: Not Allowed
  Initial Registration: FAILED on Mar 20 01:22:15 2019 GMT

Failure reason: The product regid.2013-08.com.cisco.CSR1000V,1.0_1562da96-9176-4f99-a6cb-14b4dd0fa135 and sudi containing udiSerialNumber:9PFNTCW3Y0L,udiPid:CSR1000V has already been registered.

Or red herring messages like this:

%SMART_LIC-3-AUTH_RENEW_FAILED: Authorization renewal with the Cisco Smart Software Manager or satellite : Response error: Data and signature do not match 
%SMART_LIC-3-AUTH_RENEW_FAILED: Authorization renewal with the Cisco Smart Software Manager or satellite : NULL 
%SMART_LIC-3-AUTH_RENEW_FAILED: Authorization renewal with the Cisco Smart Software Manager or satellite : verify RESP fail

Simple fix: just re-install a token with the “force” option at the end, i.e:

license smart register idtoken XXXXXXX force