5.3 KiB
ICX6610 Licensing
Brocade licenses are keyed to a specific switch License ID, so they cannot be loaded on multiple switches. Thankfully these ID's are stored in a separate EEPROM and can be easily changed.
To download and use the legitimate license files linked below on as many switches as you need, you simply need to change your switch license ID to match. Only the license system reads this EEPROM, so changing these values has no effect on the switch whatsoever.
DISCLAIMER: This is intended for educational use only, or in a homelab type environment.
WARNING: DO NOT SHARE THIS LINK, GUIDE, OR FILES WITH ANYONE! The licenses will be blacklisted and this process will be patched out in firmware - do not ruin it for everyone.
What Does This Do?
On the Brocade ICX6610, the POD, ADV & MACSEC license in this guide unlock the following:
- 10gbE functionality on the 8x SFP+ ports
- IPv6 Routing - static/unicast/multicast
- BGP
- OSPF
- PIM (all variations)
- VRRP (all variations)
- Policy Based Routing
- VRFs
- GRE Tunnels
- IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnels - will terminate Hurricane Electric tunnels etc
- Realtime MACSEC encryption on the front 8x SFP+ ports (80gb/s of AES-128)
Update The Switch
To do this, you need the latest bootloader and OS.
Follow this link to upgrade to the latest firmware image AND bootloader - ICX/FCX Update & Start Guide
Note: If this is a new/unconfigured switch, or a used switch with an unknown config on it, follow that update guide all the way through to the Saving & Conclusions section! This will get the switch in a state that it can TFTP licenses in.
When upgraded and configured, move on to the below.
Optional: Delete Existing Licenses
If your switch came with partial licenses already (find out with show license), you can delete them if you'd like following the below:
enable
license delete unit 1 all
However if you would like to keep the old licenses (in case you want to resell the switch or similar), you do not have to follow the above. Just note that when you change your switch serial and load in the licenses from this guide, the old licenses will show as invalid, but they will not affect anything and will go back to valid if you ever revert the switch serial and delete my licenses.
Now you can move on to the below.
Download Licenses
ICX6610 Official Licenses
ZIP Updated: 04-15-2020
Change The Serial
We need to change the serial and license ID to match the new licenses. From the normal switch OS:
enable
hw pid-prom serial BXP2502J2B8
hw pid-prom clear-sw-lid
reload
The switch will reboot, and when it comes back up it will have a new license ID and serial.
Importing The Licenses
Once it's booted into the OS, put the license files from the ZIP above on your TFTP server. If you need an easy and temporary TFTP server for windows, I recommend Tftpd32 Portable Edition. Once the licenses are being hosted by TFTP, import them one at a time. Replace the IP's in the commands with the IP of your own TFTP server:
enable
copy tftp license 192.168.1.8 1-6610-ports.xml unit 1
copy tftp license 192.168.1.8 2-6610-adv.xml unit 1
copy tftp license 192.168.1.8 3-6610-macsec.xml unit 1
Now make sure they imported properly:
show license
The Status column should show Active for all the new licenses. If it does, write memory and you're done:
write mem
Setting Ports To 10gbE
Once licensed, you'll need to set the SFP+ ports to 10gbps:
conf t
int eth 1/3/1 to 1/3/8
speed-duplex 10g-full
#if the switch pauses after this for a minute, it's normal
write mem
That's it!
Reverting
If you want to revert the switch to its original serial and license ID (for instance, if you sell it), that's quite easy. First, get the serial number from your switch. It should be on a sticker on the bottom of the unit. Then just use the commands we used earlier from the regular OS, but now using your actual serial. Make sure the capitalization matches what is on your switch!
enable
hw pid-prom serial YourSNhere
hw pid-prom clear-sw-lid
reload
Once the switch reboots and has a new serial, you need to delete the licenses you loaded from this guide. Do not skip this! They will be invalid after changing the serial back.
enable
#if you had no previous licenses from before this guide:
license delete unit 1 all
#you're done
#If you have previous licenses from before this guide you want to keep:
#list the licenses:
show license
#now delete each of my licenses (they should be the ones showing invalid)
#replace X with the number of the license in the list you want to delete:
license delete unit 1 index X
It now has the stock license ID and serial, and the licenses have been removed. The output of show license should be empty (unless you previously had licenses from before this guide, in which case they should now show valid).
Does This Affect Stacking?
Q: Since all the switches in a stack would have the same license and serial after this procedure, would this cause issues?
A: No - stacking works perfectly. The License and Serial ID are only used for licensing. The switch and stack is totally unaware of them. Stacking uses each switches MAC address to keep track of stack members, and the MAC is unmodified.