SolarWinds Orion and the new Cisco ISR G2

So Cisco today announced availability of the Cisco ISR next generation, you can read more about it here or here.

Coming up to this release, we have been working with Cisco to ensure interoperability with the Orion family of products and that it works out of the box, which it does with the latest shipping versions of Orion products.

However, my main reason for this post is one of the cool new features with the new ISR.  With the ISR G2, you only need to install a single image file and then you get licenses from Cisco to evaluate or enable after purchase on the box.  For those of us that have been around for awhile, this is pretty cool since you don’t have to download a new IOS image and schedule an upgrade, you just need to install the new license.

Based on this change, we worked to put together an add on package to help you see what you have licensed and installed on the ISR G2 in your Orion node details page.  This add on package for Orion NPM can be found here on the thwack content exchange.  Included in there are three things:

1. Node Details resources to give you visibility into the various licenses on the ISR box and their current status, see screenshot below.

2. Report template to allow you to schedule and deliver this data to others

3. Alert to let you know when your license will be expiring soon so you can plan for it

Additionally, for installing and configuration of licensing, Cisco License Manager (CLM) can be used.

For more information about Cisco License Manager, please visit: http://www.cisco.com/go/clm.