Symptom

Smart licensing may fail to register (as seen in chassis manager) indicating that there was a failure when trying to authenticate the server. Specifically the failure reason will state: "Failed to authenticate server" The output of "show license all" may look like the following: 4100CHASSIS # show license all Smart Licensing Status ====================== Smart Licensing is ENABLED Registration: Status: REGISTERING - REGISTRATION IN PROGRESS Export-Controlled Functionality: Not Allowed Initial Registration: FAILED on Oct 09 18:03:27 2018 UTC Failure reason: Failed to authenticate server Next Registration Attempt: Oct 09 18:18:39 2018 UTC

Conditions

This is caused by a change in the CA certificate used to sign the certificates for some of Cisco's external sites, namely tools.cisco.com. The root CA was changed to be "QuoVadis Root CA 2".

Workaround

In order to restore Smart Licensing functionality, you must manually import the root CA into the chassis' trust store. This can be done from the CLI as follows: 4100CHASSIS # 4100CHASSIS # scope security 4100CHASSIS /security # create trustpoint QuoVadisRootCA2 4100CHASSIS /security/trustpoint* # set certchain Enter lines one at a time. Enter ENDOFBUF to finish. Press ^C to abort. Trustpoint Certificate Chain: > At this point. Paste in the following, including all of the leading and ending -'s -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIIFtzCCA5+gAwIBAgICBQkwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEFBQAwRTELMAkGA1UEBhMCQk0x GTAXBgNVBAoTEFF1b1ZhZGlzIExpbWl0ZWQxGzAZBgNVBAMTElF1b1ZhZGlzIFJv b3QgQ0EgMjAeFw0wNjExMjQxODI3MDBaFw0zMTExMjQxODIzMzNaMEUxCzAJBgNV BAYTAkJNMRkwFwYDVQQKExBRdW9WYWRpcyBMaW1pdGVkMRswGQYDVQQDExJRdW9W YWRpcyBSb290IENBIDIwggIiMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4ICDwAwggIKAoICAQCa GMpLlA0ALa8DKYrwD4HIrkwZhR0In6spRIXzL4GtMh6QRr+jhiYaHv5+HBg6XJxg Fyo6dIMzMH1hVBHL7avg5tKifvVrbxi3Cgst/ek+7wrGsxDp3MJGF/hd/aTa/55J WpzmM+Yklvc/ulsrHHo1wtZn/qtmUIttKGAr79dgw8eTvI02kfN/+NsRE8Scd3bB rrcCaoF6qUWD4gXmuVbBlDePSHFjIuwXZQeVikvfj8ZaCuWw419eaxGrDPmF60Tp +ARz8un+XJiM9XOva7R+zdRcAitMOeGylZUtQofX1bOQQ7dsE/He3fbE+Ik/0XX1 ksOR1YqI0JDs3G3eicJlcZaLDQP9nL9bFqyS2+r+eXyt66/3FsvbzSUr5R/7mp/i Ucw6UwxI5g69ybR2BlLmEROFcmMDBOAENisgGQLodKcftslWZvB1JdxnwQ5hYIiz PtGo/KPaHbDRsSNU30R2be1B2MGyIrZTHN81Hdyhdyox5C315eXbyOD/5YDXC2Og /zOhD7osFRXql7PSorW+8oyWHhqPHWykYTe5hnMz15eWniN9gqRMgeKh0bpnX5UH oycR7hYQe7xFSkyyBNKr79X9DFHOUGoIMfmR2gyPZFwDwzqLID9ujWc9Otb+fVuI yV77zGHcizN300QyNQliBJIWENieJ0f7OyHj+OsdWwIDAQABo4GwMIGtMA8GA1Ud EwEB/wQFMAMBAf8wCwYDVR0PBAQDAgEGMB0GA1UdDgQWBBQahGK8SEwzJQTU7tD2 A8QZRtGUazBuBgNVHSMEZzBlgBQahGK8SEwzJQTU7tD2A8QZRtGUa6FJpEcwRTEL MAkGA1UEBhMCQk0xGTAXBgNVBAoTEFF1b1ZhZGlzIExpbWl0ZWQxGzAZBgNVBAMT ElF1b1ZhZGlzIFJvb3QgQ0EgMoICBQkwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEFBQADggIBAD4KFk2f BluornFdLwUvZ+YTRYPENvbzwCYMDbVHZF34tHLJRqUDGCdViXh9duqWNIAXINzn g/iN/Ae42l9NLmeyhP3ZRPx3UIHmfLTJDQtyU/h2BwdBR5YM++CCJpNVjP4iH2Bl fF/nJrP3MpCYUNQ3cVX2kiF495V5+vgtJodmVjB3pjd4M1IQWK4/YY7yarHvGH5K WWPKjaJW1acvvFYfzznB4vsKqBUsfU16Y8Zsl0Q80m/DShcK+JDSV6IZUaUtl0Ha B0+pUNqQjZRG4T7wlP0QADj1O+hA4bRuVhogzG9Yje0uRY/W6ZM/57Es3zrWIozc hLsib9D45MY56QSIPMO661V6bYCZJPVsAfv4l7CUW+v90m/xd2gNNWQjrLhVoQPR TUIZ3Ph1WVaj+ahJefivDrkRoHy3au000LYmYjgahwz46P0u05B/B5EqHdZ+XIWD mbA4CD/pXvk1B+TJYm5Xf6dQlfe6yJvmjqIBxdZmv3lh8zwc4bmCXF2gw+nYSL0Z ohEUGW6yhhtoPkg3Goi3XZZenMfvJ2II4pEZXNLxId26F0KCl3GBUzGpn/Z9Yr9y 4aOTHcyKJloJONDO1w2AFrR4pTqHTI2KpdVGl/IsELm8VCLAAVBpQ570su9t+Oza 8eOx79+Rj1QqCyXBJhnEUhAFZdWCEOrCMc0u -----END CERTIFICATE----- Then type "ENDOFBUF" and hit enter, followed by 'commit-buffer': > >ENDOFBUF 4100CHASSIS /security/trustpoint* # commit-buffer 4100CHASSIS /security/trustpoint # end 4100CHASSIS #

Further Problem Description