topic Re: ISE Base License Exceeded in Network Access Control

ISE Base License Exceeded

fatalXerror — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 13:00:14 GMT

Hi Guys,

I have an possible issue about my ISE exceeding its base license but when I checked the RADIUS Live Sessions, it technically doesn't reach have of my base license quantity.

I am using my ISE for my wireless LAN authentication via RADIUS and my license is around 3000 but in my RADIUS Live session it only shows around 500 only.

Anybody knows what eats up the license or do I need to enable something in my WLC or ISE so that ISE can determine if the user logs off already then it can release the license?

Thank you so much.

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

balaji.bandi — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 13:07:30 GMT

Not sure, Can you share where you see this message or error ?

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

Dustin Anderson — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 13:50:20 GMT

Looking at mine I'm not sure the RADIUS active sessions is a good judge. I would look on the main page at the top of active endpoints, this is active sessions and should be consuming licenses.

you should also be able to go under Administration/Licensing and be able to see what is taking the licenses.

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

Mike.Cifelli — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 13:52:48 GMT

Anybody knows what eats up the license or do I need to enable something in my WLC or ISE so that ISE can determine if the user logs off already then it can release the license?

A few things:

-Base licenses are used for network onboarding features such as AAA and 802.1x, Guest Portals/onboarding, Trustsec, and Easy Connect (PassiveID).

-What do you see under Administration->System->Licensing for consumption?

-This sounds like you do not have AAA Accounting enabled. I would verify your WLC radius settings.

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

fatalXerror — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 14:54:00 GMT

Hi @Mike.Cifelli ,

Thanks for the feedback.

My ISE is just using 802.1x for WLAN and my license consumption is showing I exceed my current license of 3000 although when I checked my dashboard and the Live Sessions, it does not reach even half of 3000.

Let me try to check if my accounting in WLC is enabled.

Thanks.

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

Milos_Jovanovic — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 07:45:57 GMT

Hi @fatalXerror,

Since you confirmed that our licensing page shows indeed oversubscription, as @Mike.Cifelli said, most likely you have misconfigured accounting.

ISE is relying heavily on accounting messages for counting ISE licenses - once authentication is successful, an accounting packet is sent to notify ISE, and for ISE to reserve license. Once users disconnects, accounting message is sent to ISE, so ISE can free one license. If for some reson, authentication is not followed by an accounting-start packet, ISE still reserves license, but there is nothing to inform it later to free this license up. After some time, ISE does delete session, even if there is no accounting-stop message. I believe for version up to 2.6 this is 5 days, and from version 2.7 it should be reduced to 2 days.

You haven't mentioned version you are running, but I've also seen that ISE counts licenses wrong with some 2.3/2.4/2.7 versions, due to some bugs, despite the fact that accounting is configured properly. However, newer releases/patches are resolving this buggy behavior.

BR,

Milos

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

fatalXerror — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 12:05:03 GMT

Hi @Milos_Jovanovic , I am running 2.7.

Do have the Cisco documentation for this behavior that ISE 2.7 reduced it in 2 days?

Thank you so much for the help!

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

Milos_Jovanovic — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 14:17:05 GMT

Hi @fatalXerror,

For the sessions on older versions of ISE, you can find explanation here (search for '120 hours'). You can also find it in Cisco Live presentation, page 114.

For the changed behavior, I don't remember reading it somewhere (could be that I also heard it on some Cisco sessions), but I heard it multiple times from TAC engineers.

BR,

Milos

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

hslai — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 03:26:08 GMT

It's still 5 days.

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

hslai — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 03:29:03 GMT

RADIUS Live Sessions page can only show limited number of rows.

Instead, use the current active sessions report under Operations > Reports > Reports > Endpoints and Users. And, export the report CSV to a repository.

Re: ISE Base License Exceeded

Milos_Jovanovic — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 05:25:24 GMT

Hi @hslai,

Thanks for correcting me. From couple of TAC engineers (at least two of them) I heard that it was reduced to 2 days, starting from 2.7.

Is it still 5 days in all versions available (currently up to 3.1)?

BR,

Milos