topic Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode in Wireless

How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

Gehrig_W — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 05:59:52 GMT

Hello Cisco WLAN-Experts,

we will soon run out of users on our two 9800-L-C-Guest-WLCs crossing the border of 5000 concurrent users:

-------------------------------------------

Wlan-name ID Client count

--------------------------------------------

BayernWLAN 100 3691

eduroam 1 1140

Obviously there is a high-Performance License available that can boost the box to 10000 users.

The Config-Guid 17.1 tells how to activate this license with the following command and information:

config license wireless high-performance

-License activation should be completed during bootup.

-Any change in the license configuration requires reboot of the controller. Ensure that you save the configuration before reload.

-Two licenses are required for the high-availability controllers

I hope I can activate also an Evaluation-license of this booster on both WLCs in HA-Mode.

Who knows whether an Evaluation-license is available and how to activate it on both WLCs ?

Do I need to reload both WLCs after the command ?

Or can I give the command on the first unit and use "redundancy force failover" to jump to the second unit to

activate the license there also to jump using a second "redundancy force failover" back to the initial primary ?

Will this procedure reboot always the standby and activate the License on both units ?

Who knows more about who to activate this booster safely?

Thank You in advance

Greeeting from Wuerzburg, Frankonia

Wini

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

docjb0221 — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 06:18:59 GMT

Hello,
That is the correct command. Eventually, you must register the WLCs to Smart Licensing but it will activate the license on an evaluation basis. A full reboot of the pair of controllers will be required to activate this so it will cause an outage. You cannot do them one at a time.

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

Gehrig_W — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 06:31:28 GMT

Hello docjb0221,

thank You for Your information. Just to clarify: Will a single command on the primary unit be enough to activate the license on both 9800-L-C-WLCs of the HA-cluster ?

Or do I need to reload the first unit and jump to the second unit afterwards to carry out the activation command on the second unit also and reload the second unit also ?

Do I need the command and reload twice ?

What do You think ?

Kind regards

Wini

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

Mark Elsen — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 06:32:36 GMT

- FYI : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/17-1/config-guide/b_wl_17_11_cg/smart-licensing.html#id_133293 , I think it's safe to do that even if being in HA mode ,

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

Gehrig_W — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 09:22:17 GMT

Hello docjb0221 and marce1000,

thank You for Your helpful hints. I managed to install the performance-license on both WLCs by using the command and reload

only once on the active unit. The reload is issued on the whole stack and the license is activated in one step on both unit.

No need to do a failover and installe and reload twice.

Here is the procedure:

The single reload of the whole WLC-pair and outage took around 7 minutes.

We will order the license officially and hopefully activate smart-licensing on this box also.

Have a nice 1. of May !

Wini

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

steve.blunt — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:25:23 GMT

Can I just clarify the following is correct please:

1. Where two 9800-L are deployed in an "active / standby" mode i.e. not SSO then only one performance license is required, as the Smart Licensing Server will allocate as required?

2. If two controllers are deployed in an "active / active" mode then two separate performance licenses are required to be purchased

Thanks

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

Mark Elsen — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 12:33:29 GMT

>...1. Where two 9800-L are deployed in an "active / standby" mode i.e. not SSO then only one performance license is required, as the Smart Licensing Server will allocate as required?
Ref : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/17-1/config-guide/b_wl_17_11_cg/smart-licensing.html#id_133293
>...Two licenses are required for the high-availability controllers.

> If two controllers are deployed in an "active / active" mode then two separate performance licenses are required to be purchased
Yes ,

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

Gehrig_W — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 06:22:34 GMT

Our two 9800-L deployed in HA-Mode show two licenses:

So Cisco is asking kindly to pay for two and use only one. The second high-performance is sleeping well on Stand-by.

Kind regards

Wini

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

steve.blunt — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 13:44:23 GMT

Many thanks, as the Smart Licensing server caters for AP licenses moves between Active and Standby its a real shame this can not be done for the performance license too. But I guess in reality how many Cat 9800-Ls are now sold, even less with the $11k plus performance license....

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

dsiin — Wed, 14 May 2025 10:40:14 GMT

Hello, we have purchased two licenses. Before executing these commands on the controller, are there any prerequisites to be completed on Cisco Software Central? Or will the license synchronization happen automatically during the reload ?

Regards

Re: How to enable High-Performance License on 9800-L-C in HA-Mode

Scott Fella — Wed, 14 May 2025 14:01:01 GMT

You might want to look at this and also follow the directions above to activate the smart license.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/17-1/config-guide/b_wl_17_11_cg/smart-licensing.html#id_133293