Cisco ISE traditional licensing to Smart License migration

[JasonGriffiths77699]

Hi All,

We're currently using ISE 2.6 and looking to upgrade to ISE 3.0. One requirement is to use Smart Licensing before upgrading. I've read through the following article https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/security/identity-services-engine/ise-licensing-migration-guide-og.html and understand the changes; however the one thing that is confusing is the change in the license count.

In Example 1 it shows a Base/Plus count going into the new model Advantage/Essentials. What's confusing is that there are a total count of 1700 licenses in the traditional model, but only 1000 licenses in the new model. I've tried to make sense of this, or find material that does, but I haven't been able to find an explanation.

There is a indication the count will differ but doesn't really explain things

"While functionality will be retained across licenses, notice that the license count might be different to what the Base/Plus/Apex license count is, and that all licenses will have an expiry date"

The question is, if we migrate to the new licensing model will we lose licenses already purchased? It seems unrealistic that it works this way, but I need clarification before moving forward with the upgrade plans.

[Milos_Jovanovic · Accepted solution]

It actually make sense, due to the before-v3.0 license model. In this example, user has 1k Base, and 700 Plus licenses.

Since licenses were lego-based, you actually always had 1000 licenses for simultaneous RADIUS connections, its just that you had 700 out of it that could use advanced functionality (remember, if you are using advanced functionality, you are actually using 1 Base + 1 Plus). Having this and new licensing model in mind (in which no more license stacking), you actually have 700 Advantage licenses (which now allows you 700 simultaneous session), plus remaining 300 Essential license, which in total again gives you 1k total sessions.

Does it sounds more logical now?

BR,

Milos

[JasonGriffiths77699]

Hi Milos,
Thank you for the reply, how you've explained it now makes sense to me, in the traditional example there are 1000 base licenses, but of which only 700 would be able to use the advanced functionality.
Appreciate the help!