ISE traditional licenses to smart licenses updates

[deepuvarghese1]

Recently we tried converting existing ISE traditional licenses (Base) to the new smart licenses (Essential) for one of the customers before upgrading ISE from 2.x to 3.x.

Thought of sharing with you all an update “ISE traditional licenses (Base) are no longer eligible for upgrade to smart license (Essential). The end date for Base-converted-to-Essentials through the existing manual process is 31-Oct-2023 which is in the past. So, it cannot be used anymore.

After October 31, 2023, those customers who have not migrated yet can continue to use Base licenses on 2.x. However, if a customer wishes to migrate from 2.x to 3.x, they will need to purchase the essential licenses. 

Attached you can find more information about license migration FAQs.

 ISE License Migration Offer - FY24 (requires Cisco CCO login credentials)

[Arne Bier]

Hi @deepuvarghese1 

Yep - Cisco has been urging customers to move to 3.x and with the "One Year On Us" incentive, they made the migration more appealing. But that offer has changed over the years. You're right - after Oct 2023 there is no more BASE -> Essentials migration possible. Customers must purchase 3.x subscription licenses. However, the good news is that ISE 2.x TACACS and VM license migrations are still possible. TAC can convert any ISE 2.x to VMC licenses free of charge. Those VMC licenses work with ISE 2.7 and 3.x. And any customer can convert their existing TACACS Traditional licenses to TACACS Smart Licenses.