Licensing for a laptop with 2 active NICs

[mstangal]

Hi all,

my customer is asking me how ISE treats a laptop that is connected to the network with both wired and wireless connection. I guess it consumes two licenses of any kind, but maybe there's a way to optimise that.

Can you help me to confirm the behaviour?

Thanks,

Marco

[Charlie Moreton · Accepted solution]

That is correct.  Since each unique MAC Address sends a RADIUS Request, a license is consumed for each one.  This means that laptops can be connected to your network through both the wireless network and the ethernet network.  In this case, each connection consumed licenses.

To mitigate this, the AnyConnect NAM Module can force the user to choose their connection, thereby disabling the other and allowing a single connection/license consumption.

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Administrator Guide, Release 4.4

[mstangal]

Thanks Charles,

when it comes to advanced licences like Plus or Apex that should not always be the case, correct? As an example since posture assessment is device based you could have the same laptop using 2 Base + 1 APEX.

What do you think?

Thanks,

Marco

[Jason Kunst]

From our PM "Currently ISE is MAC based counting logic. In future we hope to make posture UDID based but that is a long ways off."

Right now if 2 macs are connected then 2 licenses will be used for all levels of licensing

[mstangal]

Hi Jason,

when talking about posture, is the system able to understand that the device is still the same even if it has two different connections? Where can I find the UDID you mention?

Thanks,

Marco

[Jason Kunst]

no this is a future licensing effort