5515X SSD needed for Security Contexts?

[tbthurman]

I am in the middle of discussions with a vendor to purchase a 5515X. I mentioned that I need the option to buy more Security Contexts licenses in the future, beyond the initial two that come with the ASA. He stated that I would need the 5515X SSD version in order to be able to use them.

Does anyone know if that is true? I cannot find any mention of that in any Cisco documentation. This is all I could find on SSD.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/security/asa-5500-series-next-generation-firewalls/qa_c67-700608.html

Q.    What is the purpose of the solid state drive (SSD)?

A.     The SSD is required in order to run the Cisco AVC and WSE next-generation firewall services on the Cisco ASA 5500-X Series. The SSD stores logs and any reports for traffic that is processed by these services, in addition to application signatures and a web security database that are part of these subscriptions.

[Jouni Forss · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I have never heard of such a requirement and as you have showed in your post with the quote from the Cisco document, the SSD should only be needed for the ASA CX module. Though I guess the module is not really the correct word as there is no separate hardware related to the CX other than getting the SSD. The SSD can be gotten separately later on if required.

Adding a license for more Security Context should be as simple as adding a new license key which updates your current default 2 to 5.

- Jouni

[tbthurman]

That's what I suspected. I didn't see anything in the configuration guide for IOS 9.1 either.

Thanks for confirming this for me.

- Tanner

[Marvin Rhoads]

Jouni is right.

The indivdual giving you the information you mentioned is definitiely mistaken.