ASA 5520 Failover fail - mismatch license

[Weverton Aranha]

I have two Cisco ASA 5520 and I am not able to perform Failover because one peer have a base license and the other have a license with additional Security Contexts. I need to have a match with the Security Context and it is not a problem if I need to convert the licensed peer in a base license one.

Peer 1:

Licensed features for this platform:
Maximum Physical Interfaces    : Unlimited
Maximum VLANs                  : 150       
Inside Hosts                   : Unlimited
Failover                       : Active/Active
VPN-DES                        : Enabled   
VPN-3DES-AES                   : Enabled   
Security Contexts              : 2         
GTP/GPRS                       : Disabled  
SSL VPN Peers                  : 2         
Total VPN Peers                : 750       
Shared License                 : Disabled
AnyConnect for Mobile          : Disabled  
AnyConnect for Cisco VPN Phone : Disabled  
AnyConnect Essentials          : Disabled  
Advanced Endpoint Assessment   : Disabled  
UC Phone Proxy Sessions        : 2         
Total UC Proxy Sessions        : 2         
Botnet Traffic Filter          : Disabled  

Peer 2:

Licensed features for this platform:
Maximum Physical Interfaces    : Unlimited
Maximum VLANs                  : 150       
Inside Hosts                   : Unlimited
Failover                       : Active/Active
VPN-DES                        : Enabled   
VPN-3DES-AES                   : Enabled   
Security Contexts              : 5         
GTP/GPRS                       : Disabled  
SSL VPN Peers                  : 2         
Total VPN Peers                : 750       
Shared License                 : Disabled
AnyConnect for Mobile          : Disabled  
AnyConnect for Cisco VPN Phone : Disabled  
AnyConnect Essentials          : Disabled  
Advanced Endpoint Assessment   : Disabled  
UC Phone Proxy Sessions        : 2         
Total UC Proxy Sessions        : 2         
Botnet Traffic Filter          : Disabled  

Does enyone know how to match this security context by commands?

[Karsten Iwen]

When using an ASA version up to 8.2, the licenses have to match on both units. There are three ways to solve the problem:

1. remove the context-license from the second unit
2. buy a 5 context-license for the first unit
3. Upgrade to ASA version 8.4 or 9.x. With that you are allowed to have different licenses as they are added together from both units. If youre ASAs have already 2Gigs of RAM, then that's the best way to go.

[Weverton Aranha]

Hello Karsten,

How do I remove the context-license from the second unit?
 

[Karsten Iwen · Accepted solution]

Just send the output of "show version" to licensing@cisco.com and tell them that you need a license without the security-contexts. You should get an activation-Key back that can be entered into the ASA.

Is there no way to upgrade? That would be the better solution.

[Weverton Aranha]

Karsten,

Thank you. It is not an option because I have just 512MB of memory in the both devices, I need at least 2GB.