Cisco asa 5510 and license change

[emilyforcisco1]

I have an ASA 5510 with a base license.

The Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software Verions is 8.2(2)

Device Manager Version is 7.3(2)

I have purchased a Security Plus license. It seems pretty straightforward to apply it:

Firewall1#config t

Firewall1(config)# activation-key aslkdfasdf alskdfjasldfkj lasikdfjasldfj

Now I have seen documentation indicating it needs to be reloaded. Others say, that's it, it has been applied.

1) Does it really need to be rebooted/reloaded?

2) Will applying the license change ANY of my settings? This is a production firewall and would hate to have a big interruption.

As always, Thanks!

[Marvin Rhoads]

A reload is not required. Cisco inconsistently recommends it just to make sure that the key is persistent across the reload. I have never seen it NOT be (but then I've only done a couple hundred of them).

Applying an activation key will not change any current configuration settings. It will allow you to configure new settings for which the new license is a prerequisite.