I have an ASA 5515-X running the Firepower Threat Defense software and it is under the 90 day eval right now. I want to get it properly licensed for IPS and move on with my life so I purchased the L-ASA5515-TA license for it through my VAR (Techdata if that matters). I got an email from edelivery-support@cisco.com with the SO number, properly showing it is purchased under my company name, etc.
In my Smart Software Licensing page (which is apparently a different thing than the Licenses section of Product License Registration, even though it also shows licenses assigned to Smart Account...) I have my Firepower Threat Defense ASA listed properly under Inventory and it shows it has 2 base licenses in use (it is a failover pair). That was its own battle that had to be escalated by the licensing support group to TAC just to get them to admit that yes, the 5515-X works just fine with Firepower Threat Defense and Smart Licensing, they just don't seem to want to admit it publicly for some reason. Anyway, the device is there and talking to the Smart Licensing service properly, I just can't figure out how to get the thing that I have purchased to show up in the inventory of my smart license list. I can't find any documentation that tells me how to get the thing that the VAR sold me to turn into a usable license in Smart Licensing (there is no PAK to convert, no key to put in anywhere).
I already emailed licensing@cisco.com and they opened a case and told me the following:
"The license associated with below Order PID is SEULA document hence there won’t be any PAK registration link. Kindly go through the SEULA document regarding the activation/registration process."
I read the EULA, which said nothing about any activation or registration process so I replied that I still needed help but they did not reply to that. They just let it sit for a week and then closed it with no further response to me so I opened another, and got this reply.
"5515 series platform is not supported for smart license model"
They also referred me to the document called: Orderable Smart Licensing PIDs
https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-59102
I'm not sure what that is supposed to indicate. I obviously can order the license I ordered so it is Orderable. :/
I then got another update saying:
"Since the platform is not Smart enable and the license is a RTU license, there are no PAKs for these RTU licenses, as they were not, and technically cannot, be generated due to the way the RTU scheme works (no PAKs to redeem, no license files to generate or install--RTU are built-in licenses directly on the appliances themselves). If you need assistance with activating these features, please open a separate case with the TAC team at tac@cisco.com"
I've forwarded that to TAC now and am asking them for help. I don't have a support contract on this yet as I just purchased the hardware and license and would like to know if it will actually work before I spend any more money on it. :(
Obviously the ASA 5515-X can run the FTD software just fine (just like the 5525 does which is on the supported list) and it shows up in the Smart Software License Inventory just fine as well. The Threat license is not an RTU license as far as I can tell because it will not currently do any IPS functions without it (even after I paid for it) so I am not really sure why there is so much confusion about this.
Obviously Cisco is in a bit of a tail spin with regard to Firepower and ASA but for a long time ASA and Cisco fan, this is highly frustrating and does not inspire confidence. If the company can't even figure out what they can sell and how to make it work after a sale, I am not sure how I am supposed to encourage my customers to keep buying this stuff.
