LICENSE UPGRADE ON ASA HA Active/Standby

[Ahmad Saad4]

Hi there,

We have upgraded our ASA5525 HA pair (Active/Standby) Cisco AnyConnect Plus Term License from 100 users to 250. 

When we tried to retrieve Activation Key, we only got the key for the Secondary platform and not the Primary.

During the process of Activation Key retrieving we put first the serial number of the primary platform and then the secondary.

I tried to to apply Activation Key on the primary and I got "ERROR: The requested activation key was not saved because it is not
valid for this system."

So, is it safe to apply the Activation Key on the secondary platform, or should I contact Cisco support to generate another Activation Key for the Primary ASA.

Lastly, do I need to reboot both ASAs after applying the Activation Key ?

THanks

[Marvin Rhoads · Accepted solution]

In an HA pair the licenses will be shared (since 8.2 or later if I recall correctly). If the pair should happen to break AND the remaining unit was the one without the key applied it will continue to work as if it had its own license for 30 days.

So, to be on the safe side, it doesn't hurt to get activation keys for both units. The AnyConnect 4.x licensing model allows it.

The cli tells you to reboot after applying an activation key but the feature starts working without it. A reboot is a good idea though so you can confirm everything works afterwards during a controlled maintenance activity vs. when you least expect it.

[Ahmad Saad4]

Thanks so much for reply!

When I try to activate the key I got this message :"Validating activation key. This may take a few minutes...
The requested key is the SAME as the flash permanent activation-key.
The flash activation key will not be modified."

Does that mean it accept it?

[Marvin Rhoads]

"show version" or "show activation-key" will give you the current feature license status to check.