ACS 5+ license - maximum supported unique IP addresses?

[Calin C.]

Hello all,

I have a question regarding ACS 5+ license. Here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/netmgtsw/ps5698/ps6767/ps9911/product_bulletin_c25-616320.html

There is this statement:

With the Base license, Cisco Secure ACS 5.2 appliances or software virtual machines can support deployments of up to 500 network devices (authentication, authorization, and accounting [AAA] clients)

......

The optional Large Deployment add-on license  allows a deployment to support more than 500 network devices. Only one  Large Deployment license is required per deployment as it is shared by  all instances.

Does anybody know how many devices are supported with Large Deployment? I understand that more than 500, but how much more (with approximation) ?

Thanks and cheers,

Calin

[Calin C.]

I found the anwser myself:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/net_mgmt/cisco_secure_access_control_system/5.2/user/guide/admin_config.html#wpxref68935

It seems that with the addon license ACS support an unlimited number of managed devices.

Of course I think at some point there will be some limitation in regard to hardware used. Nothing in unlimited

[pablo1711 · Accepted solution]

It is unlimited - But they way ACS deals with it can be quite simple.

For example.

When I add 1 device with a single IP address it uses 1 of the 500 allowed hosts (on the standard licence)

If I add a /24 network range this is still one record but uses 255 hosts

If I add a /16 network range this again is still one record but would use 65535 hosts (and obviously you can do this on the base license)

From experience it is difficult to manage single devices in ACS and instead if is much simply to group these devices into IP ranges.

Therefore you could technically have 255 x /8 network ranges covering all possible IPv4 address space using 4 billion+  host records but still in just 1 record on ACS

Paul

[Calin C.]

Paul, thanks for your reply.

Since it's the only reply and you are right, I chose your answer as the correct one!

Cheers,

Calin