Adding a second WLC5508 + AP licenses, is it possible?

[schulcz]

Hi Guys!

We have one WLC5508 with 100 AP licenses, almost all licenses are in use. We want to replace the entire system with the 9800 series, but this is unfortunately not possible at the moment, a full replacement is expected by the end of 2022. As an interim solution, we figured out that we would buy a second refurbished controller from Cisco with preinstalled licenses to increase reliability and cover possible future AP extensions in numbers. (5508 series is already end-of-sale I know, but I have seen that refurbished is still available for purchase.)
The question is, with SSO configuration, will the second wlc preinstalled licenses be added to the original pool or not? So do we have to buy licenses separately from the controller, or not necessarily?

(Surprisingly, I saw that normal ap licenses could still be purchased as LIC-CT5508-UPG)

Thanks!

[Leo Laohoo]

End-of-Sale is 04 May 2018.  This means no Cisco-certified reseller will sell you the AP adder license. 

This also means anyone selling an AP adder license may not work.

[schulcz]

I know what End-Of-Sale means, but are You sure about that? It is configurable without error in ccw system (see attached image) doesn't that mean you can order it?

But my main question is that what about licenses come with the second controller if I will make SSO configuration, will they lost or will they added to the pool?

Thanks!

[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

Adding another controller does not bundle the license on both. The primary controller needs to have the license. The secondary needs to be an ha sku or have a min 50 ap license to make it available to use as SSO. You might just get another for N+1 with more license or get two so that you can decide which aps will fail over to one controller vs the other.

[schulcz]

Now it's clear for me, it's also written in SSO and N+1 Deployment Guide, thanks for Your help!