AIR-5508-K9 license rehosting from primary unit to standby hot unit

[Francisco Torrecillas]

We have a couple of units of Wireless LAN Controllers (models AIR-5508-K9) configured in high availability.

Such models is on a End-of-Support status along with many of the lightweight access points which are being controlled by them. I would like to know if, in the event that the primary unit would crashed, if the secondary will register all the access points permanently. According to my understanding on the previous scenario, the second unit would take over the primary but the licensing will be up and running for a 90 days period. After this all the system (secondary unit plus access points) would stop working.

Is there any workaround to extend this 90-days period?

The idea is to find a way to rehost all the licenses from the primary unit crashed to the secondary in a permanent way, extending the grace 90-days period to a unlimited period or to a longer than 90-days period.

 

[marce1000]

   >...The idea is to find a way to rehost all the licenses from the primary unit crashed to the secondary in a permanent way,
     You can always contact licensing@cisco.com
     and ask for the needed  amount of licenses on the secondary and install them on it (you need to provide the serial number
     of the secondary when sending the e-mail ) 
     I think these days they will be flexible on that because  many customers are migrating to 9800

 M.

[Francisco Torrecillas]

Hi marce1000,

Thanks for the help but the problem is that hardware is on End-of-Support and licensing Cisco is recommending us to open case with the TAC which is a dead-end road (because hardware is obsolete).

[marce1000]

 - I did not expect that reply , I suggest you contact a local Cisco partner to discuss options,

 M.

[Rich R]

It would require a license RMA but because of end of support it's expected that they will refuse to help.

Probably your only option in that case would be to find a 2nd hand controller with enough licenses to support your APs.

[Francisco Torrecillas]

Thanks Rich R for your quick response.

This is another resolution way we have tried but (according Cisco) it turns out that licensing for all the lightweight AP's are attached to the serial number of the AIR-CT5508-K9 cluster. There is no way to move those AP's to another WLC unit even though the 5508 replacement has enough licences to enroll all the AP's. This pairing in licensing (AP's plus WLC controllers) is only valid between the AP's and the two units on place. What we need is to get that, if the primary WLC unit dies, the secondary can register and control all the AP's permanently. Otherwise we only have 90-days of operation with the secondary WLC unit and service will stop working. 

[Rich R]

Sorry Francisco but that sounds like rubbish to me.  I have not worked with 5508 myself but I have never heard of a WLC license being linked to AP serial numbers (anybody else know otherwise?).  The license determines the number of APs which can be joined to the WLC and is agnostic to the serial numbers of the APs.  As long as the WLC has enough licenses installed your APs should be able to join and consume those licenses.

There is also no mention of that restriction in https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/5500-series-wireless-controllers/112926-5508-wlc-license.html

[Francisco Torrecillas · Accepted solution]

Hi @Rich R;

You were right, finally Cisco has admitted that WLC secondary won´t stop working in case the primary one fails.

Here you have the document which proves it: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/technotes/8-7/High_Availability_DG.html#pgfId-44069

Our scenario is One WLC has a valid AP Count license and the other WLC has a HA SKU UDI

and the literature says explicitly that AP's don´t disconnect (which means that are working permanently beyond that 90 days period)

■ HA SKU is a new SKU with a Zero AP Count License.

■ The device with HA SKU becomes Standby the first time it pairs up.

■ AP-count license info will be pushed from Active to Standby.

■ On event of Active failure, HA SKU will let APs join with AP-count obtained and will start 90-day countdown. The granularity of this is in days.

■ After 90-days, it starts nagging messages. It will not disconnect connected APs.

■ With new WLC coming up, HA SKU at the time of paring will get the AP Count:

– If the new WLC has a higher AP count than the previous, the 90-day counter is reset.

– If the new WLC has a lower AP count than the previous, the 90-day counter is not reset.

– In order to lower AP count after switchover, the WLC offset timer will continue and nagging messages will be displayed after time expiry.

• Elapsed time and AP-count will be remembered on reboot.
• The factory default HA-SKU controller should not allow any APs to join.

Thanks for your help @Rich R  and @marce1000 . We hope that our case help others to face this situation with calm. We have had some days of anguish. We are aware that have to manage the refresh but at least we have some backup that will allow us to gain time for the refresh.