Cisco 3504 WLC - HA options and licensing

[simonvanm]

We are proposing the new Cisco 3504 Wireless LAN Controller for a project but the datasheet is not entirely clear on the HA options.

• Previous models (like 2504 or 5508) had the HA SKU unit, which could be used for N+1 HA (or clustering on the 5508) without additional license fees - the HA unit supported the maximum amount of APs for 90 days. This does not seem to be the case for the 3504. Has Cisco abandoned the concept of the HA unit with this new 3504 WLC?
• The WLC 3504 Release 8.5 Deployment Guide mentions that the 3504 WLC now supports clustering. As there is no HA SKU available, does the secondary controller need the same level of AP licenses as the primary controller? Or can a standard unit without licenses be converted to a HA model?

Thank you...
Simon

[Leo Laohoo]

This is not a lot of people who've purchased this, yet.  I recommend contacting your nearest Cisco AM/SE and they should be able to assist. 

[biaacer2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Simon, 

Correct, the 3504 WLC supports high availability, this means Client SSO + AP SSO. It also supports N+1 High Availability.

It's basically what we are used to in other WLCs, like the 5508 or 5520, one becomes the Active and the other becomes the Hot Standby, synchronization occurs through the Redundancy Port. 

Don't worry about licensing, these controllers support SmartLicensing or RTU licensing, ask your cisco reseller to provide a BOM for high availability controllers. 

For refernce, here's the deployment guide, High Availability has its own section. 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/technotes/8-5/b_WLC_3504_Release_8_5_Deployment_Guide.html#concept_FB8F2C56010A4C45B2C132828E7140BD

[simonvanm]

Hi Biaacer2

Thanks a lot for the response. If I understand your response correctly, combined with some of the licensing FAQs, this means we only need to buy the licenses (RTU) for the primary controller, and the secondary will synchronize the license count from the primary?

Regards

Simon

[biaacer2]

Correct, Right To Use is there by default.

Which means that you can add as many licenses as you have purchased for this controller in a "honor code system".

For the Secondary Unit, you need to enable "HA SKU secondary unit"

Under Controller -> General -> HA SKU secondary unit.

That's basically all :)

[simonvanm]

Alright, thanks for clearing some of the confusion. I'll mark this question as answered!

Regards
Simon

[arsalan.mir@uk]

Hi There,

I have a quick question, I am doing a BoM for a customer who is requesting 2 X 3504 WLC and some APs. they requested for 150 AP Licences and have mentioned that it will be for HA pair. Can you advise me if I should quote them 150 licences or 300 licences as we are quoting 2 X 3504?

How would the licences work in HA pair for 3504?

[rgutierrez15]

Arsalan,

As i know, just 150 AP licences...

That is because when the primary WLC fails, the HA unit support all APs registered in the primary.

Regards,

[arsalan.mir@uk]

Thanks mate for your response. Appreciate your help.

[neelesh.gaekwad]

As per my mail communication with Global Virtual Engineering team, we need to have valid license in both the WLC. 

Regards, 

Neelesh

[simonvanm]

Hi Neelash

That's actually incorrect. I had the same question when I originally created this thread as it was a new product line. 

If you are creating a SSO cluster, the RTU licenses only need to be activated on the primary unit. So you only need to purchase licenses once. 

That's the way I proposed it for this project and how it was ultimately installed (without issue). 

Hope this helps

Simon 

[neelesh.gaekwad]

Hi, thanks for your reply, to be more specific, when primary goes down, the secondary becomes master and licenses will be transferred to this new Master. when the failed primary been replaced/restored it remails as secondary. Right?

[lilianmutsa1]

i'm a newbie. my client has a 3504 wlc, and they want to set it in HA mode with a virtual WLC. is this setup possible, if yes what are the license requirements?

Thanks for your help

[Scott Fella]

First off, define what you mean by HA? N+1 or HA SSO? You can’t do HA SSO because the guideline is that you use the same model and code. N+1 can work, but not really recommend because you have a vWLC which does only FlexConnect. If the vWLC has license and the 3504 is backup, you don’t need to purchase license. In any active/standby, you purchase license for the active. If you want to do active/active, then purchase license for both. License means that you cover all access points in case of a failure. If the 3504 will be active and the vWLC is standby, then purchase license for all the AP’s you have.
Hope that helps.

[harindra]

1) 2 x Controllers in Active / Standby With this setup you will have two controllers running in an Active / Standby configuration. They will share the same IP and configuration. They can be located in the same location or at two geographically separate locations (if you can provide L2 connectivity between both controllers) All AP's register to a single IP address and if the primary controller fails the APs will not experience any downtime as they will instantly move to the standby controller.

2) Redundant Controllers In this setup you have a primary controller in one location and a second controller in another location. APs will register to the primary controller and also be configured to have the second controller as a backup. In the event of a failure of the primary controller the AP's will have to re-associate to the secondary controller which could be up to 120 seconds and will result in downtime for clients.