Cisco Catalyst 9800-CL Wireless Controller

[DEV1389]

Hi All, 

I have just downloaded Cisco WLC and installed on ESXI, being new to WLC have some questions:-

1. Can I use some evaluation licences from Cisco Smart account portal

2. For example if I removed license info from WLC , will it effect Wireless services or not . 

With Regards

Dev1389

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi

1. Can I use some evaluation licences from Cisco Smart account portal

Evaluation version comes with the device. You dont need to install it. 

2. For example if I removed license info from WLC , will it effect Wireless services or not .

I dont think you can do that. And if you can, why would you do that? 

[ammahend]

9800 does not need any license, it’s the AP that needs license, WLC’s reference on smart licensing portal that your AP is licensed and if it’s not then AP will still be able to join with compliance warning

hope this helps 

[Arshad Safrulla]

Any Catalyst 9800 doesn't enforce any license restrictions in any IOS-XE versions up to 17.6.X. For LAB/ Test bed you don't even need to register your device for Smart licensing, only impact is that the device will throw a license expiry log message frequently without any impact to performance or any feature. In production networks it is recommended that all of your products are registered with smart licensing in any supported method and synced for legal compliance. 

Keep in mind from 17.7.1 only 9800-CL will accept maximum of 50 AP's without smart license. Any other 9800 appliance doesn't have this limitation. My personal opinion is 50 AP's are more than sufficient to test any complex use case related to WLC.

[DEV1389]

Hi All, 

If i will change license it would affect AP /End client services or not , as required in attached snapshot. 

[Arshad Safrulla]

New license tier to apply it is must to reload the WLC. 

[DEV1389]

will it  also effect EndClient services and AP conected to vWLC. ? I hope it will not cause interruption for other clients and AP. right=?

[Arshad Safrulla]

Yes. There will be a downtime. So plan accordinly.