Cisco WLC 5500 - Delete AP from WLC and free up license space?

[gary_the_network_guy]

Is there any way to free up licences from the wlc? 

We have a WLC with a lot of AP's(325/325), so there is no space for new ones. Some AP's are not connected or even completely removed from use.

kind regards

[patoberli]

If the AP is not currently connected to the WLC (= not running), it doesn't consume a license. Only the currently attached and active APs utilize a license. 

Can you post the output of this command?

show license all

 In my case this provides:

(Cisco Controller) >show license all 

        Feature name: ap_count
        License type: Evaluation
        License Eula: Not Accepted
                Evaluation total period: 12 weeks 6 days
                Evaluation period left: 89 days
        License state: Inactive, Not-In-Use
        License Nodelocked: Yes
        RTU License Count: 150

                                Feature name: ap_count (adder)
        License type: Permanent
        License state: Active, In-use
        License Nodelocked: No
        RTU License Count: 5


                                ==================================
        Total available count : 5
        Total inuse count : 4

[Leo Laohoo]

That is not how it works. 

• The WLC is licensed for 325 APs. 
• So only a maximum of 325 APs can join the controller.  The 326th AP (and the rest) will not be able to join the controller.  
• If one of the first 325 AP falls off, then those "outside and waiting" will be able to come in automatically. 

If the new APs support Mobility Express, then this could be another option to get the APs working without spending.

[gary_the_network_guy]

Thanks for the reply, it was really helpfull. There is now a second problem. So we bought some licences but now the AP's are not connecting to the Prime.

[patoberli]

Prime will read the APs directly from the WLC. Make sure the WLC connection is working correctly on Prime and also make sure you have enough Prime device licenses.