Is there any dependency on license for Port-channel in Cisco WLC-9800?

[King_1988]

While changing wireless license level from Advantage to Essential, port-channel got disabled automatically and as wireless management vlan was down no AP was joining. So, need to know whether there is any dependency on license level or not?

[balaji.bandi]

When you change the License level the WLC features changes, that means (i am guessing the config will be changed) - i never downgraded License here.

check the configuration is intact ?  ( if you have backup config and after License changed the config is the same ?)

check the features you missing from advantage to essential :

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/catalyst-9800-series-wireless-controllers/215635-licensing-on-9800-wireless-lan-controlle.html#anc7

[marce1000]

 - I would expect not ; check logs on the WLC-9800 when that happens and also on the connected switch ; 
also review the current configuration the controller with the CLI command show tech wireless ; feed the output into :
                                 https://cway.cisco.com/wireless-config-analyzer/

 M.
                                      

[Rich R]

What version of IOS-XE are you using?
Did you try configuring it again? (if it's disallowed by the licensing then I'd expect to see an error message or log saying that)

First make sure it's the latest TAC recommended release (see link below). If you still see the problem then open a TAC case.  It sounds like a bug to me but I've also never tried downgrading a WLC to Essentials and the smart licensing documentation is desperately inadequate so I don't think port-channel is mentioned anywhere as an Advantage feature but it's entirely possible that some developer or product manager decided to treat port-channel as a High Availability feature (requiring advantage) instead of a basic networking feature that any Cisco IOS device is capable of.

If TAC confirm that it's linked to the license I'd ask them to raise a bug for it.  At that point the business unit will get involved and they might then come back and say that it's by design/intentional.  If they do, then that answers your original question.  In that case ask TAC to raise a documentation bug because that should be clearly documented in the licensing and configuration guides.