ISE license consumption for wireless clients

[pb.monegas]

We are running ISE version 2.1.0.474. WLC 5508 8.3.102.0. ISE is being used for radius server authentication and accounting along with base licensing for our wireless clients. When a wireless client disconnects, their session still appears in active sessions within ISE and therefore consumes one license. The ISE documentation states that the session will drop if a radius accounting stop is received. If no radius activity is detected, the session will be purged after 5 days and the license is given back. It appears, although the wireless client disconnects, ISE isn't receiving the radius accounting stop message. This is an issue because the amount of licenses we have available will eventually be consumed and no more users will be able to connect. I've been unsuccessful in finding WLC configuration documentation or a solution to this issue.

[Dan Lukes]

If your radius sends no stop, WLC (re-)configuration will not help you.

Thus, at the first, check accounting stops are send by radius. If no, reconfigure the radius to send them.

[pb.monegas]

Thanks for the suggestion. We were able to verify accounting stops were being received by ISE from the WLC. What we found is that there was a mismatch on the WLC configuration for RADIUS Authentication Server Auth Called Station ID Type and RADIUS Accounting Server Auth Called Station ID Type. We set ours to match the value: AP MAC address:SSID. Therefor the accounting stop message would be applied to the same session based on the client MAC address. Whereas prior to the change, the authentication session pointed to the client MAC address and the accounting stop message applied to the client IP address.