Mixing DNA licenses on Catalyst 9800

[steve.blunt]

Hi, OK I know the official Cisco FAQ re DNA wireless licensing says you can't mix Essentials and Advantage licenses on the same physical controller, but is this actually enforced and if not i there any actual performance or feature loss? The reason I'm asking is in respect to running a demo/POC to show the value of Advantage over Essentials from a function and DNA Centre perspective. 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/catalyst-9800-series-wireless-controllers/215635-licensing-on-9800-wireless-lan-controlle.html#anc6 

Many thanks

[Scott Fella]

You only can choose one.  So typically you can set it as advantage and then you can see what is being used.  The matrix on the DNA far shows what features there are between the two.  That should be enough to know what you really need.  The Cisco SE should be able to explain that and also show you during the POC.

You could always start at essentials and see if everything works.  Again, if you are not using the features for advantage, then you don't need advantage.  Just play around as you can always change the license during the POC.

[Prince.O]

Hello,

In order to run either essentials or advantage, you will have to ensure you have license consumption for both in the smart license portal. If you have both in the license portal, it should be no problem.

If your goal is to run a demo/POC , you will just need to switch license level on the controller and reboot and then the change will apply to change from advantage to essentials and vice versa as necessary but you can't enable essentials and advantage at the same time. 

[Scott Fella]

Keep in mind what you get if you decide not to purchase DNAc also.  So if you decide to not get DNAc and then the license expires, you now get the feature for either Network Essentials or Network Advantage.  These are perpetual and you keep that for the life of the device.  You can find this in the link you provided in your original post.