Wireless Smart Licensing - missing AP Licenses?

[robmattocks]

Hi All,

This has got me very confused, and I have not been able to get an answer so far from Cisco support, so hopefully someone may be able to shed some light:

I have two customers with Cisco 9800 Controllers. The first was installed last year using a 9800-L and 9115 APs. In this case the customer bought AIR-DNA-A licenses, one per AP. The licenses sit in their virtual account and are used by the controller without a problem.

The second site is currently being installed. This has a 9800-40 WLC and a mix of 9115, 1542 and legacy 2800 APs (the 2800s are on site and currently being controlled by a 5508). In this case the licenses are AIR-DNA-E, one per AP (including the legacy ones). In this case, when an AP is connected to the controller (either legacy or new) the controller shows the license as out of compliance, and the customer virtual account shows the AP Perpetual Networkstack license as not being available in the account.

What I am not sure about is why these are missing - in both cases I ordered the DNA license under just that part number, and in the first account the AP Networkstack licenses show and are in use.

Can anyone help? Do the AP licenses need ordering separately for AIR-DNA-E licenses?

thanks

Rob

[Scott Fella]

I actually had a meeting with our Cisco folks on DNA license and he mentioned that when moving from AireOS to the 9800, you need to purchase a separate DNA-E or DNA-A license for each access point that wasn't purchased with DNA license.  Then when you look at this matrix:

Enterprise Networks Software Subscription Matrix for Switching - Cisco

The Network Essentials is perpetual for DNA Essentials and Network Advantage is perpetual for DNA Advantage.  So if the subscription expires, you have the perpetual features that is listed on the matrix.  They told me to look at it as a sub element.

DNA-Advantage (3/5/7 yrs) includes Network Advantage (never expires)

DNA-Essentials(3/5/7 yrs) includes Network Essentials (never expires)

When you purchase access points with the opt-out for DNA license, that is used for AireOS since the licensing is different.  Once you convert to the 9800, each ap needs to have a DNA license.  

[robmattocks]

Thanks Scott,

That is yet more confirmation that the AP licenses should have been supplied with the DNA licenses, and more ammo for me. I have escalated the issue with Cisco, so hopefully I will eventually get things sorted out.

As you say, each AP that connects to the 9800 needs to have a DNA license (and, if they don't vanish into the ether, an AP license), whether the AP is a new one or an existing one connected to an AireOS controller. My customer has a total of 49 APs, currently connected to a 5508 (well, two 5508s in SSO). Most of these are 3500s, and will be replaced, but they have a few 2800s that are able to connect to the 9800s, and I have bought DNAs for these - I have been doing some other work on site recently that involved powering down a switch stack, and two of the 2800s have actually joined the 9800 that is in place already - this is how I discovered the missing AP licenses. Fortunately a reboot of the 9800 sent the APs back to the 5508 for the time being until I can get the 9800s properly set up and the new APs (a mix of 1542s for the factory areas and 9115s for the offices) configured and ready to go.

Rob

[Scott Fella]

Good luck... licensing is very interesting and not many spend time to really understand that since it does change often.

[Rich R]

Yes that might be a plausible explanation in which case it is the supplier's mistake and they need to rectify it for you.

It's not as if it's going to cost them a fortune and it's the least they can do for the inconvenience they've caused you.

[robmattocks]

Well, I have finally managed to get things sorted out, thank goodness.

After umpteen emails between Cisco and myself they finally washed their hands of the problem altogether and told me that it had to be sorted out by the supplier. Having had no joy from my supplier up to that point, I bypassed them and went straight to the distributor they had bought the licenses from (having found out who that was when I was getting the Cisco sales order number from my supplier). Fortunately we have an account with the distributor, and after a couple of phone calls and some emails explaining the problem I found a very helpful person who raised the problem with Cisco, who confirmed immediately that the licenses should have been supplied along with the DNA licenses and arranged for them to be added to our Smart account. They are there now, licensing away like anything.

Having obtained a quote for a license from another supplier during my attempts to confirm that the NWSTACK license should be part of the DNA license (it's there, listed as a zero-cost component of the DNA license) I strongly recommend that if anyone is getting pricing for these licenses from a reseller they ask for an itemised quote - at least that way if something is not supplied you have written evidence that it should have been. 

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions and took an interest in this - at least my understanding of Cisco's licensing strategy has come on in leaps and bounds over the past couple of weeks, even if it was at the expense of my peace of mind.

[Scott Fella]

Glad you got it solved. Maybe time to look for another VAR also. 

[Rich R]

Also glad to hear you got those NWSTACK licenses in the end!

Good advice - make sure you get the itemised quote.

Keeping abreast of smart/DNA licensing changes is going to be challenging as they seem to be different with every new product and release,