WLC 9800-40 standard number of AP licences

[DariuszD]

Hello All,

I want to run a WLC HA in my infrastructure consisting of two cisco WLC 9800-40. I do not have any purchase documentation and do not know if I need to buy any additional license for the number of APs connected to this WLC in order to connect 200 APs to this WLC. Is there a standard licence/quantity of APs that can be connected to a new WLC out of the box?

[marce1000]

 FYI : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/catalyst-9800-series-wireless-controllers/impl-catalyst-9800-wrls-lan-ctrlr-licens-faq.html

 M.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@DariuszD wrote:
I want to run a WLC HA in my infrastructure consisting of two cisco WLC 9800-40. 

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I would strongly recommend N+1 for long-term stability (over HA SSO).

We have been using HA SSO for many years (starting with WiSM-2 and 8540).  Our 9800-80 started with HA SSO and just recently we tore them apart due to "long-term stability".  

Be aware that the 9800-40 and the 9800-80 is about to get "down rated" due to "failures" (or disappointment) in the quality of the code.  Do not load the 9800-40/9800-80 with more than 50% AP capacity or the controller get out of control. 

9800-80, 17.12.3, 3050 x APs, Uptime: 6 weeks

Please read Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Configuration Best Practices.

Even if it’s difficult to estimate in advance what would be the load on your network, in system design its s good practice not to utilize a single box to its maximum capacity, but instead to leave some head room to handle “rainy days” situations and peak of utilization.

C9800 design is no different and, generally, Cisco recommends limiting the load to around 80% of the AP and client scale.

The 80% scale is just a recommendation to start planning the design and deployment of a catalyst wireless network as this is tested and validated number.

For C9800-80, for example, this means 4800 APs and/or around 50k clients. Does this mean that you cannot have six thousand APs on a single C9800-80? No, not really; Cisco has a lot of successful deployments at maximum scale. The 80% scale is just a recommendation to start planning the design and deployment of a catalyst wireless network.

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[Rich R]

>  Is there a standard licence/quantity of APs that can be connected to a new WLC out of the box?

No.  The 9800 series WLCs do not come with any licenses at all.  It is the APs which are licensed.  Normally you buy the licenses with each AP, but you can also buy them separately (for example for migrating older Wave 1 or Wave 2 APs which did not come with DNA licenses).  The licenses are stored in your Smart account (online) and the WLC requests a license from the Smart account for each AP that joins the WLC.  If you did not buy any DNA licenses with the APs then you will need to buy them now.  The link Marce provided explains what you need to buy.

It's mandatory to buy a DNA term subscription and that comes together with the network license which is perpetual (make sure both included on order).  If you don't use Catalyst Centre or Cisco Spaces then you can let the initial DNA term subscription expire and the perpetual network license remains.

On Leo's point about HA-SSO or N+1 - we use both but it's really about what your requirements are so check the pros and cons of both options to decide what will work best for you.  The WLC scaling does seem to be worse with SSO because of the load created by keeping them in sync.  They recently fixed a catastrophic bug which resulted in the HA pair losing all the wireless config after SSO switchover so hopefully that won't happen anymore...