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Cisco ASA 5500 Series Configuration Guide using the CLI
Chapter3 Managing Feature Licenses
Guidelines and Limitations
A.
No. Starting with Version 8.3(1), you do not have to have matching licenses on both units. Typically,
you buy a license only for the primary unit; the secondary unit inherits the primary license when it
becomes active. In the case where you also have a separate license on the secondary unit (for
example, if you purchased matching licenses for pre-8.3 software), the licenses are combined into a
running failover cluster license, up to the model limits.
Q.
Can I use a time-based or permanent AnyConnect Premium license in addition to a shared
AnyConnect Premium license?
A.
Yes. The shared license is used only after the sessions from the locally installed license (time-based
or permanent) are used up. Note: On the shared licensing server, the permanent AnyConnect
Premium license is not used; you can however use a time-based license at the same time as the
shared licensing server license. In this case, the time-based license sessions are available for local
AnyConnect Premium sessions only; they cannot be added to the shared licensing pool for use by
participants.
Guidelines and Limitations
See the following guidelines for activation keys.
Context Mode Guidelines
•In multiple context mode, apply the activation key in the system execution space.
•Shared licenses are not supported in multiple context mode.
Firewall Mode Guidelines
All license types are available in both routed and transparent mode.
Failover Guidelines
•Shared licenses are not supported in Active/Active mode. See the “Failover and Shared Licenses”
section on page 3-25 for more information.
•Failover units do not require the same license on each unit.
Older versions of ASA software required that the licenses match on each unit. Starting with Version
8.3(1), you no longer need to install identical licenses. Typically, you buy a license only for the
primary unit; for Active/Standby failover, the secondary unit inherits the primary license when it
becomes active. If you have licenses on both units, they combine into a single running failover
cluster license.
Note Failover units do require the same RAM on both units.
•For the ASA 5505 and 5510, both units require the Security Plus license; the Base license does not
support failover, so you cannot enable failover on a standby unit that only has the Base license.
Upgrade and Downgrade Guidelines
Your activation key remains compatible if you upgrade to the latest version from any previous version.
However, you might have issues if you want to maintain downgrade capability: