Wireless Access

Since we are still using 3.4 AOS in our wireless network, my vendor told me the way Aruba handling licenses change after version 6. Can someone explain to me what are the changes made in version 6? Tyical licenses we use are firewall license, wireless intrusion protection license, and certain ap support licenses.

The change was made during the 5.x code upgrade.  If you upgrade from 3.x > 5,x, the licenses will be converted for you.

Basically, they consolidated all licenses into 3 (there are a couple more now, but they are specific to service providers and content security). 

The AP licenses stay as AP licenses.

The RAP licenses get converted to AP licenses (a RAP now consumes an AP licenses).

The PEF license is now called PEF-NG and is based on the number of APs you have, not users.

The WIP license is now called RFP (rf protect) and is based on the number of APs.

The following licenses have been rolled into one of the new licenses or the other: RAP, Voice Service module, and mesh (both outdoor and indoor).  There may be a few more, but its been a while, so I dont remember them... :)

i just wonder how the PEF license change in this case. Assume i have a PEF-128 with 8 AP support license under the same controller. After i upgrade to ver 6 from 3, PEF-128 will change to only support 8 APs? or something else more reasonable for the customer?

For a customer point of view, this is double blade issue. A site with few APs will be locked and require more firewall licenses when adding more APs.

There is a formula to ensure you dont lose functionality.  If I remember correctly, you would divide the user count for PEF license by 16 and you would receive the larger of that number (128/16=8) or the AP count (8 in this case) for the PEF-NG license.  If you had a 512 user PEF license, you would come out of the upgrade with 512/16=32 PEF-NG licenses.

I've upgraded a lot of controllers from 3.4.x.x to 5.0.x.x code, and the numbers of licenses have never changed, if I had 32 PEF licences I've got 32 PEF-NG licenses. Please clarify when is it supposed to happen. :smileyfrustrated:

The formula is not only based on the old PEF user count (user count/16=# of PEF-NG licenses), but also the number of pre-5.x AP and RAP licenses.  If you had 32 AP license and 64 user PEF in 3.x and you upgraded to 5.x or 6.x, you would still have 32 AP and PEF-NG licenses (since 64/16=4 and that is less than the 32 AP licenses).   Again, the formula will not give you less AP support than originally had.  You might end up with MORE, but not less.

I have done many, many upgrades and the formula has always been predictable.

Hi,

I guess I got it, I've have never upgraded from User PEF license. I was confusing between User PEF with old PEF (APs) licenses. So as I understood, if I have working on 3.x.x.x code 32 AP licenses with 64 User PEF licenses, when I upgrade to 5.x.x.x code the AP licenses will be keeped, and the PEF-NG licenses as well, since 64/16 < #AP licenses.

Please confirm whether I understood correctly. :smileytongue:

César

That is correct.  After the upgrade, you would have 32 AP licenses and 32 PEF-NG licenses.

Also, if you had indoor or outdoor mesh licenses or RAP licenses, they would be converted and added to the number of AP license on a 1 for 1 basis.  So, if you had 3.x with 32 AP licenses, 8 RAP licenses, 4 indorr and 4 outddor mesh licenses, and 64 PEF users, after a 5.x upgrade, you would have 48 AP licenses and 48 PEF-NG licenses.  48 = 32 AP + 8 RAP + 4 IMP + 4 OMP.

is there any document reference to this? I checked both release note and user guide. There's not much about it. :smileyindifferent:

None that I can find, unfortunately.  There is a good section in the release notes that describes the upgrade process and the license consolidation, but not the conversion ratios and formulas.

Before Aruba had PEF license for the whole controller, besides of User PEF and AP PEF, if you executed "show keys all" the output was something like "PEF: Enabled". In this case, when I upgrade the code, how my licenses will be managed???

César

It all depends on how many AP and WIP licenses you had.  An upgrade would convert it so that the PEFNG AP  licenses would match your AP and WIP licenses.

If you mean on the 200/800/2400/SC-I and SC-II platforms, the PEF license was for the limit of the box, so you would get a PEF-NG license for the maximum number of APs that the platform could terminate.  Most, if not all, of these have been end-of-sale'd, so you should probably talk to your local Aruba team about an upgrade! :)

Also, those older platforms might not run new code very  well (if at all).

I read the fórum and i understand this.

My customer have:

256 AP Licence

6 Outdoor mesh

256 WIP

2048 PEF.

If I upgrade to the 6.1.2.5 the result would be this:

264 AP Licences (included AP and Outdoor MESH)

264 RF Protect ????

128 PEF (user count/16=# of PEF-NG licenses) as it says in the forum  (2048/16= 128 PEFNG) so my client would need to buy another 128 PEFNG?? I don’t think so he will like this :S

Can you confirm my understand please?

In this case, PEFNG will match the AP capacity. (256)

The PEFNG count is the greater of either (a) AP Capacity or (PEF-User license/16).