Question regarding ASA 5515-X failover and VPN licensing

[KevinGueTIS]

Hello,

our company is currently in the process of buying a new firewall and the ASA 5515-X seems like a good choice for us, but I have two questions regarding it.

1. Do you have to buy a separate license for using a failover configuration or is one already included?

I already checked and found the following PDF: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/asa/asa84/license/license_management/license_86.pdf

Here failover is listed under "General Licenses" and not listed as optional, but I read that you still have to use the activation-key command to use it, so do you have to buy one or not?

2. One license for a working active/standby configuration is still correct, right?

3. Can you reuse permanent VPN licenses that were already activated on a different ASA?

We currently have a ASA 5510 with 50 permanent licenses and it would be nice if we could reuse those. Is that possible?

Thank you for your time!

[Marvin Rhoads · Accepted solution]

1. Not for the 5515-X (or higher models). The 5512-X would require a Security Plus license on both units to establish a failover pair. Once that was done, other licenses would be shared.

2. Yes.

3. No. Licenses are not transferable except in cases of an RMA for a failed unit.

[KevinGueTIS]

Great! Thanks for the quick reply.