The mess that is expressway Licenses, need clarification

[newtonpara]

To anyone that can help with this it would be greatly appreciated. The expressway license breakdown is a mess. After romping around the web last few hours I have a better understanding of what goes where but not completely sure.

I was hoping someone here could help me out, and point me in the right direction. The way the licenses are issued you need a cisco licensing certification to understand.

I am trying to setup Cisco Expressway-C Cluster (publisher, peer), and Cisco Expressway-E Cluster (publisher peer). I know I will have some leftover license qty.

Licenses I have:

2X LIC-SW-EXP-K9 (i think I am short 2 keys for the other peers).

1x LIC-EXP-E-PAK

• 2X LIC-EXP-E
• 2X LIC-EXP-TURN
• 4X LIC-EXP-GW
• 4X LIC-EXP-SERIES
• 1X LIC-EXP-ROOM
• 2X LIC-EXP-AN

1x LIC-EXP-E-PAK

• 222X LIC-EXP-DSK
• 4X LIC-EXP-SERIES
• 2X LIC-EXP-TURN
• 2X LIC-EXP-AN
• 4X LIC-EXP-GW
• 1X LIC-EXP-ROOM
• 2X LIC-EXP-RMS
• 2X LIC-EXP-E

This is the breakdown I have figured out so far, it might be wrong

Expressway-C (Publisher)

• 1x LIC-SW-EXP-K9 (release key)
• 1x  LIC-EXP-SERIES
• 1x LIC-EXP-GW
• 1x LIC-EXP-RMS
• 222X LIC-EXP-DSK

Expressway-C (Peer)

• 1x LIC-SW-EXP-K9 (release key)
• 1x  LIC-EXP-SERIES
• 1x LIC-EXP-GW

Expressway-E (Publisher)

• 1x LIC-SW-EXP-K9 (release key)
• 1x LIC-EXP-E
• 1x  LIC-EXP-SERIES
• 1 LIC-EXP-GW
• 1x LIC-EXP-RMS
• 4x LIC-EXP-AN
• 4x LIC-EXP-TURN

Expressway-E (Peer)

• 1x LIC-SW-EXP-K9 (release key)
• 1x LIC-EXP-E
• 1x LIC-EXP-SERIES
• 1x LIC-EXP-GW

Is this right? seriously why did they make this to complicated? 

[Patrick Sparkman]

Most of the licenses you list are included with the Expressway-C/E when purchased, so I wouldn't focus on them, I'd only focus on the license keys that you have to purchase to get any additional functionality you need (ie: LIC-EXP-ROOM and LIC-EXP-RMS).  You can reach out to your Account Manager, they can help built a qoute based on your needs for you that you can provide to the reseller you want to purcahse from.

One thing to note is that capacity licenses (RMS, room/desktop registrations, TURN) installed on an Expressway cluster peer are made available to the entire cluster.  If a cluster peer loses connection from the cluster, licenses that were installed on that peer will be available to the cluster for up to two weeks, this allows you the ability to not lose call capacity while you're working on restoring the failed node.  My recommendation is to split capacity licenses between the cluster peers, otherwise if you install all the licenses to a single peer and it goes offline, you could be in a situation where you lose complete function of your Expressway cluster if you take longer than two weeks to restore the failed peer.

[newtonpara]

The licenses you see above are what I have; I am confused where they go. I am aware of the peer feature. If you look at the licensing breakdown I made you can see the issue. Did you read the post? 

[Patrick Sparkman · Accepted solution]

I looked at the licenses earlier, but looking at it again, the breakdown of the Expressway-C and -E servers is mostly correct.  I had missed something when I first looked.
Each Expressway-C should have:

• 1x LIC-SW-EXP-K9 (Release key)
• 1x LIC-EXP-SERIES (Expressway Series)
• 1x LIC-EXP-GW (H323-SIP Interworking Gateway)
• #x LIC-EXP-ROOM (Room Systems)
• #x LIC-EXP-DSK (Desktop Systems)
• #x LIC-EXP-RMS (Rich Media Sessions)

Each Expressway-E should have:

• 1x LIC-SW-EXP-K9
• 1x LIC-EXP-E (Traversal Server)
• 1x LIC-EXP-SERIES
• 1x LIC-EXP-GW
• 1x LIC-EXP-AN (Advanced Networking)
• 1x LIC-EXP-TURN (TURN Relays)
• #x LIC-EXP-RMS

Depending on your deployment, the RMS licenses might reside on either the -C, -E, or both - refer to the "Call Types and Licensing" section of the Expressway Admin Guides for more details on where RMS licenses should reside based on your use cases.

[newtonpara]

Thank you very much for clarifying and for sharing that list! Great help. I have never seen the LIC-EXP-DSK before; the guide talks about Turn and AN licenses hopping to everyone in a cluster, I assume LIC-EXP-DSK is the same.

[Patrick Sparkman]

I edited my last reply to include descriptions of what each license is.
There are other licenses not listed, which you don't have in your list as they might not be needed, but they are for reference:

• LIC-EXP-MSFT (Microsoft Interoperability)
• LIC-VCS-FINDME (FindMe)

Desktop systems cosist of EX60, EX90, DX70, and DX80.  All other endpoint types are considered room systems, and endpoints registered using H323 (including desktop systems) will consume a room license.

[Nathan Grovhoug]

Thanks for the info. I know this is an old post. But I thought I would leave this link here for anyone else that may stumble on it. 

This page provides more details regarding these licenses. 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/unified-communications/expressway/214621-understand-expressway-and-vcs-license-in.html