License Requirements for Firewall Management Center High Availability Configurations

Each device requires the same licenses whether managed by a single Firewall Management Center or by Firewall Management Centers in a high availability pair (hardware or virtual).

Example: If you want to enable advanced malware protection for two devices managed by a Firewall Management Center pair, buy two Malware Defense licenses and two TM subscriptions, register the active Firewall Management Center with the Smart Software Manager, then assign the licenses to the two devices on the active Firewall Management Center.

Only the active Firewall Management Center is registered with the Smart Software Manager. When failover occurs, the system communicates with Smart Software Manager to release the license entitlements from the originally-active Firewall Management Center and assign them to the newly-active Firewall Management Center.

In Specific License Reservation deployments, only the primary Firewall Management Center requires a Specific License Reservation.

Hardware Firewall Management Center

No special license is required for hardware Firewall Management Centers in a high availability pair.

Firewall Management Center Virtual

You will need two identically licensed Firewall Management Center Virtuals.

Example: For the Firewall Management Center Virtual high availability pair managing 10 devices, you can use:

• Two (2) Firewall Management Center Virtual 10 entitlements

• 10 device licenses

If you break the high availability pair, the Firewall Management Center Virtual entitlements associated with the secondary Firewall Management Center Virtual are released. (In the example, you would then have two standalone Firewall Management Center Virtual 10s.)