ACI Licensing Guide - September 2023 Updated

How does Licensing in Cisco ACI work?

In the past, you only had to license the ACI Leaf Nodes. Cisco changed this rule on 1. August 2023. From now on, all new Spines you add to an ACI Fabric also need a License!

Cisco intended to streamline the licensing difference between ACI & NXOS. And to offset the cost, the APIC Bundles now Include 2 Spine licenses. It’s something, but for a Multipod Fabric, this is still a cost increase.

APICs themself still don’t need a license. Maybe this will change as well in the future?

Based on the features you use in Fabric, you need different Licenses on the Nodes. There are also some add-on licenses for specific features like MACsec.

Different Levels of Licensing for Cisco ACI

Cisco offer three different tiers in their datacenter licensing:

Essentials - The most Basic one
Advantage - All features that ACI itself offers
Premier - Additional feature through Nexus Dashboard

For the perpetual License, Cisco only offer Advantage these days. But it’s highly likely that this option will be deferred soon, and only subscription licenses are offered in the future.

Feature comparison between the Licenses

Essentials cover nearly everything that ACI has to offer, except the option to run Multi-Site. So for Multi-Site, which includes ACI anywhere, you need at least the Advantage License.

License	Features
Essentials	Basic features, Fabric Management, centralized policy configuration, Multi Pod
Advantage	Multi-Site, Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator (MSO), Physical Remote Leaf
Premier	Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insight, with this License you get the Nexus Dashboard Insight App, which provides additional information about the Fabric.

Add-ons

C1-N9K-SEC-M and C1-N9K-SEC-XF

These license add-ons are required for each leaf on which you want to use the MACSec feature (layer 2 encryption). It’s enough to have the license for the Leafs that use MACSec and not on all switches in the Fabric.

Different options available:

C1-N9K-SEC-XF-3Y – Security license for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform, 3 year term
C1-N9K-SEC-XF-5Y – Security license for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform, 5 year term
C1-N9K-SEC-XF-7Y – Security license for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform, 7 year term
C1-N9K-SEC-M-3Y – Security license for a 4-, 8-, or 16-Slot modular platform, 3 year term
C1-N9K-SEC-M-5Y – Security license for a 4-, 8-, or 16-Slot modular platform, 5 year term
C1-N9K-SEC-M-7Y – Security license for a 4-, 8-, or 16-Slot modular platform, 7 year term

Summary of ACI Licensing

If you are just going for a normal Fabric (Single Site, Stretched, Multi Pod), Essentials License got you covered. If you are looking for a Multi-Site Fabric, ACI Anywhere or Remote Leafs, then you need Advantage License on your leafs.

In the case that you want to use the Nexus Dashboard Insight, you have to go with Premier.

License SKUs

To make this article about Cisco ACI Licensing and the feature which are related to it a bit easier searchable, I added all the related SKUs.

Essentials Licenses

C1E1TN9300GF-3Y – DCN Essentials package for a 1G fixed platform (GF), 3 year term
C1E1TN9300GF-5Y – DCN Essentials package for a 1G fixed platform (GF), 5 year term
C1E1TN9300GF-7Y – DCN Essentials package for a 1G fixed platform (GF), 7 year term
C1E1TN9300XF-3Y – DCN Essentials package for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform (XF), 3 year term
C1E1TN9300XF-5Y – DCN Essentials package for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform (XF), 5 year term
C1E1TN9300XF-7Y – DCN Essentials package for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform (XF), 7 year term
C1E1TN9300XF2-3Y – DCN Essentials package for a Nexus 9364C and 9300-GX platform (XF2), 3 year term
C1E1TN9300XF2-5Y – DCN Essentials package for a Nexus 9364C and 9300-GX platform (XF2), 5 year term
C1E1TN9300XF2-7Y – DCN Essentials package for a Nexus 9364C and 9300-GX platform (XF2), 7 year term
C1E1TN9500M4-3Y – DCN Essentials package for a 4-Slot modular platform, 3 year term
C1E1TN9500M4-5Y – DCN Essentials package for a 4-Slot modular platform, 5 year term
C1E1TN9500M4-7Y – DCN Essentials package for a 4-Slot modular platform, 7 year term
C1E1TN9500M816-3Y – DCN Essentials package for an 8- or 16-Slot modular platform, 3 year term
C1E1TN9500M816-5Y – DCN Essentials package for an 8- or 16-Slot modular platform, 5 year term
C1E1TN9500M816-7Y – DCN Essentials package for an 8- or 16-Slot modular platform, 7 year term

Advantage Licenses

C1A1TN9300GF-3Y – DCN Advantage package for a 1G fixed platform (GF), 3 year term
C1A1TN9300GF-5Y – DCN Advantage package for a 1G fixed platform (GF), 5 year term
C1A1TN9300GF-7Y – DCN Advantage package for a 1G fixed platform (GF), 7 year term
C1A1TN9300XF-3Y – DCN Advantage package for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform (XF), 3 year term
C1A1TN9300XF-5Y – DCN Advantage package for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform (XF), 5 year term
C1A1TN9300XF-7Y – DCN Advantage package for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform (XF), 7 year term
C1A1TN9300XF2-3Y – DCN Advantage package for a Nexus 9364C and 9300-GX platform (XF2), 3 year term
C1A1TN9300XF2-5Y – DCN Advantage package for a Nexus 9364C and 9300-GX platform (XF2), 5 year term
C1A1TN9300XF2-7Y – DCN Advantage package for a Nexus 9364C and 9300-GX platform (XF2), 7 year term
C1A1TN9500M4-3Y – DCN Advantage package for a 4-Slot modular platform, 3 year term
C1A1TN9500M4-5Y – DCN Advantage package for a 4-Slot modular platform, 5 year term
C1A1TN9500M4-7Y – DCN Advantage package for a 4-Slot modular platform, 7 year term
C1A1TN9500M816-3Y – DCN Advantage package for an 8- or 16-Slot modular platform, 3 year term
C1A1TN9500M816-5Y – DCN Advantage package for an 8- or 16-Slot modular platform, 5 year term
C1A1TN9500M816-7Y – DCN Advantage package for an 8- or 16-Slot modular platform, 7 year term

Premier Licenses

C1P1TN9300GF-3Y – DCN Premier package for a 1G fixed platform (GF), 3 year term
C1P1TN9300GF-5Y – DCN Premier package for a 1G fixed platform (GF), 5 year term
C1P1TN9300GF-7Y – DCN Premier package for a 1G fixed platform (GF), 7 year term
C1P1TN9300XF-3Y – DCN Premier package for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform (XF), 3 year term
C1P1TN9300XF-5Y – DCN Premier package for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform (XF), 5 year term
C1P1TN9300XF-7Y – DCN Premier package for a 10/25/40/100G fixed platform (XF), 7 year term
C1P1TN9300XF2-3Y – DCN Premier package for a Nexus 9364C and 9300-GX platform (XF2), 3 year term
C1P1TN9300XF2-5Y – DCN Premier package for a Nexus 9364C and 9300-GX platform (XF2), 5 year term
C1P1TN9300XF2-7Y – DCN Premier package for a Nexus 9364C and 9300-GX platform (XF2), 7 year term
C1P1TN9500M4-3Y – DCN Premier package for a 4-Slot modular platform, 3 year term
C1P1TN9500M4-5Y – DCN Premier package for a 4-Slot modular platform, 5 year term
C1P1TN9500M4-7Y – DCN Premier package for a 4-Slot modular platform, 7 year term
C1P1TN9500M816-3Y – DCN Premier package for an 8- or 16-Slot modular platform, 3 year term
C1P1TN9500M816-5Y – DCN Premier package for an 8- or 16-Slot modular platform, 5 year term
C1P1TN9500M816-7Y – DCN Premier package for an 8- or 16-Slot modular platform, 7 year term

Cisco Guides

Cisco Data Center Networking Software Subscriptions Suites FAQ