ASA 5510 VPN Peer License Question

Question

I just got a new ASA 5510 Base Model and I have some questions I would love some help on.
1) I was under the impression that the ASA 5510 could support 250 VPN Peers. When I do a show version on this new unit I am told VPN Peers are only 50. I would like to have more than 50 L2L VPN Tunnels and RA clients connected at one. Where did I mess up with this understanding?
2) I am running ASA Software Version 7.0(6) this is how it was shipped to me. I hear that 7.2 is the latest? Can I get this upgrade from Cisco?

Answer 1

Hi,
There a couple of points here which are a bit tricky - the first is the software versioning of PIX/ASA software. If we have a look at how it work in IOS (It would be useful if there was an equivalent paper for PIX/ASA...)
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1828/products_white_paper09186a008018305e.shtml
The basic idea is that if you go from 7.0(1) to 7.0(2) you're getting more software fixes and less new features but if you go from 7.0(1) to 7.1(1) you're getting more major new features but less software fixes. On PIX/ASA there seems to be a fairly clear choice between stability and features. Don't forget that the 3 trains have releases independent of each other so it doesn't necessarily follow that the highest numbered release was the latest one, let alone the most stable one. Before 7.2(2) was released last November the latest release was 7.0(6) and we actually standardised on this because all releases above 7.0(6) were giving us issues (especially the 7.1 versions). We're trialling 7.2(2) at the moment and it seems to be as solid as 7.0(6) so that also looks like a good choice.
With that in mind we need to look at the feature sets of the various releases, and currently 7.2(2) gives you 250 maximum concurrent IPsec sessions whether or not you have the Security Plus license. I think this change happened during one of the 7.1 releases. If you only have 7.0 then you get 50 as standard and can upgrade to 150 if you have a security plus license. (With 7.2(2) you still need the security plus license to get failover and vpn load balancing - but not to get the 250 sessions.)
As to upgrading - it's possible 7.0(6) was actually the "latest" release when you purchased your box and unless you specified a particular version when you bought it this is what you normally get (you can ask for any version you like at no charge when you buy it initially). You really need smartnet for the ASA because the standard Cisco warranty is rubbish (90 days only and you wait 10 days for a replacement) so unless it's a test network you're pretty much forced to buy smartnet to be sure of a fast replacement (or any replacement at all after 90 days..) Also, the cost of a smartnet contract for a year if you only need NBD replacement is less than the cost of a one-off software upgrade AND you get to download any version you like for the year AND you can also log calls directly with the TAC.
So, I'd recommend buying a smartnet contract and then go through the release notes to find a suitable release to download - sounds like 7.2(2) might be what you need - at the very least you should be upgrading to get more sessions rather than sticking to 7.0 and buying a security plus license. (Because both the one-off upgrade and the security plus license are probably more expensive than smartnet!)
HTH - plz rate if useful
Andrew.