Cisco ASR 9004 Chassis and Licensing.
I am currently running an ASR-9010 and already own a pair of with a pair of A9K-RSP440-TR route processors along with an A9K-24X10GE-TR line card and some others, including an A9K-MPA-2X40GE. I'm thinking about adding some 100G capability, although I don't really need it yet. I also have a couple spare RSP880s and a spare A9K-24X10GE-TR. I have recently seen ASR-9904 chassis and A99-8X100GE-TR line cards for sale on the secondary market at reasonable prices, and I am considering building a lab router using: * ASR-9904 chassis * Dual A9K-RSP880-TR * A9K-24X10GE-TR * A99-8X100GE-TR I know there is also the A9K-8X100GE-TR, which would work in my existing 9010 chassis, but those cards seem to be both expensive and hard to find. My question is mostly about licensing. If I assemble this system from used components, will I encounter any licensing issues that would prevent the router or the 100GE interfaces from operating? I'm not asking about advanced features such as EVPN, HQoS, MACsec, or large-scale VRF deployments. My primary interest is basic IPv4/IPv6 routing, BGP, and operation of the 10GE and 100GE interfaces. Has anyone actually deployed or labbed a 9904 with an A99-8X100GE-TR and RSP880s using equipment acquired on the secondary market? Specifically: * Do the A99-8X100GE-TR ports come up and pass traffic without additional licensing? * Are there any Smart Licensing requirements that would prevent normal operation? * Are there any known limitations when using these cards in a standalone lab environment without an active Cisco support contract? I have tried contacting Cisco and a few resellers, but I have not been able to get a clear answer on whether any licensing is enforced for basic operation of the A99-8X100GE-TR. I am hoping someone with real-world experience can clarify what actually happens in practice. I am also not sure how I would go about obtaining any required licenses if I eventually decided to move the system into production. Cisco Smart Licensing makes my head hurt.
We run 9904's in prod on 6.4.2 and 6.9.2 without smart licensing enabled and no problems with the same cards you referenced below. [cid:42b38caf-cdea-4d91-bf4c-ff2d874d2058] Evan S. Weiner Managing Member , Hosted Backbone, LLC d: (804) 549-4899<tel:(804)%20549-4899> | m: (804) 677-9544<tel:(804)%20677-9544> e: eweiner@hostedbackbone.net<mailto:eweiner@hostedbackbone.net> | w: www.hostedbackbone.net<https://www.hostedbackbone.net/> ________________________________ From: andy--- via NANOG <nanog@lists.nanog.org> Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2026 12:14 PM To: nanog@lists.nanog.org <nanog@lists.nanog.org> Cc: andy@chillercity.net <andy@chillercity.net> Subject: Cisco ASR 9004 Chassis and Licensing. I am currently running an ASR-9010 and already own a pair of with a pair of A9K-RSP440-TR route processors along with an A9K-24X10GE-TR line card and some others, including an A9K-MPA-2X40GE. I'm thinking about adding some 100G capability, although I don't really need it yet. I also have a couple spare RSP880s and a spare A9K-24X10GE-TR. I have recently seen ASR-9904 chassis and A99-8X100GE-TR line cards for sale on the secondary market at reasonable prices, and I am considering building a lab router using: * ASR-9904 chassis * Dual A9K-RSP880-TR * A9K-24X10GE-TR * A99-8X100GE-TR I know there is also the A9K-8X100GE-TR, which would work in my existing 9010 chassis, but those cards seem to be both expensive and hard to find. My question is mostly about licensing. If I assemble this system from used components, will I encounter any licensing issues that would prevent the router or the 100GE interfaces from operating? I'm not asking about advanced features such as EVPN, HQoS, MACsec, or large-scale VRF deployments. My primary interest is basic IPv4/IPv6 routing, BGP, and operation of the 10GE and 100GE interfaces. Has anyone actually deployed or labbed a 9904 with an A99-8X100GE-TR and RSP880s using equipment acquired on the secondary market? Specifically: * Do the A99-8X100GE-TR ports come up and pass traffic without additional licensing? * Are there any Smart Licensing requirements that would prevent normal operation? * Are there any known limitations when using these cards in a standalone lab environment without an active Cisco support contract? I have tried contacting Cisco and a few resellers, but I have not been able to get a clear answer on whether any licensing is enforced for basic operation of the A99-8X100GE-TR. I am hoping someone with real-world experience can clarify what actually happens in practice. I am also not sure how I would go about obtaining any required licenses if I eventually decided to move the system into production. Cisco Smart Licensing makes my head hurt. _______________________________________________ NANOG mailing list https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/nanog@lists.nanog.org/message/PMMZEO26...
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andy＠chillercity.net -
Evan S. Weiner