When you purchase one or more licenses for the FTD device, you manage them in the Cisco Smart Software Manager: https://software.cisco.com/#SmartLicensing-Inventory. The Cisco Smart Software Manager lets you create a primary account for your organization.

By default, your licenses are assigned to the Default Virtual Account under your primary account. As the account administrator, you can create additional virtual accounts; for example, for regions, departments, or subsidiaries. Multiple virtual accounts help you manage large numbers of licenses and appliances.

Licenses and appliances are managed per virtual account; only that virtual account’s appliances can use the licenses assigned to the account. If you need additional licenses, you can transfer an unused license from another virtual account. You can also transfer appliances between virtual accounts.

When you register a device with Cisco Smart Software Manager, you create a Product Instance Registration Token in the manager, and then enter it in FDM. A registered device becomes associated with a virtual account based on the token that is used.

For more information about the Cisco Smart Software Manager, see the online help for the manager.

When you use a Product Instance Registration Token to register the FTD device, the device registers with the Cisco License Authority. The License Authority issues an ID certificate for communication between the device and the License Authority. This certificate is valid for one year, although it will be renewed every six months. If an ID certificate expires (usually in nine months or a year with no communication), the device reverts to a de-registered state and licensed feature usage is suspended.

The device communicates with the License Authority on a periodic basis. If you make changes in the Cisco Smart Software Manager, you can refresh the authorization on the device so the changes immediately take effect. You also can wait for the device to communicate as scheduled. Normal license communication occurs every 12 hours, but with the grace period, your device will operate for up to 90 days without calling home. You must contact the License Authority before 90 days have passed.

The following table explains the licenses available for the FTD device.

Your purchase of a FTD device automatically includes a Base license. All additional licenses are optional.

If one of the following optional licenses expires, you can continue using features that require the license. However, the license is marked out of compliance and you need to purchase the license and add it to your account to bring the license back into compliance.

If you disable an optional license, the system reacts as follows:

• Malware—The system stops querying the Secure Malware Analytics Cloud, and also stops acknowledging retrospective events sent from the Secure Malware Analytics Cloud. You cannot re-deploy existing access control policies if they include file policies. Note that for a very brief time after a Malware license is disabled, the system can use existing cached file dispositions. After the time window expires, the system assigns a disposition of Unavailable to those files.

• Threat—The system no longer applies intrusion or file policies. For Security Intelligence policies, the system no longer applies the policy and stops downloading feed updates. You cannot re-deploy existing policies that require the license.

• URL—Access control rules with URL category conditions immediately stop filtering URLs, and the system no longer downloads updates to URL data. You cannot re-deploy existing access control policies if they include rules with category and reputation-based URL conditions.

• RA VPN—You cannot edit the remote access VPN configuration, but you can remove it. Users can still connect using the RA VPN configuration. However, if you change the device registration so that the system is no longer export compliant, the remote access VPN configuration stops immediately and no remote users can connect through the VPN.