Pooled licenses are subscription-based and sit in a central license pool managed by CMS. CMS distributes them dynamically across all SMA 1000 appliances in the cluster based on real-time session demand. Perpetual licenses are a one-time purchase that never expires. They are assigned to a specific appliance and remain in place as long as you own and operate the appliance.

A spike license is a short-term capacity add-on that activates for a defined 5-day window. It is used when you expect a temporary surge in concurrent remote users, such as during a planned migration, a company-wide remote work event, or peak seasonal periods. Spike licenses are available in 1,000-user and 50,000-user packs and are managed through CMS without requiring individual appliance reconfiguration.

Yes. Pooled licensing requires the SonicWall Central Management Server. CMS is the system that holds the license pool and distributes capacity to managed SMA appliances based on demand. Without CMS, user licenses are allocated per appliance and do not share across nodes.

The user capacity enabled by a perpetual license remains active after the support contract expires. The appliance will continue to allow up to the licensed session count. However, firmware updates and technical support from SonicWall require an active support subscription. Renewing support does not require repurchasing the perpetual license.

Yes. CMS can manage appliances with both perpetual and subscription-based license types in the same cluster. Perpetual licenses are tied to specific appliances, while pooled licenses float across the cluster. The overall session capacity available to each appliance reflects both its locally assigned perpetual licenses and any pooled capacity CMS allocates to it.