PDL vs Co-term license purchase

[cmeyerdnh]

Hello, I am pretty sure I know the answer to this but our customer is getting a different answer from Meraki support.

The customer purchased licenses some MRs and MX'es. Before applying them, they switched their org PDL. When they tried to claim the license it failed. (They sent me a screen shot but it did not include the error. Still trying to get that)

A big concern that I have though is that they contacted Meraki support. Support worked with them and came to the following conclusion.

From Meraki Support

"What is the problem?
Advised the customer’s licensing model has been converted to the PDL model but the included licenses in<snipped> are in co-term model.
Advised since they purchased the license recently, they can just RMA the license and purchase the correct license for the PDL dashboard."

This makes 0 sense to me given that it is stated multiple times that there is no difference in the license purchase.

For example..

“Ordering Meraki licenses does not differ between the co-termination and per-device licensing model.” <snipped> “Customers do not need to ask for a ‘Device license’, rather they just purchase the product and assign it accordingly.”

The Science Behind Per-Device Licensing

I see nothing in the documentation that support the diagnoses and corrective action stated by Meraki support. Am I missing something here or is support crazy?

[PhilipDAth]

As a matter of interested, are they trying to apply the licences as a renewal or as additional licences?

[cmeyerdnh]

Thanks for replying. They were trying to renew a couple of devices. Funny story though, I had asked them a bunch of questions for clarity while I started working this. They just got back to me and stated that they were able to apply the license. Of course they disregarded all of my questions, sigh. Now I am trying to find out how this was resolved to see if I can get some insight in to what was going on and why Meraki support would have stated what they did. They had attached the email so I at least know that was accurate. As I understand it the only issue would be if the license had started to "burn" but since it was only a few weeks old and unclaimed it should have been fine.....and from the last customer reply I guess it was. Since it is challenging to get information from our customers, I will be lucky to learn any more now that they do not need us, lol. 

[BrechtSchamp]

Your understanding is correct. The SKU's are the same for PDL and co-term. The difference is the behavior when they're applied. (Also, small detail, the MR advanced licenses can only be used in the PDL model)

The result would've been different when applying the licenses first and then converting vs converting and applying afterwards. Maybe that's the issue?

Also as @PhilipDAth already mentioned, in the co-term model it's very important that you understand the difference between renewal and addition. Renewal effectively resets all your "allowed number of devices per type" to the numbers on that specific order. This is often overlooked by customers.