Switch license from one Hardware to another

[Sabrina1]

Hello Together,

I have a customer that would like to renew his network hardware from Meraki. The customer already has Meraki Systems Manager Licenses for 5 years. Is it possible to purchase the new Meraki Hardware without licenses and switch the existing licenses to the new hardware?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best

Sabrina

[Bruce]

They'll need to purchase a license with the new hardware. You'd have to contact the Meraki AM to see if they can swap licenses, but its unlikely (unless they're a recent purchase, in which case they may agree to it for a credit).

Unless they customer has moved to the Per Device Licensing model, they will be on the Co-termination licensing model. In the Co-termination model if they purchase a 1-year license for the new hardware then licenses will 'flow back' from the SM licenses to the point where its equal (think of the licenses as a bucket of tokens spread across all devices).

The renewal date will no longer be 5 years away, and depending on the product(s) purchased it may only be a year or two out from the date of the new hardware purchase, but it effectively pulls the licenses from the SM to the new hardware. Have a look at this tool to see if it can help you calculate the impact it may have, https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Licensing/Using_the_License_Calculator. 

[KRobert]

Like @Bruce @Inderdeep stated, the short answer for new hardware is no. Additionally the licensing for Systems Manager is different from the hardware licensing so I can see where that may not exchange well when converting from SM to MX,MS,MR or etc. equipment. If you really wanted to go the route of purchasing equipment without licensing, the only way would be to purchase the hardware on eBay. With that comes a huge risk though because the equipment needs to be unclaimed and they are not covered by warranty. To me and probably the rest of the community, it's just not worth the savings you'd get from transferring the SM license. I would just work through your account manager and equipment vendor and I am just they can get you great deals.

Possible? Yes, but only used and at what I think would be more costly in the long run.
Advisable? Definitely not. But now you know.

[BlakeRichardson]

@Sabrina1 Short answer is no, switch licensing is worked out based on the model, number or ports and what feature the switch has i.e POE or not. 

Bear in mind the licensing not only covers the device connecting to the dashboard but also its support.