What will happen to my device if license expired?

[David_Kuo]

Hi 
I heard that if my license expired, my Access Point still can service as usual. Is that true?
Thanks.

[PhilipDAth]

That is incorrect.

It will stop forwarding traffic.

[MerakiDave · Accepted solution]

@PhilipDAth is correct.  Think of this model like a form of IaaS but the infrastructure is on your premises and management is in the cloud.  All Meraki devices and licenses have a 1:1 relationship, the license is required, and is also all-inclusive, so the license gives you access to run and manage the equipment as well as 24x7x365 support, next-business-day advance HW replacement, all firmware updates, plus any new features that get developed.  Here is a screenshot of the Licensing slide from a Meraki Minilab slide deck.

[David_Kuo]

Thanks @PhilipDAth & @MerakiDave. 

[MilesMeraki]

In theory, it will continue to run as per normal when your license expires. (You get a 30 day grace period to be out of license compliance.) You'll need to update/apply a license within this grace period otherwise at the end of the 30 days you'll organisation will be disabled and the appliance will stop "Working".

[kklimala]

What would happen if you have 2 APs but only apply 1 license for 1 year.  It is my understanding that it will co-term and extend both.  But because it is co-term, it will reduce the amount of time by half.  Is that correct?

[PhilipDAth]

No. You must have a licence for every device. Your organisation will go into licence violation mode. Some time later, might be 30 days (not sure) all the devices will stop functioning.

[MerakiDave]

@PhilipDAth is correct, it's a 30-day grace period.  There are 2 ways to enter the grace period, one is when the license expires, and the other is when you deploy more pieces of equipment than you have licenses for.  You cannot split one AP license over 2 APs for half the time.  Every Meraki device is 1:1 with a license, but the license is never tied to a serial number, the license is for one "instance" of that piece of equipment, like an AP or a specific model of switch.  If you have 2 APs, you need 2 AP licenses, and with the licensing model as it stands today, there will be a single co-term date.  

The simplest example is in the License guide.  If I buy 1 AP with a 1 year license and place it in a new Dashboard org, then use it for 6 months, and then (today) I buy a 2nd AP with a 1 year license and add it into the same Org, what happens?  License co-term.  I would have 6 months of unused license on the 1st AP, plus 12 months of new license, so a total of 18 license-months divided by 2 APs gives me a co-term date 9 months from today.  You basically subtract 3 months from the 2nd AP and add 3 months to the first AP to have a single co-term date.  A lot of customers love this simple co-term licensing model, but it doesn't work for every customer in every case, which is why improvements are in the works for customers with more complex requirements.

Licensing guide: https://documentation.meraki.com/zGeneral_Administration/Licensing/Cisco_Meraki_Licensing_Guidelines...

There is also a license calculator:

https://documentation.meraki.com/zGeneral_Administration/Licensing/Using_the_License_Calculator

[FlyingFrames]

Since "Per Device Licensing" is the new norm, instead of "Co Termination", if even one device goes out of subscription in the network, then will the whole network go down or just the device will go down, which is out of subscription.

[Diego_Aguilar]

Is That resolution still actually in the meraki?
The meraki device still forward user traffic across from it, or stop all activity in the device.

[PhilipDAth]

>or stop all activity in the device.

This one.

[CraigCummings]

Yes, they will take down your entire network even if there is only one device with an expired license.  It's very draconian. One of the things that go in my hate column for Meraki.  

[CraigCummings]

 They will DOS your ENTIRE network!

https://community.meraki.com/t5/Network-Wide/How-about-not-DOSing-my-ENTIRE-network-because-one-Z1-l...

[Warren]

They kill your network across the board in the middle of the day.  Your devices become paper weights.

[SteveZo]

These threads just solidified that I will work on a new solution for my sites since I am down to the last 3 months of my current licensing. I was considering switching over to Meraki, but I cannot take the risk that this could happen to any of them. I will try the Onada solution and see where that takes me. Thanks all for the info.

[Arthamon]

Thankfully with the introduction to the subscription licensing model, devices will remain operational if they fall out of compliance. You will still lose the ability to manage the device, receive analytics or support, but they will remain operational. 

Check out the support pages here:

https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Licensing/Meraki_Subscription_License_Out_of...

https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Licensing/Meraki_Subscription_Licensing_Over...