How about not DOSing my ENTIRE network because one Z1 license is expired!!!!

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CraigCummings
Getting noticed

How about not DOSing my ENTIRE network because one Z1 license is expired!!!!

Wow!  Absolutely horrible customer experience!

 

Because one Z1 license was expired (long ago, actually), Cisco picked today to DOS my ENTIRE network for nonpayment.  I can understand disabling the Z1, but the ENTIRE network?!?!?  Are you kidding me?  WTF? Livid!

 

Then I get to play how the f*** can I get Meraki support on the line to fix this since I now have no network connection with which to retrieve my customer number that this incessant recording keeps asking for like EVERY 6 seconds!  Is Cisco TRYING to drive me away?

 

Then I get to listen to the same obnoxious tune on a ~6 second loop for 20 mins before I finally get someone that can help!  My god!  I guess they ARE TRYING to drive me away.

 

Seriously motivated to start looking for a good Meraki alternative.  

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
RussDavis
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

CraigCummings I’d like to apologize for the frustration around your experience.

 

Meraki’s licensing model was created with the intent to be straight forward and simple. All Dashboard licenses co-terminate, providing you with one Dashboard expiration date. This has been done so customers don’t have to juggle multiple end dates however if this was never shared or explained I can certainly see how it would create frustration. This quick 2-min YouTube video can provide you with an overview of how we co-terminate.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHmR1DPI4cY

 

We will always provide warnings before a network is shut down for licensing compliance. Warnings start at 90-days and they are sent to the e-mail address associated with your Dashboard login. If you joined a device, such as the Z1 mentioned, to your Dashboard org but never added a license key you will be put into a 30-day grace period allowing time to add the license before shut down. If there is unlicensed hardware within your org, you can simply remove or “unclaim” the gear and you’ll be back in compliance.

 

Full documentation regarding Meraki Licensing can be found in the link below.

 

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

 

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22 REPLIES 22
ww
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

you ignored the warning e-mails?

MRCUR
Kind of a big deal


@ww wrote:

you ignored the warning e-mails?


Whoops!

MRCUR | CMNO #12
Adam
Kind of a big deal

They give a grace period don't they?  Or did that expire too?

Adam R MS | CISSP, CISM, VCP, MCITP, CCNP, ITILv3, CMNO
If this was helpful click the Kudo button below
If my reply solved your issue, please mark it as a solution.

Nope.  I read them, and I bought bought new licenses for the devices I intended to keep using. 

 

However, the warning emails did not make it clear (AT ALL) that they would disable the ENTIRE org.  Pretty sure they disable the entire org, but even just the entire network would insanely excessive also.  Absolutely no reason/excuse to disable the ENTIRE org vs. the one measly device that is unlicensed.  Heavy-handed is a radical understatement.

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

So you are saying Cisco Meraki launched a DOS attack against you - or simply disabled your devices for non-payment?

Adam
Kind of a big deal


@PhilipDAth wrote:

So you are saying Cisco Meraki launched a DOS attack against you - or simply disabled your devices for non-payment?


I read it the same way as well.  It seemed like he was saying that Cisco was launching a Denial of Service (DOS) attack against his networks.  But I'm hopeful to assume that he just means his services were being denied.  Or just a fancy way of saying his services were disabled.  I strongly doubt Cisco would launch a DOS attack on a customer unless they were ready to cut a large check after being sued. 

Adam R MS | CISSP, CISM, VCP, MCITP, CCNP, ITILv3, CMNO
If this was helpful click the Kudo button below
If my reply solved your issue, please mark it as a solution.

Are you serious?  DOS = denial of service.  The method used is irrelevant.  

This is the other point of confusion.  Said unlicensed Z1 had been on my network, unlicensed, for at least a year. Some other licenses were set to expire today, but I renewed those.  So, this one Z1, that had been on my network, unlicensed, for at least a year, was cause to disable my ENTIRE org?  

 

Again, what if this was a hospital with thousands of devices.  You shut down the ENTIRE hospital over one measly Z1 license?!?

 

I can't be the only one that sees a problem here.

 

There is absolutely no valid technical reason Cisco couldn't simply disable the one unlicensed device instead of the ENTIRE org.  

It is a bit of a tough one.

 

From your perspective you paid the bill, and thought everything was ok.  You knew you had an extra device, but you weren't using it anymore, so why would you need to do anything about it.

 

From Cisco Meraki's side they were basically doing debt collection.  They had a customer that had part paid their bill (from their perspective).  They would have sent a number of reminders.  There would have been a big banner in the dashboard.  I'm guessing you never contacted Cisco Meraki about any of the warnings otherwise I know they would have helped with this situation.  What can you do as a business with a non-communicative customer who has only paid part of their bill?  Eventually you have no choice but to cut them loose.  I've done it before.  Some customers are simply not worth having.

 

 

Ideally their would have been a Cisco Meraki partner involved to help - the original Cisco partner that sold you the solution and designed and deployed it.  As a partner I can tell you I follow up every single warning we get from Cisco Meraki about our customers to make sure no one has to suffer a horrible fate.  It is usually such a trivial matter to do.

 

Perhaps you just got your kit from a box shifter, and did most of the work yourself, I don't know.  I guess the more of the task you take on yourself the more responsible you are for the situation.

 

 

I'm really sorry that this had to happen to you.  It is a pretty terrible position to be put in.  I don't really see what Cisco Meraki could have done differently to be honest.

 

What do you do in your company when customers don'y fully pay their bill and they don't respond to you when you try and contact them about it?

I spoke with a Meraki rep the day before it happened...sorting out the licensing.  He didn't warn me either, even though he clearly noticed the problem.  In retrospect, I think he was trying to tell me...but didn't make it clear at all.

 

In any event...there is absolutely no valid reason to disable the ENTIRE org over one measly Z1 license.   Cisco could easily just disable the one Z1.  Again, heavy-handed is a radical understatement. It's also potentially dangerous and even life threatening in a different environment like a hospital.  

MRCUR
Kind of a big deal


@CraigCummings wrote:

In any event...there is absolutely no valid reason to disable the ENTIRE org over one measly Z1 license.   Cisco could easily just disable the one Z1.  Again, heavy-handed is a radical understatement. 


This isn't about a "measly" Z1 compared to your other products. Meraki licenses everything at the org level. There is ONE expiration date for the entire org. There would've been a red license warning button displaying in your Dashboard for the entire time you were out of license compliance. 

 

Is this a different licensing approach than most tech companies? Yes, but Meraki has a different approach to tech than most companies. Understanding how the licensing works is part of being a Meraki admin. 

MRCUR | CMNO #12

I don't usually weigh in on these things, but the same thing happened to me this week at 8am on a Saturday morning.

We are a customer facing business (wholesale) and our stores couldn't trade for 30 minutes because a single MX device was unlicensed. We have a network of over 500 devices...

 

I'm not as livid, as my account team was on the ball and were absolute guns, we were back online pretty quick. But I would agree that both the communication isn't always clear, and the disabling of our entire organisation is absurd.

So, would the correct thing to do be delete the device that is not licensed and no longer used? If Meraki licenses by org, how do you renew a license for an entire org and still have unlicensed devices? I'm a little confused.

Hi svk253-

 

You are correct, the entire Dashboard Org is licensed as a whole. If you purchase a renewal for only some of the devices within the org, you have to remove those devices to be in compliance. 

MRCUR
Kind of a big deal

@svk253 If you're not using a device anymore, you need to remove it from whatever Dashboard network it's in. You don't need to remove it from your org inventory, but if a device is in a network, then it will consume a license. 

MRCUR | CMNO #12

But there is no "BILL" here, per se.  If the customer chooses not to renew one piece of equipment he is intentionally not choosing to get billed.  

RussDavis
Meraki Employee
Meraki Employee

CraigCummings I’d like to apologize for the frustration around your experience.

 

Meraki’s licensing model was created with the intent to be straight forward and simple. All Dashboard licenses co-terminate, providing you with one Dashboard expiration date. This has been done so customers don’t have to juggle multiple end dates however if this was never shared or explained I can certainly see how it would create frustration. This quick 2-min YouTube video can provide you with an overview of how we co-terminate.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHmR1DPI4cY

 

We will always provide warnings before a network is shut down for licensing compliance. Warnings start at 90-days and they are sent to the e-mail address associated with your Dashboard login. If you joined a device, such as the Z1 mentioned, to your Dashboard org but never added a license key you will be put into a 30-day grace period allowing time to add the license before shut down. If there is unlicensed hardware within your org, you can simply remove or “unclaim” the gear and you’ll be back in compliance.

 

Full documentation regarding Meraki Licensing can be found in the link below.

 

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

 

Yep.  Figure out the solution.  That I had to be down for 30 mins and navigate your incredibly rude shut out until I was able to track down my customer number is inexcusable.  Are we meant to have these numbers tattooed on our bodies? 

 

Disabling the entire org over one device license is F'ing absurd.  Like, off the rails F'ing absurd.  As I stated in another response....heavy-handed would be a radical understatement.  What if I was a hospital (iIm not) and we didn't renew a license for one measly Z1 at some doctor's house...you would have shut down the entire hospital network over a $30 license.  Un-F'ing-real!

We just went through this today.  They shut down our entire network because our support partner forgot to license two switches added to a remote site.  They were fully paid for, he just forgot to add the license to the portal.  To add to this, my company did not receive a single notification because we use SAML login, and for whatever reason those accounts are not included in the licensing notifications.  

 

I cannot believe anyone is defending this policy.  Removing access to specific devices would be understandable.  Removing access to an entire network absolutely blows my mind.  In our case, we have about 500k worth of equipment, and they deactivated everything over a $2,000 switch that wasn't properly installed.  This policy should be changed.

CptnCrnch
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

Well, it actually has changed by using the Pre Device Licensing-scheme.

Thanks, yeah we are switching to co-term and getting rid of SAML accounts.  I don't love the idea of managing 125 independent licenses, but it's the safe route.  Co-term would be my preference, they could easily fix it if they wanted to.  This is nothing more than heavy handed DRM meant to maximize profits while putting honest businesses at risk of outages.  

MrJeff
New here

I agree with this post.  This happened to me this morning .  I could not believe it !!!

Yes I got the emails, but they were just for a TEST device.  I figured let it expire - thats fine.

Then my entire network was down this morning.  This is no way to do business

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