Is a license required for Meraki MX?

[K-C]

Hi,

1. Is a license required for Meraki MX?
2. If so, how many minutes does Cisco spend to check its validity of license after Meraki MX is connected to the internet?
3. And, after the expiration date of the license and the grace period, does the Meraki MX go shutdown or invalid?

Thank you,

[Brash]

The following doc answers most of you're questions:

https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Licensing/Meraki_Licensing_FAQs#General_Lice...

Essentially:

1. Yes

2. Once the MX is connected, your 30 day grace period begins.

3. Your device will be unmanageable from the Meraki dashboard and it may cease to pass network traffic.

[Shubh3738]

Yes, it is mandatory.

[GIdenJoe · Accepted solution]

The MX is actually the most expensive device as far as licensing goes.  It's the device where the license is usually more expensive than the hardware.  In Co-term licensing you have 3 license tiers (enterprise, advanced sec, SD-WAN) and in subscription licensing you have 2 license tiers (essentials, advantage) that equal the two higher tiers on the co-term model.

Any Meraki device will always be uploading client data, statistics and downloading config.
So the moment the dashboard sees you have too little licenses your grace period will start to count.

In case of Co-term licensing your grace period is 30 days with a hard shutdown of your network.  Devices will stop forwarding traffic.

In case of subscription licensing your grace period could be 90 days but I'm not sure, however your network will still forward but not be configurable.

[K-C]

Thank you for all your replies.

By the way, I have a MR, too, and it has been working without licenses.

Can anybody figure out why the MR works without licenses?

Thank you,

[cmr]

What licencing mode is your organisation set to? Co-termination, Per Device Licence or Subscription.

[K-C]

Per Device Licence.

And, according to the page "Licensing & inventory" in the dashboard, the column "License expiration date" displays the text "None"

This status has remains for so long.

[Shubh3738]

See left side their Expiration date.

[cmr]

In per device license mode the enforcement of the license requirement is unreliable.  I'm guessing this is why the license mode is no longer available for new organisations.  It doesn't mean that you don't need a license and you should buy one ASAP for the upcoming MX and existing MR.

[K-C]

Thank you for all your repiies.