Hello Meraki Community,
I am looking into getting a used Meraki switch (MS42P) from eBay.
Is there a way to manage it without paying for a license? (other than the trial)
If not, what functionality can I expect from it without paying?
I would like to keep costs down as I am still in high school, and it's mainly a learning experience for me.
Thank you.
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1 - Beginning at 30 days to the end of term, a banner begins to display within the Meraki Dashboard system alerting the admin of the impending due date.
2 - Emails are also sent out to the admin email address -which you should remember to keep current- are mailed periodically as the end date approaches.
3 - When the license itself expires, your network does NOT immediately shut down. At that point, you enter a 30-day grace period where the network still works, but the Meraki Dashboard will give warning of the impending shutdown.
4 - If that 30-day grace period ends without the licensing being brought into compliance, the network ceases to function. The Meraki Dashboard will only allow access to the license area, and any users attempting to access the network will be given an error screen telling them to contact their administrator.
At any point in this process, and even after a shutdown, the Meraki network can be easily brought back into license by calling your authorized Meraki vendor, or purchasing a Meraki license manually through an authorized vendor. Unless you only have a handful of devices, we strongly suggest contacting your vendor directly. They'll help ensure you get the right number of licenses, for the right devices, without any confusion or mistakes.
1 - Beginning at 30 days to the end of term, a banner begins to display within the Meraki Dashboard system alerting the admin of the impending due date.
2 - Emails are also sent out to the admin email address -which you should remember to keep current- are mailed periodically as the end date approaches.
3 - When the license itself expires, your network does NOT immediately shut down. At that point, you enter a 30-day grace period where the network still works, but the Meraki Dashboard will give warning of the impending shutdown.
4 - If that 30-day grace period ends without the licensing being brought into compliance, the network ceases to function. The Meraki Dashboard will only allow access to the license area, and any users attempting to access the network will be given an error screen telling them to contact their administrator.
At any point in this process, and even after a shutdown, the Meraki network can be easily brought back into license by calling your authorized Meraki vendor, or purchasing a Meraki license manually through an authorized vendor. Unless you only have a handful of devices, we strongly suggest contacting your vendor directly. They'll help ensure you get the right number of licenses, for the right devices, without any confusion or mistakes.
If you can claim it into a dashboard (which is only possible after the previous owner unclaimed it), then you can probably start a 30 day grace period. In those 30 days you'll be able to experiment with the configurations.
After the thirty days and the whole shebang mentioned by @kYutobi you won't be able to configure or monitor anything anymore, and the network may stop functioning altogether.
In short, if you want to learn and experiment you can probably get away without a license. In production, not so much.
Since your focus is learning you might try the free dashboard demo: https://meraki.cisco.com/form/demo
@amessmann I would suggest you attend the webinars which will give you access to certain free hardware with 3 years of licensing if you are eligible.
Much easier than potentially wasting money on eBay
Hello Everybody.
@BlakeRichardson where can I suscribe to those webminars? Cannot find it.
https://meraki.cisco.com/webinars/
Hi all, so i wont be able to use the switch if I am not managing the switch through the portal...
Can i use it as a switch stand alone?
And can I then manager the switch through the console port or web browser?
Thx all!!
@Newwworldmonkey Meraki switches are only manageable through the dashboard and you need a license for that. There is a local admin page but it is only really there if you need to set the local IP address to allow it to connect to the dashboard.
Without a license the switch is essentially a doorstop.
And to add to what @cmr said: It will be one of the most beautiful doorstop on the market. 😉
Thx, got it!