Co-Termination Licensing FAQs
Co-Term Licensing overview
What is Meraki Co-Termination (Co-Term) Licensing?
Co-Term licensing calculates a weighted average of purchased licenses to determine a single expiration date for every Meraki device managed in an organization. Review this video and documentation: Meraki Co-Termination Licensing Overview
What happens if I add devices in the middle of my license term?
Meraki sells 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10-year licenses, but does not sell prorated licenses. When you add a license to an existing account, we calculate the amount of extra time in your account and extend the co-terminating renewal date for all your devices accordingly.
Example scenario:
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Original purchase: 1-year licenses for 10 APs.
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Additional purchase: 4 months into original license term, you purchase 1-year licenses for 6 more APs.
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Credit: 1.5 months additional credit toward co-term renewal date:
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4 months x 6 APs = 24 AP-months.
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Those 24 AP-months are applied to your new 16 AP network
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24 AP-months ÷ 16 AP devices = 1.5 months credit
In this way, an account only has a single co-terminating renewal date, avoiding the confusion associated with multiple renewal dates. To anticipate how new licenses will affect your co-termination date, please reference our dashboard License Calculator.
What is an example of a co-termination organization’s license state?
The screenshot below shows a customer with different Meraki products. They have applied multiple different licenses on different dates for different products. Still there is only one expiration date.
[Organization > Configure > License Info]
Can I move licenses between organizations?
Yes.
With the co-termination licensing model, licenses that have been applied to an organization within the last seven (7) days can be reapplied to another organization. Please read Removing and Undoing License Claims article for more details.
Organization administrators may also either request Meraki Support transfer a license (How to Request a License Transfer) or perform a license transfer themselves (How to do a License Transfer in Cotermination).
Renewing Licenses
What happens when I reach my co-termination date?
We recommend moving to the Subscription licensing model before you renew. Your current licenses must expire before you can transition to the Subscription license model. For more details, refer to Subscription - Licensing Overview documentation.
To renew under the Co-Termination licensing model, you can purchase a renewal through an authorized Meraki partner (see Meraki Licensing - License More Devices vs Renewal).
Immediately after reaching your co-termination date, you will receive a 30-day grace period as per Meraki Co-Termination Licensing Overview. If you chose not to renew before the end of the 30-day grace period, the organization will be "shut down" (License Problem - Out of Compliance). You will no longer be able to manage your devices via the Meraki cloud and your Meraki network devices will cease to function. This means that you will no longer be able to configure or make changes to your Meraki network equipment, and your Meraki network products will no longer allow traffic to pass to the Internet. With Systems Manager networks, you will no longer be able to enroll devices or change settings for currently enrolled devices.
How do I know which licenses to renew?
For organizations utilizing the co-termination licensing model, licenses are averaged together based on device type and licensing limits. In other words, your individual licenses don't expire because they are averaged into one expiration date. When an organization co-terminates, all active devices will need their licenses renewed at the same time.
How do I renew my licensing?
The recommended practice for applying a renewal (see Meraki Licensing - License More Devices vs Renewal) is to purchase a single license key that covers every device currently in the organization for some number of years. Applying that license key as a renewal will then extend the organization’s licensing by that many years.
When a license key is applied as a renewal, the organization’s licensing state updates to match the device count of that license key. For example, if an organization with licensing for five access points were to have a license key for 2 AP licenses applied as a renewal, that organization would only be licensed for two access points. In this instance, three access points are over their license limit (see Co-Term Out-of-Licensing Compliance Warnings and Solutions) and therefore out of compliance (License Problem - Out of Compliance).
License consumption and compliance
When does a license start to burn (start ticking)?
Licenses in the Co-Termination model start consuming time from the date it was processed, not the date they are added to an organization. Waiting to activate a license in a Co-Term dashboard does not delay its activation date. There is no time benefit gained from delaying an activation.
Will I be notified before my license expires?
Yes, administrators listed on the account will be sent Alerts and notifications outlining the steps for license extension. Additionally, email alerts will be sent out periodically to Dashboard Administrators.
- If the Organization is out of compliance (e.g., more devices in use than licensed), email alerts will be sent at the following intervals: 30 days, 21 days, 14 days, 7 days, and 1 day.
- If the Organization is in compliance, email alerts will be sent at the following intervals: 90 days, 30 days, 2 days, and 1 day
Will I be notified before my account is shut off if I am in excess of my device limits?
Yes, administrators listed on accounts that have more devices than cloud licenses will be sent Alerts and notifications 30 days prior to account expiration outlining the steps for license purchase.
What does it mean to be "out of license"?
"Out of license" is a term that refers to an organization that is in one of the following two states:
- Co-Term license has expired
- The number of hardware devices exceeds the number of cloud licenses
Refer to Co-Term Out-of-Licensing Compliance Warnings and Solutions regarding these states.
If an organization is "out of license" it means it is out of compliance, and either license renewals or additional licenses are required for the Meraki products to function and for these products to be manageable using the Meraki cloud. To learn more, refer to the License Problem - Out of Compliance documentation.
How long do I have to reactivate my account after it expires?
You can reactivate your account at any point in the future after it expires by adding the necessary number of valid licenses. Please note that once your account expires, your products will stop functioning after a 30-day grace period (see License Problem - Out of Compliance: What Happens When an Organization Is Shut Down?)
Switch to Subscription Licensing
Additional resources
Other Licensing FAQs are listed below: