Meraki License Renewal Questions

This document applies to: Coworking & Workplace

All current Cisco Meraki products require valid licensing to operate. This article describes how Cisco Meraki Co-Termination licensing operates and applies to an organization. All licensing-related operations can be performed from the Organization > Configure > License Info page.

Co-Termination

The Cisco Meraki Co-Termination licensing model works on the basis of co-termination, which means that for any given organization, regardless of how many licenses were applied or when they were applied, the license expiration date for all licenses claimed to that organization will be exactly the same. This is accomplished by averaging all active licenses together and dividing by the license limit count of devices in the organization.


Meraki Per-Device

Cisco Meraki's per-device licensing model allows customers to assign a license directly to a specific device or a network. This allows IT teams to maintain a single shared expiration date or various expiration dates across devices, networks, or organizations—whatever makes sense for your business however you see fit. 

Per-device licensing offers a variety of features and ultimate flexibility for customers of all sizes.

For example, suppose an organization had two separate Enterprise AP licenses, one license for one year (365 days) and another for five years (1,825 days). If the devices and licenses were claimed on the same day, one of the wireless APs would have an expiration date of one year from the date claimed and the other wireless AP would have an expiration date five years from the date it was claimed.

As another example, if an organization had two separate licenses, both for one year (365 days), and if one device and license was claimed seven days after the first, both devices would be licensed for one year, but one license/device would expire seven days after the other.

  • License devices individually: Assign a license to a specific device (MR, MS, MX, MV, MG) or a network (in the case of vMX and SM licenses) and maintain a shared expiration date or separate expiration dates across devices, networks, or organizations.

  • Partial renewals: Enjoy the ability to renew all your devices, or a subset of devices as you prefer. 

  • Move licenses between organizations: Organization administrators on multiple organizations are able to move a license (or licenses and devices together) between those organizations without calling in to Meraki support. This functionality is available through the dashboard and APIs. 

  • 90-day license activation window: You will have up to 90 days to claim and assign your licenses before they activate, giving you more time to deploy Meraki products before your licenses burn time.

  • APIs: APIs are available to claim, assign, and move licenses. This will allow a greater level of automation and the ability to integrate with other systems. 

  • Individual device shutdowns: If a license expires on a device, Meraki will only shut down that device or product (after the 30 grace period).


The 30-Day Grace Period 

The number of devices in an organization can not exceed the license limits. If this occurs, the organization will enter a 30-day grace period, during which the organization must be brought back into compliance, otherwise it will be shut down until proper licensing is applied to the organization. 

Should an organization enter the 30-day grace period because of exceeding device license limits, it can be brought back into compliance either by removing devices from networks within the organization or through purchasing additional licensing via the Shop (located in the left side menu). The only other time an organization will enter this 30-day grace period would be if its licensing has expired by passing the co-term date. If this occurs, the only way to bring it back into licensing compliance is through the purchase of all new licensing for active devices.