Unused licenses using co-termination.

[bharrison2]

We have co-termination licensing in place. Our license limit for MR access points is 34, but we are only using 17.

If we were to purchase a new MS switch, the time would be spread over the 34 MR access points, also, even though we aren't using half of them. Is that correct? If yes, how do we avoid that?

Is there a way to reduce the license limit so we are not burning time on licenses that are not being used?

Thanks

[bharrison2]

Thanks. That is what I am finding is that no matter what I do we lose that time on the unused licenses.

What I think would make sense is that we should be able to cancel a license. Any time remaining from the orignial purchase would be lost. So if we bought a three year license and cancel it after two years we would lose a year. But if cancel after 4 years, any additional time that was added due only from other purchases would be added to active ones. Just my opinion.

Co-term works great while you have a growing network, but not when you downsize one part of it.

[CMR]

Excellent @Ryan_Miles I didn't realise this change 😎

[aleabrahao]

I don't think this will meet what is being asked.

It doesn't make sense in my opinion.

[Ryan_Miles]

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on @bharrison2's goals.

If @bharrison2's main intent is to remove 17 AP licenses from the source/original Org he could go the route of:

- Create a "license graveyard" or "dummy" destination Org

- Move 17 MR licenses from the source Org to the destination Org (as long as they're not expired and meet the requirements in the doc).

As the doc mentions (and the warning in dashboard when you perform the move) it can and typically would reduce the remaining co-term time as you're removing license "value" from the source Org.

This would put @bharrison2's Org at 17 MRs and any newly added licenses will now only be blended with what's present in the source Org. Otherwise as mentioned the only time you could change license quantities would be using a Renewal process.

All of that said if your Org only has around a year remaining and you're planning to add a switch in that time it might just be easier to add the switch (license) and then when the Org is up for renewal right size/adjust the AP count. Adjusting the license count to 17 now likely will have very little effect to the co-term date and might be more work than it's worth.

@bharrison2 does that help? Or just confuse things more? Hopefully it helped 😀

Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss it further.

Cheers

[bharrison2]

Thanks for that info. BUT, if we add a switch it will bump ALL of the devices out to a new co-term date, so there will never be a renewal date unless we stop adding devices.

Can a renewal process be done before the co-term date? Can the unused licenses be removed at that time and have the time added to the active licenses?

[Ryan_Miles]

Yes, renewals can be done early/before the co-term date.

[bharrison2]

Thanks Ryan,

It does not appear that renewal removes unused licenses counts and add the remaining time on those to active licenses. It just adds time onto all of the licenses. I would still have to move unused licenses to a different 'graveyard' organization and let the time expire there. Correct?

[Ryan_Miles]

If you apply a license as a renewal it replaces what's there today. For example if you reduce the AP count to 17 and apply as a renewal the Org will have 17 AP licenses and it will add the license term length of the renewal to what's in place today.

Here's an example. An Org with 3 APs and 158 days remaining. If I add a new 1YR license for 2 APs as a renewal the result is an Org licensed for 2 APs and the 158 days is added with the new license of 365 days for a total of 523 days.

You can also model this out using the License Calculator tool. If I plug in the same scenario as above it yields the same output (same device count & co-term date).

[bharrison2]

This looks like it would work if we don't have to add any devices prior to the co-term date. We still lose the remaining days on the unused licenses, this just removes them immediately.

[Philip D'Ath]

Brilliant solution.

[aleabrahao]

Look this example.

[aleabrahao]

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. 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.

For example, if an AP is added to an organization that already has five APs and licensing for ten APs, no additional licensing is required because the organization's license limit is higher than the number of APs in the organization. But if an MX series security appliance was added to the same organization, it would enter the 30-day grace period because the organization is not licensed for MX security appliances. For more information about the 30-day grace period, read the License Limit and Current Device Count section of this article or refer to the License Info article.

[K2_Josh]

@Philip D'Ath and @alessandrodematos, is this a decent summary of all of the posts above for the layman not familiar with the intricacies of the co-termination model?

If a Prod org ever has unused licenses, then they should always be transferred to a Graveyard org before adding new licenses. And in the event that any licenses from the Graveyard org are ever needed, then they can be added back to the Prod org whenever new devices are added/re-added to Production. Moving licenses from Prod has zero effect on the co-term date unless new licenses are being added to the Prod org.

[Ryan_Miles]

A couple of comments on this. If licenses expire they cannot be moved. So you cannot move them around between Orgs forever. Second, moving licenses from an Org can impact the co-term date. You're essentially removing license value and therefore it can/will draw the co-term date down/backwards.