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Cradlepoint NetCloud Subscription Governance

Cradlepoint NetCloud Subscription Governance

Owned by Nathan Sanders
Last updated: May 28, 2020 by Ryan Griffiths (Deactivated)

In July 2019, Cradlepoint announced some changes to their NetCloud subscription governance, including the introduction of automated licence verification. This article provides more information about these changes and what they mean.

Since the update, and enforcement of that update in October 2019, Cradlepoint devices without an active NetCloud subscription will experience a downgrade in functionality that may result in a degradation of service.

 

Non-Compliant vs Unlicensed Devices

Non-Compliant is a 30-day state where devices maintain their current routing capabilities and NetCloud Essentials functionality but lose access to some add-on features. If these Non-Compliant devices are not assigned a license within the 30-day period, they become Unlicensed and will likely experience a degradation of service.

Full functionality will only be restored when the correct licensing for the level of service required is assigned to the device.

 

Deprecated NCOS

Starting January 2020, devices with a NCOS version older than 18 months will no longer be manageable from NetCloud Manager. These older than 18 month NCOS versions will be considered “deprecated” and unavailable for download. To manage these devices they must be upgraded to a supported version within the 18 month window.

At that time, in the Devices dashboard, in the NCOS column, you will see “Deprecated”, which means the only action you can take with that device is to move it into a Group to upgrade it to a supported NCOS version.

 

NetCloud OS 7.0.7 and Earlier

Cradlepoint devices running on NCOS 7.0.7 and earlier, when entering an unlicensed state, will switch to limited functionality and their access via NetCloud Manager will be removed; local changes will be permitted via the local web user interface.

 

NetCloud OS 7.1.0 and Later

Cradlepoint devices running on NCOS 7.1.0 and later, when entering an unlicensed state, will retain their last-known basic configuration and essential routing capabilities, and their access via NetCloud Manager will be removed. Local configuration changes will be disabled, with basic local access permitted to Connection Manager to support device communication with NetCloud Manager to receive licensing updates only.

Advanced add-ons and features are disabled when the device becomes non-compliant and will remain disabled in the unlicensed state. This includes but is not limited to; application-aware QoS, application-aware zone firewall, client & traffic analytics dashboard, advanced security packages (CP Secure Threat Management, CP Web Filter), Zscaler, and the SDK.

Legacy devices (i.e. hardware-only purchases made before January 2018) will be excluded from local configuration lock-out restrictions and changes will be locally permitted via NCOS, though it should be noted that software version support will be limited.

 

How to Avoid a Degradation of Service

With the new automated licence verification and associated features in NetCloud, the user/s responsible for your NetCloud subscription will receive automatic updates when licences are due for renewal. You can also use the NetCloud Subscription Dashboard within the Account tab of NetCloud Manager to see the status of all your subscriptions at any time. Renewing is simple, just contact Westbase.io who will provide you with a quote.

Helpful Links

Westbase.io has put together the following list of helpful links to additional resources you may want to utilise to find out more about the Cradlepoint subscription governance: