topic Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing in Firewall and Security Management

Questions about trial and standard licensing

rodrigoteixeira — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 15:05:42 GMT

Hello.

Does exist any kb or other official documentation that list exactly what stops to work in Security Gateways and SmarConsole when we are using trial license and when we are using a default license.

Example:
For security gateway using trial license and it is expires, only basic firewall still works. IPS, Application Control, VPN IPSec, Remote Access stop work. And we can´t push new or change the policies.
For SmartConsole/management using trial licenses and it is expires, nothing works.

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

_Val_ — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 17:52:46 GMT

It is very simple. Expect any unlicensed feature to fail. Even for FW, if GW is rebooted, the policy will be reversed to Initial.

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

PhoneBoy — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 23:58:35 GMT

There are two things to worry about here: licenses and contracts.
Licenses can either expire or not, contracts always expire at some point.
Most anything outside of Firewall, VPN, Mobile Access, and DLP have a contract associated with the service.
Perpetual features (Firewall, VPN, Mobile Access, DLP) will always function provided there is a valid license and it has not expired (i.e. not a trial license).
All other features will stop working after their contract has expired and all perpetual features will stop working (fail closed) if operating past expiration date.
By "stop working" it means you will not be able to push policies that involve the features with an expired contract and any rules involving said features will not match.

For historical reasons, IPS is a bit different in this regard.
Generally, there is a grace period (60 days) and even after the grace period, a limited set of protections will still be active (all other protections will be inactive).
For the exact behavior, see: https://supportcenter.checkpoint.com/supportcenter/portal?eventSubmit_doGoviewsolutiondetails=&solutionid=sk44175

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

CheckPointerXL — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 17:42:11 GMT

"Perpetual features (Firewall, VPN, Mobile Access, DLP) will always function provided there is a valid license and it has not expired (i.e. not a trial license)."

hey phoneboy, probably you mean valid contract, right ?

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

Chris_Atkinson — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 23:32:37 GMT

License is accurate in this context.

Note also that this has been simplified on the TP side for several versions now with a reduced reliance on the contracts piece.

Also in recent JHF takes there were amendments to grace periods for some software blades.

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

the_rock — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 01:43:47 GMT

Im 100% sure he meant license 🙂

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

CheckPointerXL — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 08:37:33 GMT

Something not clear to me

Let's say I add MOB license for 50users

This license is perpetual and it will work until a valid contract is attached. Am i wrong?

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

the_rock — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:07:59 GMT

I cant say for sure regarding specific licenses, but as Chris mentioned, there were some big changes in recent versions, so its less reliable on a contract itself. To be 100% positive, I would verify with Account Services.

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

Chris_Atkinson — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:15:22 GMT

Out of interest what's the scenario that you are in where you wouldn't be purchasing the support for the gateway/blades for this to be relevant?

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

CheckPointerXL — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:28:22 GMT

the changes that chris is talking about is related to other non-perpetual blades:

i'm now focusing on perpetual blades

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

CheckPointerXL — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:34:18 GMT

for the same reason Check point implemented the new changes 😄

so, for example, let's say there is a problem with a renewal order, what happens to some perpetual features we are talking about?

i did the example with a MOB license.... people will continue to be able to connect after contract expiration? i don't think so, but honestly i never faced this problem

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

the_rock — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:48:50 GMT

If there is a problem with the renewal, I do what CP Sales engineers recommend...give customer full eval until renewal is sorted out. Issues solved 🙂

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

Chris_Atkinson — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 12:38:55 GMT

Subject to fair use Evaluation licenses are available via self-service for such scenarios as Andy says.

There are different options available here, all gateway blades versus dedicated mobile access etc.

Refer:

https://usercenter.checkpoint.com/ucapps/prodeval

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

nooni — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 12:04:36 GMT

If a customer is failing to renew in time and Eval is used in meantime, what happens with support ?

Not possible until licenses are renewed or does it depend on function/blade ?

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

Chris_Atkinson — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 12:14:28 GMT

A discussion should be had with the customers Check Point account team to review options for gap coverage. Likely (subject to approval) they would be limited to phone support only until the renewal is processed.

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

the_rock — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 13:45:03 GMT

As Chris said, best is to discuss with account team (or your local SE rep). I never had an issue where support was refused due to this, because lets be honest about it...no vendor in this world would want to lose any customer (no matter how big or small) for such a trivial reason.

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

PhoneBoy — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 14:04:25 GMT

Features that are perpetually licensed do not require a contract associated with them to function.

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

IMCristian_Rosa — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 19:18:05 GMT

Hello,

According to Checkpoint's SE, perpetual licenses, for example MOB, even when expired, will continue to work.

Does that make sense to you?

Att,

Cristian Rosa

Re: Questions about trial and standard licensing

the_rock — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 00:22:21 GMT

Last time I checked, word perpetual meant never ending, so to me, such license would never expire : - )

But, I could be wrong, would not be first OR last time lol

Andy