This article answers a few licensing questions related to VOS devices

Question: What is the default behavior of a new VOS with regards to the factory license key?

Answer:

Each VOS device has a default trial license key that is valid for 45 days. During this trial period, no session restrictions are applied to the VOS device. When the license key expires, a VOS device is restricted to only 30 concurrent sessions. To avoid this restriction, subjugate the VOS device to a Director node through a Netconf session. The Director node must have a valid license to manage the VOS device.

Question: What happens when a VOS device is disconnected from the Director node that is managing it?

Answer:

When a VOS device is not connected to its Director node for up to 7 consecutive days [Changed to 30 consecutive days in software versions 21.2.3, 22.1.3, 22.1.4 starting from 2024-09-18 hotfix image]  (grace period), the VOS begins to decrement from the license validity period (45 days) each day it remains disconnected from the Director. When it hits 0 days, the maximum concurrent sessions allowed will be restricted to 30 sessions. As soon as the VOS device again connects to the Director node, the restriction of 30 sessions is lifted, if the connectivity is restored within the grace period, the countdown stops.

When a VOS device has the license validity period (45days) already expired in the past, and it loses the Director connection, for up to 7 consecutive days [Changed to 30 consecutive days in software versions 21.2.3, 22.1.3, 22.1.4 starting from 2024-09-18 hotfix image]  (grace period), the VOS keeps showing an alarm like below to notify the user that Director connectivity is lost, and post the grace period countdown, the session restrictions would be applied:

[softwareKeyAboutToExpire] [2025-08-07T00:00:03+0000] Netconf not connected in 13 days (remaining: 17)

Questions: What happens when a VOS device connects to the Director node intermittently?

Answer:

Consider a scenario in which a  VOS appliance is disconnected from the Director node for six consecutive days, then remained up for few more days, then went down again for six consecutive days, and finally came back up and was reconnected to the Director node through a Netconf session. 

In this scenario, the trial key time left is 45 days. The VOS has to be disconnected for more than 7 days [Changed to more than 30 days, in software versions 21.2.3, 22.1.3, 22.1.4 starting from 2024-09-18 or later hotfix image] for the trial 45 day period to clock down.

Questions: What happens to an unexpired key on a VOS device that is not subjugated by a Director?

Answer:

1. If a VOS was not subjugated and had been running for 25 days, then there are 20 days remaining of the 45-day factory license key.
2. The VOS is connected to the Director and gets subjugated through a Netconf session and remains connected for a month, there is no decrementing of the days of the factory license key.
3. For all software versions build before 2024-09-18:  Then after some time, the VOS is disconnected for 9 days from the Director. This means 9 days of total NETCONF-inactivity there is no session restriction applied yet, post the 7th day, however the countdown starts, with 18 days remaining. 20 days were left on the license up until the device was disconnected for 9 days,  and now 2 days are decremented (9 days disconnected with 7 days of grace = -2 days).
4. For software versions 21.2.3/22.1.3/22.1.4 build on or after 2024-09-18: Then after some time, the VOS is disconnected for 32 days from the Director. This means 32 days of total NETCONF-inactivity there is no session restriction applied yet, post the 30th day, however the countdown starts, with 18 days remaining. 20 days were left on the license up until the device was disconnected for 32 days,  and now 2 days are decremented (32 days disconnected with 30 days of grace = -2 days).
5. Director NETCONF re-connects to the VOS;  the clock countdown stops. The key is still valid for 18 days.

Questions: What happens when a key expires on a VOS that was not subjugated by a Director?

Answer:

When a key expires on a VOS device that is not subjugated by a Director,  the maximum concurrent sessions allowed by VOS is restricted to 30 sessions.

Questions: What is the difference between Netconf disconnected and southbound locked on the VOS?

Answer:

There is no difference between southbound locked and Director Netconf session hard down from the VOS perspective. In both cases, there is no Netconf connection to the VOS. When there is no Netconf connection from Director, the VOS uses the license days (45 days); after 45 days VOS switches to minimal mode (maximum 30 sessions).