Updates in upcoming releases

Important changes in future releases that might require additional steps or planning during upgrade.

License expiration behavior

As a part of our ongoing efforts to streamline our licensing process and align with industry best practices, we are updating the way our software handles license expiration for all on-premises customers. We will be slowly adding these updates across future Nozomi Networks Operating System (N2OS) releases, and the first update will be included with N2OS v25.5.0.

What's changing

We previously offered a grace period after license expiration, allowing users full access to the product, including all features and historical data. While this was convenient, we are updating our policy to align with industry standards and encourage timely renewals. This change follows several quarters of planning and improvements to our renewal process. Our team now reaches out well before expiration to help ensure uninterrupted service. The table below explains how our license expiration policy is changing:

N2OS release Grace period after expiry Access after grace period Notification improvements
Up to v25.4.0 Yes Historical data only 30-day and grace period user interface (UI) banner reminders
v25.5.0 Yes Licensing page only 60-day UI banner reminder, 30-day UI banner countdown, grace period UI banner reminders, grace period over UI banner reminder, matching license page messages at every time interval
Future releases No Licensing page only 120-day and 90-day UI banner reminders and 45-day UI banner countdown (subject to change)

What does this mean for you?

Starting with N2OS v25.5.0, once the license grace period ends, users will be redirected to the licensing page and they will no longer have access to historical data within sensors.

In a future release, the grace period will be removed entirely. After license expiration, only the licensing page will be accessible. Keep in mind that there will also be additional in-product notifications 6 months and 3 months before to license expires. Also, there will be a clear countdown product UI banner that will start 45 days before the license expires.

Finally, our renewals team will continue to contact users as early as 6 months before the license expires to help minimize service interruptions.

No action needed

These changes do not require any user action or configuration. If you have any questions, or you anticipate issues with your license renewal, please contact your account manager, or our Customer Support team. We appreciate you understanding as we aim to streamline our licensing process and ensure consistent service standards.

For more details, please visit our Customer Support portal.

Legacy Smart Polling engine retirement

Until N2OS v24.4.0, Smart Polling relied on the legacy engine for actively monitoring devices and gathering their details.

With N2OS v24.5.0, the new Smart Polling engine has become the default one.

With this N2OS version, the legacy engine is deprecated.

Additional information on the new engine

When it was introduced, the transition was seamless and all sensors automatically upgraded to the new engine without the need for user intervention.

The new engine:

  • Is more powerful than the legacy engine
  • Ensures perfect alignment between Smart Polling on Guardian and on Arc sensors that are connected to Guardian
  • Has been running reliably in thousands of production installations

We are confident of its stability, robustness, and performance. Therefore, given its proven success, it is time to remove the legacy engine from the code base in an upcoming release.

Additional information on the legacy engine

For precautionary reasons, both engines have been maintained in parallel, which has required duplicating development efforts and resources.

In a small number of situations, some customers temporarily enabled the legacy engine to address specific requirements.

These requirements have now been integrated into the new engine.

Next steps

  • In a future release, the legacy engine will be completely removed from N2OS
  • No action is required unless you have intentionally configured Smart Polling to use the legacy engine
  • If you did, you can proactively switch to the new engine before the removal
  • At the time of removal, the new engine will be automatically set

How to check which engine is running

  1. Access Guardian via a shell console in a privileged session.
  2. Enter this command: grep 'sp engine' /data/cfg/n2os.conf.user
  3. If the output contains a line sp engine legacy, you are still using the legacy engine. If you find sp engine strategist, you are using the new engine.

How to change to the new engine

  1. In the web UI command-line interface (CLI), run: conf.user configure sp engine strategist
  2. Access Guardian via a shell console in a privileged session.
  3. To stop all services, enter the command: n2os-stop-all
  4. Wait for all services to stop.
  5. To restart them, enter the command: n2os-start-all

If you encounter any issues with the new Smart Polling engine, please contact Customer Support.