What happens when the license for a Messaging Gateway expires?
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What happens when the license for a Messaging Gateway expires?

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Article ID: 177297

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Updated On:

Products

Messaging Gateway

Issue/Introduction

How does Symantec Messaging Gateway (SMG) behave after its license expires?

Resolution

The Messaging Gateway will "fail open" following license expiration:

What Will Continue to Work

Email

  • Email messages will continue to be accepted and delivered based on the static configuration in Protocols > Domains and Administration > Configuration > host > SMTP
  • Address Masquerading and Aliases will operate as expected
  • Integration with Data Loss Prevention systems (DLP) will continue to operate as expected but no policy actions configured in SMG will take effect
  • MTA DNS checks (Protocols > Settings) will still operate as expected
  • Sender Authentication checks will still be performed but no policy actions will take effect
  • TLS secured email delivery and per-domain TLS settings will continue to operate

Control Center

  • Access to the Management Console remains unrestricted
  • Message Audit Logs will display some email message specific information such as Connecting IP, Date, Sender, and Recipient
  • Scheduled and manual backups will still be performed
  • Automated reports will still be generated and distributed but will not contain data for services which are no longer licensed
  • Spam and Compliance Quarantine data will continue to be expunged on schedule
  • Management of scanner queues will operate as before

What Will No Longer Work

  • No policies configured under the following tabs will operate
    • Reputation
    • Spam
    • Threat Defense
    • Malware
    • Content Filtering 
  • Messages will no longer be forwarded to the Content Encryption service
  • Antivirus and Antispam rulesets will no longer be updated
  • Software updates and patches will no longer be accessible

Additional Notes:

  • Messaging Gateway licenses no longer have a "grace period". Message filtering will end at the license end date
  • Licenses cannot be installed prior to the start date of the license
  • Some components may log errors to disk when running in an unlicensed state which may deplete available disk space
  • Important: The Messaging Gateway is not designed to run unlicensed for lengthy periods of time. If left unlicensed for too long, error states may occur that could block messages