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