It will still onboard to on-prem. Cloud anchor only required to pull the license entitlements from Cambium licensing.
If cloud.cambiumnetworks.com - alot of devices will become bricks until they’re moved to on-prem. NSE will die on the vine. All paid subscription features will die – as no one has been able to split the licenses or transfer them yet. Running on-prem we will all be stuck running Essentials mode, which is okay for most.
For those of us that are upset and like to have a voice -
Doubt it will do anything… but enough voices from partners and end-users.
Once you disable the cloud anchor connection to your on prem, you wont be able to add any more devices to it. You can onboard the serial numbers but they will just sit there with the status of ‘Waiting for subscription’. You can’t add them to your networks or configure them until the connection to Cloud anchor is restored to verify the APs/devices aren’t in use in any other cnMaestro.
There are a couple of guides here is anyone needs them:
So… all customer and partner hardware becomes bricks?
screwed then … no interest to buy some stock if we can’t add anything to onpremise cnmaestro. hope cloud will be still ok after 1st october.
I feel sick to my stomach. I feel for those who rely on the cambium hardware solution as their business model and the loss of revenue, along with the down stream implications. We need answers.
I really dont think the “Administration” realizes the gravity. They just see line items, expenses and how much hardware they have in manufacturing and out to distributors.
Think of all the distributors / channel now being stuck with upwards of million dollars worth of hardware?
This is completely f’d up!! They need to release something that allows us to add devices to on prem so we can monitor and manage without the cloud…unless this is a design flaw from the beginning and cloud side is imbedded…if this is the case why did anyone ever bother with an on premise setup, with the anchor and cloud association its a complete waste ever have the on premise, which I never had, just used the cloud version.
In the past, the OnPrem server could make sense if you didn’t want all of your APs/switches constantly keeping NAT states / connections open and sending stats/etc up to the cloud. Per what Craig has said here, the OnPrem only “needs” cloud during new device onboarding, deleting a device, or checking for software updates.
I agree that with the pending collapse of the cloud/licensing system though, something needs to be done to allow the onprem version to keep working fully (allowing devices to be onboarded or deleted) without the cloud connection. I assume that we will hear more about this in the weeks ahead as they decide if they’re going to fully shut down the cloud, or try to keep the “Anchors” running for licensing / etc. If most/all of the cloud customers migrate to on-prem, it can probably significantly cut down on cloud resource requirements and might allow them to keep the “Anchors” alive longer…
I’ve got a site with around 170 APs using MarketApps, and that is one place where I suspect we’re going to be completely screwed. 
Thanks Craig, I’ve seen that post and am trying to follow the guidance but I have some questions surrounding licensing (added to the bottom of that thread instead of here). Obviously a lot of it is hypothetical and I fully understand that details are up in the air at the moment.
I do appreciate anybody who is still hanging on to help customers, and I feel awful for all Cambium employees who have been put into a terrible position by the company’s management. I guess we (customers) should be thankful we at least got a couple of weeks’ notice instead of an instant rug pull.
Looks like UniFi will be getting a big bump after this fuckup with cnM.
Release a licensed key that gives us X unlimited time and unlimited devices. We paid for years of service and now they run off with our money.
Why not download and spin up an older version before dependency on cloud account! I am going to try that.
“Before the Cloud Anchor shuts down, we plan to release an on-premises image for Wi-Fi and Switches only, without any dependency on the Cloud Anchor. This image will also provide all supported on-premises X features with no need for licenses.”
So i guess I am waiting for that to be released?
Hi There… could you pls write IN MORE DETAIL how did you manage to setup CN on prem? Like, where have you installed it? on your local pc, hosting etc? what about those DHCP entries… there are lot of MT users (including me) which use it as a GW and all dhcp edits would be possible. And some screenshots would be great…
many tx
I would consult this guide when setting up cnmaestro on-prem. We have it running on a Vmware.
I have it installed on-prem with our own infrastructure using KVM [ovirt/OLVM] as well as hosting in cloud and going to be offering it as a service [dedicated VM per customer] with weekly backups.
Newer versions of hardware may not be fully supported or work at all with older controller / cnMaestro releases, is a main reason.
Its not worth the risk for me considering we only have 1 month to find out if its a really bad idea or not.
I spun up an instance and just didnt upgrade it to maestro X, instead opted to rename all wlans/apgroups so there are no duplicates and then import all my sites into 1 account separated by networks/sites only. I chose to do this because It was not clear how the maestro x to essentials downgrade would collapse the configs.
Don’t start moving everything off cnMaestro until there’s a clear reason to do it. If the existing installs are still working, first make sure you have backups of the configuration and a list of the devices, licenses and firmware versions. For anyone considering a move, the important part is knowing what happens to the APs after they’re removed from cnMaestro and whether the replacement management system supports the same configuration.
Except that devices check in with cloud when moving to an on-prem server so it has to be completed while cloud services continue to exist.