Q&A: Inspection fees for Juniper hardware support

If you’re renewing support for your Juniper network hardware, you might be surprised to see an inspection fee included as part of your quote. This Q&A should give you a better idea of why Juniper charges this fee, how it fits into a broader inspection process, and what you can do to keep your Juniper hardware supported as seamlessly as possible. 

 So, what is this inspection fee? 

As its name suggests, the fee covers the costs of Juniper inspecting your hardware’s current condition. This assessment helps Juniper’s team to work out whether your hardware is still in good enough condition to still be covered by support. There are three pricing points for this fee that correspond to the cost and sophistication of your product. For example, entry-level hardware such as EX2300 will be charged a lower fee than mid-level hardware, such as EX4100. You can find the fee as a separate line item on your support renewal quote. 

 Why am I getting charged this fee? 

The inspection fee only applies to customers who’ve let their hardware support with Juniper lapse for more than a year (365 days). Juniper charges this fee to ensure that organisations don’t let their support contract expire for a long time, then simply renew it when their hardware looks like it’s about to break. This also encourages organisations to protect their Juniper hardware investment by keeping their support contracts up to date so any issues can be promptly resolved for the best customer experience. 

The inspection fee is mandatory and applies to all Juniper hardware. If you’ve forgotten to renew your hardware support for more than 3 months (90 days) but less than a year, you’ll charged a late fee instead if you renew your support. In this case, no hardware inspection is required. 

TIP: You can easily check when your service contract expires with Juniper’s Serial Number Entitlement tool. Simply enter your unit’s serial number to find its service expiry date. 

 
How does the inspection process work? 

The actual inspection process is entirely virtual: no phone calls and no physical site-visits are required.  

 It goes like this: 

1. A PO is placed against the quote for inspection and renewal of support. Only once a PO is secured will the inspection process properly commence.

2. Juniper asks you to nominate a technical contact person who can assist with the inspection. This could be an end-user or a partner who looks after the network. 

3. Juniper sends the contact person a series of command outputs [e.g. show chassis boot-messages | no more], to be entered into the Junos console governing the hardware.

4. The contact person enters these prompts into the Junos console, and then sends the output (a range of diagnostic test results for the hardware) to Juniper.

5. Juniper reviews the test results, then decides based on the hardware’s condition whether to renew support. 

If your hardware passes the test, Juniper will invoice you for the inspection fee and the renewed support contract, as per the PO. However, if your hardware fails the test Juniper will only charge you the inspection fee, and the renewal portion of the PO will be omitted. You’ll then have to decide whether to refresh your hardware (buy new units) or continue without support. 

Here’s a handy infographic that explains the process: Juniper Networks Renewals Hardware Inspection Process.

Who should I nominate as the contact person for inspection? 

Choose someone who has access to and is familiar working with the Junos console, whether from in-house IT or a partner. Avoid choosing sales contacts or managers who may not be so familiar with the technical side of things: this tends to delay the process as Juniper will need to find someone capable of wrangling the console. The instructions for inputting the prompts are relatively detailed, and a Juniper team member will usually be able to provide advice if you do indeed run into any issues.  

It’s hard keeping track of our support contracts. How will Juniper help me avoid getting into an inspection-fee situation? 

If you’re an IT partner, Juniper’s distributors (like Dicker Data) will contact you every quarter with proactive quotes to help make sure your customers are maintaining your required level of support. Look out for these quarterly contact points as a reminder to make sure your customers’ support hasn’t lapsed.  

Remember too that Juniper offers a grace period of 90 days to renew your support, and they’ll only charge you a late fee (not requiring inspection) if you remember to renew within a year of your support contract’s expiry. 

How do I find out more about the inspection process or Juniper’s solutions? 

Get in touch with our dedicated Juniper Dicker Data team and we will be happy to help.