Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial

bingo600

Hello Netgate

I have 5 "Home pfSense" boxes on 2.5.2 CE
1 x Hot + 1 x Cold (spare) at home
1 x Test system at home
1 x Hot + 1 x Cold (spare) at Summerhouse

I haven't upgraded to 2.6.0 on any yet.
Do i "Order 5 x Home license" at the store ?

At "work" i have 13 x pfSense boxes , that in time needs a Tac-Lite license.
But i need to pay by invoice , else Company accounting will go crazy.

How do i approach these two "issues" ?

Edit:
While the TAC-Lite yearly fee is very reasonable ... Especially this year
Is there any "discount" on commercial "Cold spares" (backup units) ...
I mean i'll never have a Hot & a Cold spare active at the same time.

Not that important with the "few i have" but ... Have to ask.

/Bingo

NollipfSense

@bingo600 Maybe you could leave the test system at home on the CE and order four licenses is what I am thinking.

bingo600

@nollipfsense
I can't run tests on a system that is not equal.

I see no problem in asking for 5 Home licenses , they are for private use.

SteveITS

@bingo600 said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

I see no problem in asking for 5 Home licenses

I kind of do, but probably not in the way you mean. If your intention is to restore the config from a working/broken router to the cold spare, does that restore the license? I am asking I don't know. If so then you'd need 3 licenses. Or more importantly, not need a paid commercial license.

On the other hand if you were using High Availability and they were hot/failover, then I would think they would need their own license.

bingo600

@steveits

Just a guess here ....
I'm quite sure i read that the activation key you get is a "One time use".
And i'm also quite sure that the Netgate ID on my two boxes will not be the same ID , making a restore with the same id impossible.

My guess is that you get an activation id , that when "entered" registers your Netgate ID on a Netgate Lic server , and then you're good to go (for a Home license), at the same time the activation id is invalidated, as it has been used.

At some interval the device querys the Netgate Lic server, using the Netgate ID. And the Lic server returns a OK/Not-OK ...Kind of like radius does.
If Not-OK you probably have a grace period , where every logon shows you a license expired/invalid screen. And after that period the Plus software won't function.

When i'm talking about 5 licenses it was for home use.
And that should be ok.

If the "Cold spares" used at work costs a TAC-Lite yearly fee , in order to be used immediately , then thats how it is ...
The few units i have wont brake the Corp. budget

/Bingo

SteveITS

@bingo600 said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

the Netgate ID on my two boxes will not be the same ID , making a restore with the same id impossible

I guess it is a question whether the Plus license is tied to the Netgate ID. It might not be, after all there is a checkbox "Do NOT send Netgate Device ID with user agent" in System/Advanced/Miscellaneous.

I would think Netgate would have a path to restore a config to a new router. Otherwise there would be a large number of people who dig up a discarded PC, restore the config, and find they are unlicensed. At that point hopefully Internet works so they can go acquire a license? And, if theirs is a paid commercial license, making them buy another just to do a restore seems excessive?

All questions for Netgate. :)

The other option is buying Netgate hardware, for which there isn't an annual fee. There's a crossover point of course, at which the Plus license is more than the incremental cost of buying their hardware initially (over buying third party hardware).

re: invoicing, I get it. We have one client that "can't" pay via credit card or bank account and of course they are a slow payer. From what Netgate told us Partners, Partners will eventually be able to sell the subscriptions but I read the long email as it's not ready yet, and there's an additional agreement/contract for the Partner. So maybe in the future you'll be able to find a Partner who will let you pay on terms.

bingo600

@steveits said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

All questions for Netgate. :)

Hope they will ansver at some point.

The other option is buying Netgate hardware, for which there isn't an annual fee. There's a crossover point of course, at which the Plus license is more than the incremental cost of buying their hardware initially (over buying third party hardware).

At the moment i have 13 "Non Netgate" Box'es at work , and they're working fine. If i need to get new or replace i will take Netgate boxes into serious consideration.

I just feel they're missing an x64 model inbetween the ARM's and the 6100.
6100 is prob. what i'd use in most places.

I'll not be getting any of the current Arm based hardware, for work.
They don't fit my usage.

/Bingo

SteveITS

@bingo600 said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

they're missing an x64 model inbetween the ARM's and the 6100.

Agreed, but I think they are well aware of that. :)

tohil

Hi

I've upgraded my private APU2 based boxes from 2.5.2 to 2.6.0 and then to psense+ 22.1.

Ist there a Limitation, that I cannot restore Config from one Box to another?

What additional data am I sharing with negate?
Or are them just knowing now which boxes I own?

Regards

stephenw10

@bingo600 said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

My guess is that you get an activation id , that when "entered" registers your Netgate ID on a Netgate Lic server , and then you're good to go (for a Home license), at the same time the activation id is invalidated, as it has been used.

Exactly that.

@bingo600 said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

And after that period the Plus software won't function.

No it won't stop functioning, we aren't suddenly going to open the firewall! Or close it. It will no longer see updates or packages.

@bingo600 said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

When i'm talking about 5 licenses it was for home use.
And that should be ok.

Personally I have waaay more than 5 firewalls at home. But I'm probably a special case.
But I don't see an issue with that.

@steveits said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

If your intention is to restore the config from a working/broken router to the cold spare, does that restore the license?

It would not since that's tied the the hardware via the NDI not the config.

@steveits said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

they're missing an x64 model inbetween the ARM's and the 6100.

Agreed, but I think they are well aware of that. :)

Indeed we are.

We've spent a lot of time thinking about how all this will work but I'm sure there will be situations we don't yet have an immediate solution for.
The best thing is to email our sales guys for questions about costs.

Steve

bingo600

@stephenw10 said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

Personally I have waaay more than 5 firewalls at home. But I'm probably a special case.

He..He - Thanx Stephen
You are prob. one of the "few" that gets a home lic with the "Big TAC Support package"

There is a good License explanation here , from a Netgate person
https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/ssyq4p/comment/hx4di8i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

troysjanda

@stephenw10

so for home without tac-lite or any tac at all it is free and will remain so? or does the home license expire?

stephenw10

@troysjanda

Yes, for home it does not expire and I'm not aware of any plan to change that.

Steve

fireodo

@stephenw10

Hi,

is HomeOffice, from time to time, considered already as "commercial" use?
Thank you,
fireodo

bingo600

@fireodo
I read the license explanation from here:
https://forum.netgate.com/post/1025978

As if you're not having pfSense L2L tunnels from your Home pfSense to the company, then it's not "commercial".

Aka. using a PC VPN client from home (via pfSense) to the company is OK.
But having a permanent L2L tunnel to the company is NOT OK.

fireodo

@bingo600 said in Migrating from CE to Plus - Home & Work Commercial:

As if you're not having pfSense L2L tunnels from your Home pfSense to the company, then it's not "commercial".
Aka. using a PC VPN client from home (via pfSense) to the company is OK.
But having a permanent L2L tunnel to the company is NOT OK.

Ah - many thanks, thats clear now.
fireodo