Move pfsense plus SSD to new hardware
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@abmina said in Move pfsense plus SSD to new hardware:
I have recently purchased a new router device and moved the nvme ssd from my old pfsense router to the new device.
That seems to be a bad idea at all.
Is recommended to do a fresh install on the new hardware. The installation process gives you an option to import a config backup from the disk.
Or run through the installation and restore the backup after. -
Like this : The pfsense+ license has disappeared ?
A license key is device (hardware) bound.
Your hardware changed.
Very comparable of what happens when you buy a Microsoft Windows license, and later on you change the drives, the video card, and upgrade the processor : Your 'Windows' will complain.Btw : I hope that I'm completely wrong of course.
As said in the other thread : go TAC. -
@viragomann I will return the sdd to the original device and copy the config, then do a fresh install on the new device.
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@Gertjan no the license didn't disappear, I am not getting the same messages as the ones shown in the other post.
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What pfSense version is it?
Doing that can work but I'd expect to have to reassign the interfaces at a minimum.
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@stephenw10 I have pfsense plus version 24.11. I am sure I will need to reassign interfaces because the new device has 2x 10Gb spf+ ports.
My only concern is last time I did the installation, I had to install pfsense CE and then get a free license to upgrade to pfsense plus. Which I believe just copying the config from a CE edition to a plus edition will not bring the plus upgrade with it, am I right?
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Indeed the subscription is tied to the hardware so it won't be present on the new device whether the drive is swapped or clean installed.
With the new Net Installer you can install Plus dircetly. No need to install CE then upgrade.
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@stephenw10 Netgate no longer gives free licenses for home labs, right?
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Yes, that's correct.
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@stephenw10 Hi, First time question here, apologies...
Netgate does not issue + Upgrades from CE anymore, but moving it to new HW is not supported either?
Bummer I say.
PS. We do realize the free upgrade was abused, but for home labs migrating to new HW? Come one Netgate, implement a work around... Please?
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The NDI is tied to the hardware so moving to new hardware changes it.
We are looking into other possibilities. We realise it's far from perfect.
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@greentree-sa not sure if it was abused or not. It is possible that users were moving to new hardware and because they couldn't migrate their existing license they just got a new one from Netgate. I have changed my hardware three times in the last 5 years and had to get a different license every time.
Now I ended up using pfSense CE. I was told the OPNsense is similar to pfSense+. I tried it for an hour and then removed it because I didn't like the way they organized the UI.
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Thank you all for the feedback.
I suppose the discontinuation of the Plus upgrade for home labs was a financial one.
Bummer, I still say.
:)
