pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE

ivor · Jul 16, 2018, 10:53 PM

Starting with the upcoming release of pfSense 2.4.4, all of the services previously offered under “pfSense Gold” will continue, but will be free to all pfSense users. Read on for more detail.

johnpoz · Jul 17, 2018, 6:45 PM

Providing the book for free is great news.

Is there going to be anything "extra" for users that still want to help support? Other than just buying official netgate appliances?

So since everyone will have access to the "book" then this kind of deprecates the whole wiki/github docs all together doesn't it - other than maybe some how to guides sort of thing.

jimp · Jul 17, 2018, 8:53 PM

@johnpoz said in pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE:

So since everyone will have access to the "book" then this kind of deprecates the whole wiki/github docs all together doesn't it - other than maybe some how to guides sort of thing.

As the saying goes, kinda/sorta but not really. :-)

A good chunk of the docs can be merged into the book in various places, but there are things like How-To articles and developer info that don't fit well in the book. The book content is also more tightly controlled than the other content. We're still hashing out how all that will work, though, so we'll probably land somewhere in between.

JeGr · Jul 18, 2018, 9:44 AM

So @ivor quick question to make it clear:

pfSense Gold will cease with 2.4.4-release? Or will it stay without any or with minimal goodies only for supporting the project further?
About the VMware image: no OVA will be published anymore. OK so that's basically back to "install via ISO and install open-vm-tools" and using paravirt/FreeBSD settings on the VM side. Are there any other caveats besides that? We (as company) aren't dependend on the "vmware certified" sticker but are there any other things going with the certification, that we should be on the lookout for?

Thanks,
Jens

ivor · Jul 18, 2018, 4:42 PM

@jegr said in pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE:

pfSense Gold will cease with 2.4.4-release? Or will it stay without any or with minimal goodies only for supporting the project further?

Gold will be free so supporting the project is possible via appliance and support purchases.

About the VMware image: no OVA will be published anymore. OK so that's basically back to "install via ISO and install open-vm-tools" and using paravirt/FreeBSD settings on the VM side. Are there any other caveats besides that? We (as company) aren't dependend on the "vmware certified" sticker but are there any other things going with the certification, that we should be on the lookout for?

That's pretty much it. No caveats on pfSense's end, but it depends from your virtualization software. For example, when using KVM / Proxmox you will need to disable hardware checksum offload in system settings.

JeGr · Jul 19, 2018, 8:07 AM

@ivor said in pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE:

That's pretty much it. No caveats on pfSense's end, but it depends from your virtualization software. For example, when using KVM / Proxmox you will need to disable hardware checksum offload in system settings.

Aye, that's right. Was thinking more along the lines of any other specific setting, that was preconfigured in those OVAs besides them running with paravirt settings, FreeBSD machine type and vm tools installed? Were there other settings specially tweaked for running in vmware scenarios?

ivor · Jul 19, 2018, 9:59 AM

It's standard pfSense install, just VMware certified. I'll check if there were any specific settings and follow up.

JeGr · Jul 19, 2018, 12:04 PM

@ivor said in pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE:

It's standard pfSense install, just VMware certified. I'll check if there were any specific settings and follow up.

Thanks! Very much appreciated!

ivor · Jul 19, 2018, 4:10 PM

Confirmed, it's just a regular image with open-vm-tools-nox11 pre-installed, ran trough VMware tests for certification.

JeGr · Jul 20, 2018, 12:28 PM

@ivor Thanks a lot! :)

revengineer · Jul 21, 2018, 1:57 PM

@ivor, this is a very generous move of netgate. Thank you for that. One remaining question: In the past, I really enjoyed the pdf version of the pfsense book. Will this still be available and how? (please don't kill this format of the book.)

Mats · Jul 21, 2018, 4:50 PM

@revengineer said in pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE:

@ivor, this is a very generous move of netgate. Thank you for that. One remaining question: In the past, I really enjoyed the pdf version of the pfsense book. Will this still be available and how? (please don't kill this format of the book.)

I'd like to second this request. There are situations where there is no inet connection or limited to specifik hosts/domains. A pdf is a great help

regexaurus · Jul 28, 2018, 4:17 AM

I and the charities / non-profits I support thank you! It wasn't a major expense, but every bit helps.

ivor · Jul 30, 2018, 10:04 AM

@revengineer unlikely.

jahonix · Jul 30, 2018, 11:05 PM

@ivor said in pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE:

@revengineer unlikely.

unlikely the PDF will be available or unlikely you'll kill this format?

revengineer · Jul 30, 2018, 11:52 PM

@jahonix said in pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE:

@ivor said in pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE:

@revengineer unlikely.

unlikely the PDF will be available or unlikely you'll kill this format?

I was wondering the same. Elaboration appreciated. Thank you.

jimp · Jul 31, 2018, 1:52 AM

We will likely continue the PDF and ePub formats (mobi is more difficult to do, but may still be possible)

johnpoz · Jul 31, 2018, 12:41 AM

can we get lit and odf as well ;) What about AZW? hehehe

revengineer · Jul 31, 2018, 1:52 AM

@jimp said in pfSense Gold Free with 2.4.4-RELEASE:

We will likely continue the PDF and ePub formats (mobi is more difficult to do, but may still be possible)

Excellent, thank you! I personally can live without mobi; PDF is all I ever used.

JeGr · Jul 31, 2018, 1:32 PM

Also converting ePub to mobi/azw or other formats isn't that hard. Calibre takes care of something like that