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    pfSense+ upgrade

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • VioletDragonV
      VioletDragon
      last edited by

      Hi folks long time pfSense user here 8 Years, I am looking for some clarification before i opt in for pfSense +. I am currently running CE Version 2.6 how ever I have been thinking about upgrading to + Lad Version but here are somethings I want to clarify first.

      I have a Lab that is a High Availability cluster that I use to host Mail, Web Servers for my business as well as parents business and a few other public facing services, also use it for testing software for work related jobs.

      Just one more question, can the Lab license be only used on one box or would i have to have two licences ? I don't want to break the license Terms and Conditions so verifying if I can use pfSense + Lab version in my environment

      I have noticed that Lab version is free but with hosting these services can it still come under that category ? I also use packages like Snort, Haproxy, Acme, Zabbix etc.

      Just wondering.

      Now if i can upgrade to pfSense+ what is the best way to go i am currently on 2.6.0 need to upgrade ASAP as packages will no longer update due to PHP7 version. Should I upgrade to 2.7 or upgrade to pfSense+ ?

      I am running pfSense on 2x Supermicro 1u Servers.

      Regards.

      Jack.

      S H 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • bmeeksB
        bmeeks
        last edited by bmeeks

        My personal take on this --

        At the moment there is almost no difference between pfSense Plus 23.05.1 and pfSense CE 2.7.0. You can examine what extras exist in Plus (and there are not that many, to be honest) that might be of interest to you. But honestly, if you are not running Netgate hardware, I suggest sticking to CE. If for nothing else, that would make any potential violation of terms and conditions not applicable.

        I mention the terms and conditions because I think that with your personal business and your and parents' business use you might be outside the bounds of the free lab user license for pfSense Plus. At the very least I suspect you would be tip-toeing on a thin gray line 🙂.

        VioletDragonV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • VioletDragonV
          VioletDragon @bmeeks
          last edited by

          @bmeeks

          Thanks for the reply. Yeah that’s what I was worried about. Netgate has been good to me for years and I don’t want to violate the terms and conditions.

          I will stick with CE and upgrade to 2.7.0 then.

          Regards

          Jack.

          bmeeksB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • bmeeksB
            bmeeks @VioletDragon
            last edited by bmeeks

            @VioletDragon said in pfSense+ upgrade:

            @bmeeks

            Thanks for the reply. Yeah that’s what I was worried about. Netgate has been good to me for years and I don’t want to violate the terms and conditions.

            I will stick with CE and upgrade to 2.7.0 then.

            Regards

            Jack.

            Nothing wrong with using Plus, but it will work smoother for upgrades on Netgate hardware. While you can update from CE to Plus, if you search the forums here the last two Plus updates have created a lot of issues for folks that formerly ran CE and upgraded to Plus. One issue is that there is not always a smooth and direct path from an older CE to current Plus.

            If you wanted to help out the project, you could maybe purchase Netgate hardware. That would come with Plus, updates would be easy, and you would be financially helping pfSense to grow.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • S
              SteveITS Galactic Empire @VioletDragon
              last edited by

              @VioletDragon you can set your update branch to Previous to install packages on 2.6.

              I understand the Plus license would be per router but just get two if they are free…

              Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
              When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
              Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • H
                hyperstriker @VioletDragon
                last edited by

                @VioletDragon , to my knowledge (experience) license is per device, but that needs to be answered by a Netgate rep. or someone with much more knowledge on their licensing, once you register a device, the next time you install PfSsense+ on that same hardware it will show "Your device does not require registration, we recognize it already. You may have already registered, or it may be a pre-registered Netgate appliance." on the registration page, so I had to acquire another Plus (+) License for a second box. between Community Edition and plus, in my case, moving from the CE (FreeBSD 12) to Plus 23.05.1-RELEASE (amd64) (FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT), it killed all my 2.5GB NICs (RTL 8125) and the 10GbE/40Gb_IBoIP (Mellanox CX-3) because of none hardware support in that later release, so if you planning on going to do that, make sure your hardware is covered/supported for the v14....

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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