ESXi Evaluation Period
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@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Not in the Windows world, for example. This definitely happens a bit, but I'd say that it is far from the norm. Especially for enterprise software where I've never seen that happen at all.
Dunno. Give me some examples of other free software that requires a licence key to be installed?
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Except the name "trial license" kind of gives it all away. Maybe not the details, maybe not the time frame.... but the name alone tells you it's non-viable and not an option.
I'm not aware that ESXi uses the term "trial licence"? It has "Evaluation Mode" which doesn't have a licence key.
Ah sorry, I know that it was something that gave away all necessary information in the name, though. Putting something into evaluation mode rather than installing for production, to me, 100% puts all onus on whoever agreed to that. They just ignored the need for their licensing and that they needed to be aware of that before using the evaluation was stated in the name. I just don't see any wiggle room for the OP to make excuses in this case (or for us to excuse him.)
In fact, with a name like evaluation mode, if he wasn't totally clear on all of the licensing details he should not have been running it for prod workloads even temporarily as that name implies that ANY production usage is not allowed, temporary, evaluation or otherwise (evaluation only implies that you can evaluate somehow, no suggestion of production.)
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I posted that link for that ESXi SMB topic.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Not in the Windows world, for example. This definitely happens a bit, but I'd say that it is far from the norm. Especially for enterprise software where I've never seen that happen at all.
Dunno. Give me some examples of other free software that requires a licence key to be installed?
Pretty much everything from Microsoft. Splunk. Everything from Tibco. I think most Oracle products. Definitely tons of stuff that I've worked with in the enterprise space, most of which is not that big of a name. But having to deal with license keys to keep things running is very normal.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Not in the Windows world, for example. This definitely happens a bit, but I'd say that it is far from the norm. Especially for enterprise software where I've never seen that happen at all.
Dunno. Give me some examples of other free software that requires a licence key to be installed?
IDEAS, CATIA, Pro-E all required online license verification before you could use the software or certain features of the software back in the 90s. Doesn't seem to have changed much today with our label printing software and inventory management apps.
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Outside of the open source space, what doesn't require a license key in the enterprise space?
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@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Outside of the open source space, what doesn't require a license key in the enterprise space?
SQL Server, embedded on every 2012 media I have seen
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@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Outside of the open source space, what doesn't require a license key in the enterprise space?
Which Microsoft ones do? I use Visual Studio Community Edition, and that installed without a licence key. SQL Server Express doesn't require one IIRC. Erm, I don't think I use any other free Microsoft software. I'll have a think.
Other free software I use: Veeam B&R - that doesn't require a licence key.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Outside of the open source space, what doesn't require a license key in the enterprise space?
Which Microsoft ones do? I use Visual Studio Community Edition, and that installed without a licence key. SQL Server Express doesn't require one IIRC. Erm, I don't think I use any other free Microsoft software. I'll have a think.
Other free software I use: Veeam B&R - that doesn't require a licence key.
That's because the key is embedded in these products
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Which Microsoft ones do? I use Visual Studio Community Edition, and that installed without a licence key.
Right... that's the Community edition, the free one. Not an enterprise NOR paid for product.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
SQL Server Express doesn't require one IIRC. Erm, I don't think I use any other free Microsoft software. I'll have a think.
Again, not enterprise, not supported and not trail/eval. These are fully free hobby to SMB level products without support. Nothing like ESXi.
So you can see from your examples how completely dramatically it should have stood out to the OP that this was labeled "eval" not "free."
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Other free software I use: Veeam B&R - that doesn't require a licence key.
Again, free. He specifically chose a non-free product for eval.
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@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Again, not enterprise, not supported and not trail/eval. These are fully free hobby to SMB level products without support. Nothing like ESXi.
Eh? ESXi Free is not enterprise and doesn't come with support. Exactly the same.
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He didn't "try ESXi free" he installed the fully working 180 trial of ESXi.
Completely different products.
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I thought there was only one product and the licence determines which features are unlocked? How do you install the 'free version' rather than the 'trial version'? I've only ever download one product AFAIK.
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Different link to a different product.
But it is there.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
I thought there was only one product and the licence determines which features are unlocked? How do you install the 'free version' rather than the 'trial version'? I've only ever download one product AFAIK.
For all of their products you go to the web site and apply the license key that you want. It's a necessary part of every VMware ESXi installation. I believe that you are correct, that if you install any of them without getting the necessary key it lets you evaluate, but makes it incredibly clear that you don't have a valid install to use for anything as it is just an eval, not the free version.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Eh? ESXi Free is not enterprise and doesn't come with support. Exactly the same.
But he didn't install ESXi Free. He installed the eval. So nothing like any of the examples that you gave. Each of those you install the "free" product and that's all that there is. They are not free evals of the commercial product.
ESXi Free and ESXi Eval are not the same product. If your examples were applicable, we would not be having this conversation because he would have installed ESXi Free Community edition and not have had this issue.
He did not, he installed an eval, not a free product.
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I've looked around the VMware site and I can't find different products. It all seems to link to the same ISO.
Veeam B&R is the same as far as I was aware - one product. Again, I don't know of any way to install a separate "free" version of Veeam B&R. They appear to be the same product.
I don't want to get into an argument over it. If you say they are different products that's fine. I've never paid that much attention.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
I've looked around the VMware site and I can't find different products. It all seems to link to the same ISO.
That may be, but it requires a license in every use case. Nothing like your examples which provide a direct, clearly free alternative product. In this case, it offers a very clear "must be licensed no matter what" product.
