ESXi Evaluation Period
-
@DustinB3403 said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
I'm curious as to how could one be so dense as to have to ask what they should do. Can someone help me to understand the mindset that this person was going through setting up this system?
I don't think they have to be particularly dense. I don't think the licencing around ESXi is particularly clear. I mean it's not rocket science, but it's not spelled out either. Kind of understandable, I guess, as VMWare don't want to make it too easy for people to use the free version.
In my experience, most evaluation software reverts automatically to the free version when the evaluation period expires. ESXi is slightly unusual in that you have to obtain and install a licence to use the free version. But only slightly unusual, I'm not trying to defend the guy particularly.
-
@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
I don't think they have to be particularly dense. I don't think the licencing around ESXi is particularly clear. I mean it's not rocket science, but it's not spelled out either. Kind of understandable, I guess, as VMWare don't want to make it too easy for people to use the free version.
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. Unless he poured over the actual details and got them wrong, it means he didn't even check the name of the license. If we were talking about the complexities of Essentials or Essentials Plus I might agree that he just didn't do his homework.
But honestly, if he can't figure out the "trial license" is a trial, he must know enough that he can't be in any situation where he has to make decisions.
-
@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
In my experience, most evaluation software reverts automatically to the free version when the evaluation period expires. ESXi is slightly unusual in that you have to obtain and install a licence to use the free version. But only slightly unusual, I'm not trying to defend the guy particularly.
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.
-
Why has no one linked him the article on if SMB is viable in the SMB market?
-
@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Why has no one linked him the article on if SMB is viable in the SMB market?
Got a link?
-
-
that's a good one to keep handy. If you ever need it, do a topic title search for SMB. It's like on page 2.
-
@scottalanmiller said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
that's a good one to keep handy. If you ever need it, do a topic title search for SMB. It's like on page 2.
It just went in my pastbin, I need to rename it "SWJ is to prolific".
-
@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.
-
@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?
-
@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.)
-
I posted that link for that ESXi SMB topic.
-
@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.
-
@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.
-
Outside of the open source space, what doesn't require a license key in the enterprise space?
-
@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
-
@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.
-
@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
-
@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.
-
@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."
