ESXi Evaluation Period
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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.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
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.
That may be the case, these cases do exist. But in that case it is "Free by Default" and "License for More" not "Eval by Default" and "License for any use".
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
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.
Whether they are different or not really doesn't matter. He didn't get the free product and what he did get made it super clear that he couldn't use it. No real grey area at all.
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I'm hoping he'll respond. I was under the impression he just wants to know how to install a licence key for the free version so he can get his VMs powered up because he didn't realise that you have to install a key. But maybe not. I never know what these posters think!
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
I'm hoping he'll respond. I was under the impression he just wants to know how to install a licence key for the free version so he can get his VMs powered up because he didn't realise that you have to install a key. But maybe not. I never know what these posters think!
I tried to lay out that there were three options and one of them was that. I have a feeling that he is going that route but... who knows. My only reasonable guess is that someone told him about the free version and he thought that if he put his head in the sand that things would fix themselves. Now they haven't and he's panicking.
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I joined this community yesterday and I've already seen over 10 posts bashing people over on SW. I'm curious, why?
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@Jstear said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
I joined this community yesterday and I've already seen over 10 posts bashing people over on SW. I'm curious, why?
The discussions held here generally aren't to bash, although it can come across as such. My post here wasn't to bash, but to understand how you would download the wrong product and not know it for half of a year.
Which is what this person has done. It's just mind boggling how that could occur.
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@DustinB3403 I haven't read the OP, nor know the OP, but I think a lot of times people get thrown into these roles and get told they need X, when in reality they need Y. The issue with this is they honestly have no idea what they need and have don't even think about licensing, especially when they see "FREE".
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Here is what the OP said...
"I had a VMWAre Evaluation version which expired, my VMs went off because of power outage and now i cant start them because i get a license expiration error if i try to start it.
What are my options?"
So here is a major thought....
The OP isn't he person that installed the eval. We have no reason to believe or suspect that they did. Other than not throwing someone else under the bus, we shouldn't assume that they did. Whoever did the install, I feel, should have known that it was an eval. But for all we know it was a vendor, manager, intern, former IT guy or whatever. It might have been someone who thought that they really were doing an eval then some manager demanding that it be used in production and ... here we are. The OP might only be saddled with something that they had no control over and no role in creating. For all we know the OP is an MSP on their first day with a new client.
Lots of ways that this could have happened. All of them put the company at fault, that it is an eval is clear. But there is no reason to suspect that the OP did this themselves; they might just be cleaning up others' mistakes.
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If they are separate products, with separate links, as has been posted, how do you install the free version without installing a licence key and without it being an evaluation version.
Every time I have in installed ESXi, it has started in evaluation mode until I installed the licence key. Are you saying that I have been downloading and installing the wrong product all this time. Maybe I'm as "dense" as the OP?
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Cos as far as I've always been aware, it is possible that someone could want to use ESXi free. Download and install it. Then it will run in evaluation mode. At the end of that evaluation mode it will tell them their licence has expired. They could then think "expired? I thought I was running the free version?". They might ask what's going on, only to be told that they are dense and have installed the wrong product!
That's how I imagine it could have played out.
But that's because I didn't think 'free' and 'trial' were separate products with separate downloads. So maybe, like you say I must have done, he's clicked on the wrong download link all this time and downloaded the wrong product.
I have my doubts though.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
If they are separate products, with separate links, as has been posted, how do you install the free version without installing a licence key and without it being an evaluation version.
Every time I have in installed ESXi, it has started in evaluation mode until I installed the licence key. Are you saying that I have been downloading and installing the wrong product all this time. Maybe I'm as "dense" as the OP?
No, what I'm saying (but not some others) is that there is only one product, but it is clear that it is an eval until licensed.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
Cos as far as I've always been aware, it is possible that someone could want to use ESXi free. Download and install it. Then it will run in evaluation mode.
Correct, that is my understanding as well.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
At the end of that evaluation mode it will tell them their licence has expired. They could then think "expired? I thought I was running the free version?".
I agree that this is what most likely happened. The question, I think, is how someone (maybe not the OP) could have run an eval version without knowing that it was the eval version.
The question, I think, is what would make them feel that they had installed the free version when it says eval version to make it clear that it isn't the free one.
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@Carnival-Boy said in ESXi Evaluation Period:
If they are separate products, with separate links...
Separate products with one link. Just like Windows desktop and Windows server.
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No. ESXi is one product with one download ISO. The licence key determines which features are unlocked. If you want to run ESXi free you download and install the full product and then install a licence.
Can you change Windows Desktop to Windows Server just be changing the licence key? No. They are seperate products.
I have recently downgraded from ESXi Essentials to ESXi Free simply by entering a different key. It's the same product.
