Need License T&C's clearing up

[alsoran]

Hi
I'm a bit confused about licensing for Proxmox VE. Most people understand it to be free to use with the proviso that if you want anything other than community support you will have to pay for support. So far so good. However when I look at the website I see the following which implies that paid support is required to use proxmoxVE "A Proxmox VE Server Subscription is valid for 12 months (12 months from purchase date). All Proxmox VE servers inside your organization need a valid subscription." and in contradiction "Do not forget one important issue: Proxmox VE is free to use and open source." in the wiki

I need to know whether I can use ProxmoxVE with just the unpaid Community Support or do I have to get a subscription for my Proxmox VE servers to continue to use them. So could someone from proxmox please clarify the licensing position for me and additionally let me know whether they plan to make use of Proxmox VE subscription based only now or in the near future. Its important that I know what my responsibilities regarding this product.

Best Regards

 

[tom]

Licensing and support contracts are two different topics, look like there is some confusion due to misleading wrong posting in a third party forum.

License terms:
http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Open_Source

Support options:
http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Get_support

If you go for a server subscription support contract you obviously need to buy this for all servers. Just an example: We do not give commercial support to companies which are running 100 Proxmox VE servers but just buy ONE subscription - this term should be clear and its quite common in the open source industry.

Clear now?

 

[alsoran]

Hi Tom

Thanks for coming back so quickly.

I did come across a thread which actually made your products existence known to me. looking at the features offered I can see a use for it. The confusion raised in the thread led me to check out your website which is not as explicit for someone like me as perhaps it might be about how I may use the software, hence my post. I have no problem with the per server subscription.

So my understanding is that I can download and use the software on my servers without having to buy server subscription support for any of them unless I decide that I need to, in which case I have to subscribe for each server which I run.

Am I right?

All the best

 

[alsoran]

incidentally, can I buy a support ticket bundle to cover a number of servers e.g. 1 support ticket and use this if any one of 5 servers has a problem? I was thinking of this instead of 5 server subscription support.

Best Regards

 

[tom]

yes.

 

[tom]

yes, a single support ticket covers one support case.

 

[alsoran]

Tom

Thanks very much, I'll take VE for a spin.

Best Regards

 

[jdw]

Along this line, if we have questions about commercial licensing costs and options, is there someone we can contact?

There aren't any "sales" or "contact us" links on the site that I could find. I'm as happy as the next guy not to have to deal with "sales" but I do have a couple of questions.

 

[tom]

Along this line, if we have questions about commercial licensing costs and options, is there someone we can contact?

there is no "commercial licensing", there is commercial support.

Contact: see http://www.proxmox.com/about-us

Or just ask using our support system for customers https://my.proxmox.com

There aren't any "sales" or "contact us" links on the site that I could find. I'm as happy as the next guy not to have to deal with "sales" but I do have a couple of questions.

 

[jdw]

there is no "commercial licensing", there is commercial support.

You may wish to clarify this on the site; it refers to the per-socket option as "Professional Server Subscription." Since software is often called a server (e.g. "Apache server") and software in this space is typically licensed per socket (e.g. VMware, RedHat, Citrix, Oracle all do this), this looks and sounds a lot like an annual software license, especially since the other per-incident option is clearly called "Support Ticket Subscription."

I'm sorry if I sound confused; whatever it is called is not too important to me as long as all parties understand it is "the money paid from us to you so that you can keep working on Proxmox VE."

Contact: see http://www.proxmox.com/about-us

To be fair, I did look at that page before posting and the only contact information there is for "investor relations" which is definitely not me.

Or just ask using our support system for customers https://my.proxmox.com

Thanks, I will explore this option.

 

[tom]

yes, the right page for contact is: http://www.proxmox.com/imprint