New cluster from scratch. First license then cluster or the other way around

[EmilioMoreno]

Hi
We are building a new production cluster with Pve8.2; we have received the hardware and starting building the cluster and doing some tests. The goal is to go live on October with this new cluster, so purchasing the subscription 3 months in advance sounds like wasting 3 months of the subscription time.

Is there any issue on creating the cluster and testing the whole setup (including switching, Storages and so on) with the free version and later on upgrade all the nodes of the cluster to the subscription model and repeat the tests? Or will this install some packages incompatible with the suscription repository? or is there any other adverse effect?

 

[leesteken]

If you update without a subscription, you'll be a little ahead compares to the enterprise repository but it will catch up. The software is practically the same but updates come a little later with a subscription. I would say: go ahead and install it, update it and test it and only buy the support when you go into live production (being satisfied that the software works for you).

EDIT: Just to clarify, adding a subscription key itself does not change anything except (after enabling the enterprise repository instead of the no-subscription) you get updates later.
EDIT2: It's not a license (because the software is free under AGLP3) but a payed subscription for support tickets (0 or more).
EDIT3: Maybe contact Proxmox sales office for more details and present your concerns to them. Maybe get a community subscription first and upgrade later?

 

[zodiac]

The freely licensed repository is usually a little bit ahead of the commercially licensed one. You are paying for your software by acting as a guinea pig for new releases. During your testing phase, that probably doesn't matter an awful lot unless you are particularly unlucky. And eventually, whatever is being tested in the free repository should find its way into the commercial repository. So, things will ultimately converge.

If 3 months of subscription fees make a big difference to you, then maybe that's the way to go. On the other hand, if you want to test a realistic scenario for your production environment, then maybe the relatively low cost of the subscription is less important than the peace of mind, better support, and accurate testing of what you'll actually be running in your deployed environment.

Honestly, if you are using Proxmox for anything other than a hobby set up, go ahead and pay for a subscription. Compared to all your other costs of operating a cluster for business purposes, it's cheap. And you don't want to cut corners for a business-critical system. Chalk these three months up to required training costs.

On the other hand, if you are still on edge as to whether Proxmox is even going to work for you in the first place, then of course, the free trial with the non-enterprise version is a great deal. Differences between both versions are almost nil, so this is a wonderful opportunity to kick the tires. And this forum will help you if you run into issues or can't figure out best practices.

 

[sw-omit]

One more thought/idea though if you're really worried about the costs:
If you install with the latest iso, and do no updates or JUST the debian-updates (aka, disable both the proxmox-repo's and ignore the warning about not having any prox-repo's), you'll be at ALMOST the same level as enterprise, so once you do get the subscription, you can still upgrade to enterprise-repo-current right away.
The iso's are based on the enterprise-repo's, just without the minor updates of course.

Alternatively, you could also go for the (cheaper, no-SLA/-tickets but with repo-access) community subscription [1] and then upgrade to a higher tier with SLA and support-tickets after the 3 months are up and only pay the difference (see the Agreement/FAQ [2] , part 3.10)


[1] https://www.proxmox.com/en/proxmox-virtual-environment/pricing
[2] https://www.proxmox.com/images/download/pve/agreements/Proxmox_VE-Subscription-Agreement_V4.3.pdf

 

[davemcl]

Hi
We are building a new production cluster with Pve8.2; we have received the hardware and starting building the cluster and doing some tests. The goal is to go live on October with this new cluster, so purchasing the subscription 3 months in advance sounds like wasting 3 months of the subscription time.

Is there any issue on creating the cluster and testing the whole setup (including switching, Storages and so on) with the free version and later on upgrade all the nodes of the cluster to the subscription model and repeat the tests? Or will this install some packages incompatible with the suscription repository? or is there any other adverse effect?

You should test your workloads before shelling out money in case you hit bugs. Easy to do with the no subscriber setup.

 

[esi_y]

If you install with the latest iso, and do no updates or JUST the debian-updates (aka, disable both the proxmox-repo's and ignore the warning about not having any prox-repo's), you'll be at ALMOST the same level as enterprise, so once you do get the subscription, you can still upgrade to enterprise-repo-current right away.
The iso's are based on the enterprise-repo's, just without the minor updates of course.

You can get even e.g. older minor version here:

https://enterprise.proxmox.com/iso/

The issue is, even if you do not update as described above, if there are old bugs (from the time) still unfixed (as opposed to today), you will be hitting them. But it's probably much better situation to test out than be getting fresh regressions what essentially is release candidate / beta code.