virtualmin pro licensing

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#1 Sun, 07/06/2014 - 22:18
porzech

virtualmin pro licensing

The virtualmin pro license in shop says "Annual license, support, and software updates subscription for Virtualmin Professional on one server with up to 10 domain accounts." My question is: what one server actually means? What if I install virtualmin pro inside virtual machine and I have 10 virtual machines on one phisical server how many virtualmin pro licenses I need?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 09:01
andreychek

Howdy,

With a Virtualmin 10, that means that you can have one installation of Virtualmin Pro, with up to 10 domains on that particular installation.

So you could install your Virtualmin 10 on one of your virtual machines, and if you wanted, you could put Virtualmin GPL on all the others.

-Eric

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 10:35 (Reply to #2)
porzech

Thank for the answer Eric. But does it mean that Virtualmin Pro can "manage" Virtualmin GPL instances somehow? Esspecially if I plan to use application installation scripts feature, so I can install applications on other servers' webmins and virtualmins from that specific Virtualmin Pro installation?

Mon, 07/07/2014 - 11:46
andreychek

Howdy,

Virtualmin Pro can only manage the domains running on the server/VPS it was installed onto. The license is good for that one installation.

If you wanted your other VPS's to be able to use Install Scripts and other features from Virtualmin Pro, you would need a separate license for each VPS.

-Eric

Wed, 05/06/2015 - 02:28
porzech

Eric,

We are doing hosting with dedicated servers for each customer which is in separate virtual machine and has a single domain by default.

So is it possible that we could use Virtualmin license for the number of VM's as for domains? Or have Virtualmin pool to count domains on all virtual servers.

In the end it is the same because each domain anyway (as each vm) is for different user.

Thanks

Pawel

Wed, 05/06/2015 - 09:36
andreychek

Howdy,

At the moment, a license is designed to work only on one server.

We are looking into a license type which counts domains spread across several servers -- the pool that you described.

Having a license with 10 domains spread out across several servers would cost more than a Virtualmin 10 on one server, but it is something we're highly considering, though we haven't implemented that capability yet.

So for now, the only way to do what you need would be to buy multiple Virtualmin 10 licenses.

Depending on how many you need though, we could offer you a discount.

-Eric

Wed, 05/06/2015 - 11:12
porzech

Sounds good:-)

First I want to try 10-domains license on 1 server to see if it fulfills my expectations: - need for html file manager - "slim" installation of ruby apps and gems - installation scripts for vtiger, wordpress, redmine, limeservey, owncloud - nothing more

If it works ok, then I would buy 10 virtualmin licenses one per one VM.

Wed, 05/06/2015 - 12:05
andreychek

Howdy,

You are welcome to try Virtualmin Pro, and if it doesn't do what you need, just request a refund within 45 days.

A couple of notes though --

Virtualmin no longer has an Install Script for Redmine, it was removed a couple of years ago. It's too much of a moving target since it's dependencies change so rapidly. This caused it to be impossible to keep working on a distribution using standard packages.

Also, Webmin currently has a Java-based filemanager, though we're planning a move to an HTML-based filemanager.

-Eric

Wed, 07/29/2015 - 17:56
devteam

Good day. I too have run into the license check - and while it is partially right, even the check is listing too many servers. I had a bad deal with a cheap VPS provider and until they lost every ounce of the entire installs, had (perhaps wrongly) 2 identical installs on two different VPS nodes (OpenVPS I believe) with the same domain install essentially duplicated from VPS 1 to VPS 2 - this was done out of the need to tie BIND together as I was running my own DNS for my project. Virtualmin never complained of this, yet after looking at the warning that popped up today, it should have caught that perhaps? The domain's are and were in that scenario the same. I assumed that was why it was OK, but more reading after the warning now makes everything confusing.

What I have now after a week of work is three containers in PROXMOX running 3 identical installs of Virtualmin - websites or domains other than the "hosted" FQDN (I get ten the license says) domain name are identical like (vm1.coolservers.com, vm2,coolservers.com and vm3.coolservers.com) [so the 3 installs are only subdomains] all of this is onsite now and I have broken ties with the offending VPS provider, although I have yet to try and restore any websites, email or anything - well they are all just "ready to go." Two VM's just as we were using from our old VPS provider are required to run DNS ourselves. Before the reality is everything was being served from only one of the two VPS's - the other was there really mostly for DNS redundancy.

Now here I sit with 3 installs (the third identical Virtualmin install I would like to use only as both a web sandbox, but actually more importantly a Virtualmin sandbox so I can make mistakes and figure out how to do things to the two "running" VPS's.

I purchased Virtualmin the same day I found it - 99.9% of that was to pay into the project - I think it is fantastic. But, from the above comments, it looks like I need 2 more licenses and have to pay for a sandbox of Virtualmin Pro as well?

I might add, the warning specifies I am using Virtualmin on 4 machines which is not the case. - I have it in house on the LAN here in three OpenVZ CentOS containers. I do not know where this leaves me. This is simply for my own projects and for testing; buying two more licences for $99 is surely not in the budget, so I know not what to do - and am not entirely sure the licensing has been right from day one - maybe it was OK with two instances because the IP's of the VPS company were related? I simply don't know.

Let me know what I "really" need for my configuration if you would and perhaps tell your licensing system either way, there is no 4th machine/VPS/VM - I would gather an instance is still cached from the VPS company. Thank you in advance.

-Douglas

Wed, 07/29/2015 - 22:38
andreychek

Howdy,

First off, regarding your old VPS host -- it'll likely just take a few days for that to time out from the license manager. That will go away on it's own.

However, how many Virtualmin servers do you intend on using as "front-facing", customer-serving, live Virtualmin servers?

That excludes sandbox servers and the like.

-Eric

Thu, 07/30/2015 - 10:48 (Reply to #10)
devteam

Thanks for the reply. How I had things set up with the "evil VPS company" while there were two installs, I was and only have intentions of really serving any content from a single machine (or in this case VM.) But, while I have no plans to serve anything on the second server, it would be facing the Internet too, just so that DNS works and is RIGHT. (I found Virtualmin allowed me to understand how to run DNS properly...)

Of course the sandbox will NOT be facing the Internet. My intention is to only host websites on one of the VM installs but yet I would like install 2 to face the Internet just for the BIND service - nothing will be hosted on it but DNS.

I understand your position and will strive to do what I can to make this fair for you all - as mentioned I bought a license just on the merits of paying into the project as I am a great supporter and plan to make scripts and such here in my spare time in the sandbox VM.

Reading my own post it looks like the install that is to be used only for DNS and not serving anything should be licensed for that only I suppose. Is there a way to "un-pro" an install - and if I were to do something such as that for the DNS server, would I have all of the same options for DNS? I have DNSEC tools installed on that just so I can work to get everything right.

Right now nothing is being hosted or exposed to the net, but obviously that will be my intent. And the ONLY reason I do not just install the GPL version for the DNS server is that I have days in hardening and modifying CentOS installs with Virtualmin in PROXMOX that I neither have the time or desire to have to do that all over again if that makes sense. (I just copied/cloned one "masterpiece" CentOS container. :-) )

Oh and it has been a couple months since my VPS company dropped all of my data, so I would think that should have already taken care of itself. Also what confuses me is why did I not encounter this before with two machines on two VPS's? Did I just slip under the wire? I figured it was because they were the same domain and only one machine was serving data save DNS, but now I think I was (completely unknowingly) violating the terms then. Thanks in advance and I look forward to your guidance on the topic.

-Douglas

Thu, 07/30/2015 - 11:07
andreychek

Howdy,

Yeah, if you're just using Virtualmin Pro on the other system as a DNS server, we're not too worried about that. I'd probably leave all that as-is :-)

Though if you wanted to you could downgrade a Virtualmin Pro install to GPL using these instructions:

https://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/installation/uninstalling#Downg...

As far as your old installation/provider goes -- I'm not too sure what's going on there, but you could always open up a support request with us using the Support link above. There, we can go over some more details there that are harder to do in the public Forum.

-Eric

Thu, 07/30/2015 - 11:59 (Reply to #12)
devteam

Hey thanks Eric for the swift reply. I can open a ticket regarding the mystery 4th machine.

I will look through the guide you provided in the link as far as downgrading. The only reason for me to resist such a thing is less than time even, but more so I am positive I know what I am doing on the primary DNS machine and everything is identical. Besides, while I have no intentions of any growth as a hosting provider - INCLUDING only hosting from one VM/Virtualmin install, one never knows. Keep in mind too I am not a commercial hosting company and am only now able to use cable based internet as an ISP, so regardless, unless I get fiber or copper run to (my home lol) my little hosting set up here is just out of frustration and costs - and I know the speeds will be horrifically slow now, but I both am learning about the "right way" one should use Virtualmin, as well as trying to solve the problem of the host from Hell - and again, who knows maybe I will grow if I can get access to real trunk line from the Chicago Metro Loop.

As you may be able to guess, if I am concerned about a measly $99 for another license, "real internet" at my location, price-wise would make bundles of Virtualmin licenses laughable cost-wise and I would have no issues or regrets buying licenses all over the place. But, I am not and currently do not foresee my future as a real web hosting company. :-) I just set domains up in the manner I did so that for instance one simple site going down does not make that project specifically look bad, but reflects upon my "imaginary hosting company" that I own the domain name to.

Thanks for the guidance and I will both look into the downgrade as well as the extra machine issue. I just first and foremost want to thank all of the team there for making a great project. I hope in the future to be able to contribute a handful of third party scripts as well as some guides on how to set up Virtualmin with different technology and versions that have been tested and well vetted here over the last couple of months.

-Douglas

Thu, 07/30/2015 - 12:38 (Reply to #13)
devteam

Crud, looks like there could be some issues with downgrading as I spent many hours customizing the CentOS Virtualmin installs with more modern packages. I would have to look through that downgrade file and make changes I think so it does not break the entire thing.

What a deal. How about I look at my budget next month. While we all hate being broke I will agree it is fair to ask me to purchase another license even though I will not be hosting from the DNS machine Virtualmin/VM.

Nothing is online now, so I essentially am not really violating anything I do not think if it is just on the LAN and not able to talk to the great Internet. Seems to me after all of this, I should as soon as funding allows, buy a second license for the DNS server, but would you agree it is OK to have the Pro Version of Virtualmin on a truly internal LAN for experimentation with scripts and posting guides and such of modified Virtualmin installs that "truly work" and do not break themselves due to additional repositories and such? - For I really would like to get involved with the project.

Thanks, - this for some reason is a "long-wided day" for me post-wise. lol

-Douglas

Thu, 07/30/2015 - 14:52
andreychek

Well, we're not particularly concerned about your Virtualmin Pro install that's just acting as a DNS server.

Sure, in an ideal world, it might be preferable to have Virtualmin GPL on there if we were starting from scratch.

But if you're not using the Virtualmin Pro features, and not receiving support for that server, then I'm more than happy to call it even :-)

We certainly have no desire to cause any trouble for your server. Virtualmin is about making things easier, not harder :-)

We'll work with you in the support tracker to sort out the issues with your old VPS provider.

-Eric

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