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Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 4:39 am
by marty.stu
VMS Software has launched the Community License Program: you can get a free OpenVMS license intended for non-commercial use by applying here: https://vmssoftware.com/services/community-license/. In this thread, we will cover a few frequently asked questions about the Community License Program.

Use of Clustering

The Community License for Integrity does not include Clustering. The Community License for Alpha includes ALPHA-SYSTEM and ALPHA-LP (Clustering is included). VMS Software does not disallow the use of community license on several devices at a time.

Use on Emulators

Community license may be used on hardware or emulators.

Supported Architectures

Community licenses are available for Alpha and Integrity at the moment and will be available for x86 in the future. VAX licenses are not available as VMS Software Inc. has not released a version of OpenVMS for VAX.

Problems when Requesting the License

A few users reported problems when requesting the license with this form: https://vmssoftware.com/services/community-license/.
If you encounter any, please repeat your request; if you continue having problems, please contact us at training@vmssoftware.com.

Additional Agreements

In the line “You may Use Software only as provided for, and in connection with either Alpha, Integrity, or x86-64 processor-based servers, and/or emulators and/or hypervisors, as agreed by You and VSI”, we mean as agreed when you submitted the license request form found here: https://vmssoftware.com/services/community-license/. No additional agreements are involved.

Remote Monitoring

In the line “You acknowledge that VSI may monitor your compliance with Use restrictions remotely or otherwise, and you agree to provide reasonable cooperation in connection therewith”, VMS Software Inc. reserves the right to request information regarding your use of the license, and by agreeing to the conditions of the license agreement, you agree to provide such information. If at any moment in the future it is decided to incorporate any monitoring software into the license agreement, VMS Software Inc. will amend the agreement accordingly and only provide the new license to those who have signed the amended agreement.

Installation Files

Access to installation files for the products covered by the license for the relevant architecture are provided together with the PAKs.

ECO Kits

ECO kits are not provided to holders of the Community License as they are released.

List of the products released by VSI

You can find the list of the products available from VMS Software Inc. by clicking on the links below. They include the list of layered products released by VMS Software, both opensource and commercial:

https://vmssoftware.com/products/list/

Note from the administration: This post may be expanded in case we get more questions.

Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2020 7:59 am
by madsweeney
Hello OpenVMS Community,

VMS Software, Inc.’s launch of the OpenVMS Community License program is a great success. The applications for participation exceeded our expectations, which is great evidence of the strength of OpenVMS in the market. We thank the company employees who worked tirelessly to make the program a reality.

The initial launch is version 1.0 of the community program. The VMS Software Community program was not intended to be identical to the HPE Hobbyist program. We anticipated differences between the HPE hobbyist license and VSI community license would generate discussion. Your ideas and feedback are important and valuable. Please provide your feedback here in the VSI OpenVMS Forum, OpenVMS Community License Program - Q&A. We will consider changes to the program based on your feedback.

With the participation of community members, the program will evolve to meet the needs of the worldwide OpenVMS community.

Thank you,

VMS Software Management Team
Dave Sweeney, Chief Customer Advocate

Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 1:27 pm
by dmjb
Disregard this - saw an answer to my question in another thread.

Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 10:28 pm
by arne_v
I noted that the Itanium downloads include Bliss while the Alpha downloads does not include Bliss.

Are there a reason for that or is it just accidental?

There should not be any license issue as Bliss is released by HP(E) as free on the Freeware CD.

Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 7:03 am
by uli_bellgardt
Recently I received the required credentials and successfully downloaded the Community License as well as the OS and Layered products.

I could install it without issues on my DS10L.

However, on my even more ancient DEC 3000 Model 500 I can not run the new OS because that box requires 1100 units for layered products type H, while the community license gives me only 1050 units for the layered products.

To be honest: this is a real non-issue for me because I do not use this machine for anything. During the past few years I booted that machine not more than once per year, just to renew the HP Hobbyist License. Maybe I should consider to bring it to the scrap yard.

Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:52 am
by joukj
Same sort of problem with my machines

I have an ES40 which requires 100 units for OpenVMS but only 75 units in the license.

Jouk

Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2020 3:42 pm
by philliphelbig
Considering that many hobbyists have collected hardware which otherwise would have gone to the scrap heap, and that, as in the DEC 3000 mentioned above (a 21064/EV4 machine), a large number of required units might exist in what is today an extremely weak machine, it would make sense to have 0 (unlimited) units for the community license.

Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:12 am
by reinhardtjh
Thank you for the update to the Community License Program PAKs. Opening up Alpha to unlimited units and allowing Integrity users to have access to VMS Clustering, Volume shadowing and other HA options is greatly appreciated.

Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2021 5:13 pm
by reinhardtjh
Although I didn't notice it at the time since I currently have no clustered Alphas, there has been a regression in the CLP PAKs for Alpha. Originally, the first PAKs issued in July 2020 had a limit of 1050 units on Type H (LP). After discussion and requests about clustering a new set of PAKs were issued in September 2020 in which the number of units for Type H was changed to 0 (unlimited). The latest set issued in July 2021 has reverted to the 1050 limit which is problematic for people with clusters of Alpha systems - see discussions here:

https://forum.vmssoftware.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=254
https://forum.vmssoftware.com/viewtopic ... p=983#p979

Can we get the PAKs reissued again with the 0 limit on Type H PAKs? And also make sure the procedure used to issue the PAKs will not revert again to 1050 in 2022 and beyond?

Note that the "ALPHA-SYSTEM" PAK also reverted from 0 to 150 with the 2021 issue. It would be nice to have the 0 value back as well. There re still people out there with older systems that require higher number of units.

Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 10:15 am
by marty.stu
Hello John,

Indeed, there was a change in the community license which limited its use by a two-node cluster formed exclusively by workgroup class systems. This limitation was set deliberately after some discussion of what was the reasonable limit for a home system, how big a home cluster could be, and what hardware to consider viable for home use. It was decided that a two-node cluster system is enough to try and learn how to set up and use one of the most important and famous OpenVMS features, i.e. the OS level clustering. However, we believe that bigger clusters do not make much sense for personal use as they definitely go beyond the scope of simply trying OpenVMS, nor is such level of redundancy needed for a home server. We do not think that having a departmental class server is reasonable for home use either as they are too noisy, bulky, and consume a lot of power. Other than that, the existing emulators that are provided for free, such as AXPbox and FreeAXP, emulate only the workgroup class systems as well, while the commercial emulators often provide support for higher-class systems. This means that giving more units would put this program to a risk of being improperly used which we definitely do not want to. Up until now, there were no big complaints about the chosen community license model, therefore at the moment we do not plan to change the terms of the community license, such as providing more than 150 units for Alpha as part of the CLP.

Regarding the issues being discussed in the mentioned topics, we have discussed them and will provide more units with the ALPHA-LP license as this was indeed an oversight. However, do not miss the fact that this is the first complaint that we have heard since the changes to the license were made which leads us to think that for most of the community the current license is already good enough. Still, a possible workaround in this case would be to split the license database and use a separate database for each node.

Hope this explains our position.

Kind+regards,

Maxim Megalinskiy
VSI Community License Team