Community License Program - Questions & Answers

OpenVMS-related news and updates about the current state of system development.

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marty.stu
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Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by marty.stu » Wed Aug 12, 2020 4:39 am

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.
Last edited by marty.stu on Mon Jan 24, 2022 9:44 am, edited 5 times in total.


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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by babydr » Thu Dec 23, 2021 8:07 pm

Hello CLP , I am in a quandry as to WHEN the x86-64 CLP will become effective ?
The button continues to not allow that as a selection ?
Tia JimL


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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by marty.stu » Fri Dec 24, 2021 4:45 am

Hello Jim,

OpenVMS for x86 will not be available for community use before V9.2 is released which is currently planned for April. As soon as it is made available through the Community License Program, we will make a separate announcement on our website https://vmssoftware.com and social media. You can follow our roadmap here: https://vmssoftware.com/about/roadmap/, our news are published here: https://twitter.com/VMSSoftware or here: https://vmssoftware.com/about/news/

Thank you,

Maxim Megalinskiy
VSI Community License Team
Run to the bedroom, In the suitcase on the left You'll find my favorite axe.


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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by jonesd » Sun Dec 26, 2021 7:21 am

marty.stu wrote:
Thu Dec 23, 2021 10:15 am
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.
Stromasys used to provide a limited-capacity DS20 version of their PersonalAlpha emulator. I use that as my home system because it beats the other emulators hands down for performance and stability. Running on my i7, it's still not as fast as my DS10L (466), but uses a lot less power and is no where near as noisy. I like to write multi-threaded code, and there are race conditions that are easier to reveal on a multi-processor machine than a uni-processor (even AST
behavior is different on a multi-processor than a uni-processor).

My DS10 boots as a cluster satellite and is often off unless I need more power to build a new release of some open source software I ported.


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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by willemgrooters » Sun Dec 26, 2021 3:05 pm

I ran into this problem :) The two DS10's and PWS I may have running have NO common disks, so each has it's own license database. Still, the ALPHA-LP license is consumed by the first system where it is loaded - I found out after upgrading one DS10 and than start the PWS - the LP license is not loaded so the system is actually unusable - despite it has it's own database...So your suggestion will not work.
The PAK's I use are the September ones - and these do have the limitation of 1050 units om ALPHA-LP. See mentioned contributions.
If this is reverted to 0 (or any number I can run my systems on), could these be supplied BEFORE Januari 2022 - the HP licenses expire per that date and I like to have my machines available.
Last edited by willemgrooters on Sun Dec 26, 2021 3:11 pm, edited 3 times in total.


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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by willemgrooters » Mon Dec 27, 2021 5:26 am

marty.stu wrote:
Thu Dec 23, 2021 10:15 am

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.
What VSI seems to forget that community users are not just those that want to explore OpenVMS and make themselves familiar with the facilities (and limitations) of the OS. Man y of them are seasoned OpenVMS users - as programmer and system manager, and they run OpenVMS in their personal environment because they love - and trust - the environment and are familiar with it. Most will use older Digital/Compaq/HP equipment that would otherwise be scrapped after their economical lifespan. I guess none of us would run an fully packed GS1280, but DS10 and the like are probably fairly common.
Second, the emulators that are mentioned, simply lack the power and memory to serve as a system that seves the local network, nor do the allow usage as a webserver, when more is to be done than just showing fixed pages: I wouldn't like to run PHP on an emulator to present my personal website to the Public. Or: "use Linux instead"? Tell that the community!


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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by marty.stu » Mon Dec 27, 2021 6:30 am

Hello Willem,

We have discussed your requests, but the decision was only to provide more units with the ALPHA-LP license, other solutions are not considered at the moment. However, this will take some time - I don't know when exactly it will be updated. Still, the idea of the Alpha Community license was exactly to provide a way to run a small OpenVMS cluster on workgroup-class machines, including the mentioned DS10 and DS20 alike. Anything beyond that is not an option for VSI.

Regarding the aforementioned PersonalAlpha, it is no longer provided for free and was removed from the Stromasys website (just like AlphaVM-Free from the appropriate website), even though it is still available on the Internet. I don't know if it's still legal to use it from the point of view of its license terms, however it is not officially available anymore and in my case it offered only a 60-day trial (I was only able to quickly find V1.0.17), so it should have expired long ago.

Kind regards,

Maxim Megalinskiy
VSI Community License Team
Last edited by marty.stu on Mon Dec 27, 2021 6:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by willemgrooters » Mon Dec 27, 2021 11:32 am

More units for the ALPHA-LP license to create a small cluster of max DS10/DS20 type systems is fine.
All previously free Alpha emulators have been discontinued quite some time ago, the only one is FreeAXP by MSI (as bundled in the student kit) .

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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by volkerhalle » Tue Dec 28, 2021 1:36 am

Willem,

as a temporary workaround, you could use the ALPHA-LP license from the VSI Student Kit. Use $ LICENSE ISSUE ALPHA-LP and add that license to your 2nd node in your cluster. The license currently is valid until 8-MAR-2022.

Volker.


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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by willemgrooters » Tue Jan 04, 2022 11:03 am

took that approach - on all machines: Whatever DS10 is first up, it will consume all of the units of ALPHA-LP, so s second Alpha won't start on the CL ALPHA-LP license if that is the only one installed. So need it on all machines...


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Re: Community License Program - Questions & Answers

Post by willemgrooters » Sun Mar 06, 2022 2:56 pm

volkerhalle wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 1:36 am
Willem,

as a temporary workaround, you could use the ALPHA-LP license from the VSI Student Kit. Use $ LICENSE ISSUE ALPHA-LP and add that license to your 2nd node in your cluster. The license currently is valid until 8-MAR-2022.

Volker.
That solved the problem - but only temporarily.
From the new student kit:

Code: Select all

$ license issue alpha-lp
Software Product Authorization Key Replica
Issued by SYSTEM
Issued on  6-MAR-2022 20:27
-----------------------------------
Issuer:             VSI
Authorization:      HOBY-7875VMSSOFTW-V202202284923
Product Name:       ALPHA-LP
Producer:           VSI
Units:              1050
PAK Termination Date:     8-MAR-2023
Availability:       H
Options:            (ALPHA)
Checksum:           (obscured)
and no update to the alpha-lp community license so far.
Installed this license on my second DS10 a few days ago, before expiration of the current and shutdown the DS10. After expiration, the system started again, and layered products seem to work. So it does do the trick. But to be considered a temporary workaround, I do prefer the CL to have more units so you can cluster DS10's and DS20's
Last edited by willemgrooters on Wed Mar 30, 2022 12:03 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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