Scalix Server Licensing

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi Everyone,

One quick question.

My Scalix License is going to expire in March. What happens when the licence expires? Will it revert to the community edition? Is there a way to extend the license by contacting Seabring?

Thanks for the help

Sideband Samurai

[axslingr]

Basically, nothing will happen. It should keep on working as normal. You just won't be able to install any updates.

Mine was expired for weeks last year because I couldn't get a license update in timely manner from my reseller, who ended up telling me they don't sell Scalix anymore. Finally got a hold of someone at Scalix and they sent me a new one, I installed it, and am still waiting for an update to install.

Lance

[SidebandSamurai]

Hi Lance,

I need to make absolutely sure this is the case, because searching the forums, revealed if the license has expired it reverts to the community edition, which only allows 10 people to log in and use Outlook.

in regards to ...

and am still waiting for an update to install.

A friend of mine once told me this:

Hold out your hands, "Wish" in one hand and "crap" in the other, tell me which one fills up first!

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely,

Sideband Samurai

[axslingr]

Maybe someone will come along and confirm then. If that's the case then I'm in trouble in about a month as well. I'm running the enterprise version in a multi-server environment though. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.

Lance

[les]

Maybe someone will come along and confirm then. If that's the case then I'm in trouble in about a month as well. I'm running the enterprise version in a multi-server environment though. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.

Lance

Everything will continue to run as normal. Consider one of my existing systems....license expired almost 2 years ago....

# sxlicense
Scalix License Status

License Type: Permanent
Key Type: Scalix Standard
System Class: Single-Server
Domain: mydomain.com
Domain: mydomain.com.au
ID: 9741
LVID: 2010-03-12
Premium Users: 50
Standard Users: 150
Features: TNEF WIRELESS MIGRATION RECOVERY_FOLDER ARCHIVER


Chose not to waste money on renewing the license to get non existent updates. Server is still working fine.

[SidebandSamurai]

Les,

Thank you very much for your answer. That is good news indeed.

I did write Seabring Software about extending the License and have not heard anything from them. Now I don't have to wait on their non existent answer.

Sincerely,

Sideband Samurai

[florian]

The license is not technically "expiring", unless it's a temporary key (in which case the key would contain a line reading "Expiration:"); LVID stands for "Last Valid Issue Date", meaning that the key is good for all versions/releases of Scalix issued before or on that date, i.e. new releases coming out after this date cannot be installed or used with that key.

Florian.

[anybody]

Without active software maintenance you will not be able to add new domain names to your installation, which I found quite shocking when I first was made aware of this...

Apart from this, it should probably work "forever". In case this forum goes down with all the troubleshooting knowledge I however would not want to be in the position to operate a Scalix server.

Xandros kept their forums online long after killing their products. Not really sure if the Sebring thing changes anything. Certainly hasn't changed the silence

[florian]

Well, the domain name thingy has been a subject of lengthy discussion; when we first introduced licensing at the time community edition was launched in 2005 or so, we needed to decide what to lock the license against. Domain names were given the favor over hardware/server ids as a very viable option to lock a license to a particular user without creating additional hassle in the case of needed hardware replacements.

The issue of when and how domain names could be added or changed was discussed at length; at the end, we really couldn't come up with a concise policy, as there are so many different cases and there is obviously no value in a scheme where users could change the "locking parameter" at will, e.g. through a self-service portal.

I believe in most cases, at least in my time, we've been very "friendly" about this, i.e. most requests to add a further domain to a license key have been processed irrespective of subscription status and other things, which, IMHO, is also in line with the actual EULA contract (which doesn't say that subscription is required for changing the domain list). Of course, requests would be denied in case of possible abuse (e.g. someone who is not BillG or SteveB trying to add microsoft.com), and some discussion has been spent in this forum on non-official domain names like scalix.local, which we also did not support.

If someone has a problem getting a domain added to a license key, at least for as long as I am around, let me know by email and I'll see what I can do.

Best,
Florian.

PS - please again note that I'm speaking as a "private" person not strongly affiliated with Xandros, etc., but still with some remaining links; there is, however, no SLA on my offer, and I cannot spend infinite time on this either, so if this message triggers hundreds of requests in that direction, I may need to pass.

[SidebandSamurai]

Well as I discovered the issue is Temporary vs Permanent License.

The License I was given by XANDROS prior to the sale to Seabring was TEMPORARY. So as a result everyone (on the 15th) was kicked off of Outlook. That pissed me off, because I have not gotten ANY response from Seabring to any of my inquiries about licensing their product.

Fortunately I keep backups of all files I change on the server. This paranoia has saved my bacon in the past and its come through again. I kept looking at old licensing files and discovered a file that had the status "Permanent" on it. I applied that license and restarted all Scalix services. Presto Chango I had Outlook access again. As I look at all the previous licenses, (After the permanent one), it appears that Xandros started issuing TEMPORARY licenses when you paid for support. If I had not backed up the original license I would be in real trouble right now.

So... Why isn't Scalix brought to Open Source? Would get better support with that than what we are getting now.

Sideband Samurai

[florian]

Harold,

I will send you a personal message with appropriate contacts, and I have also asked Colleen in order fulfillment whether she understands why you were indeed given a temporary, expiring license key (which are normally only used for trials and/or licenses sold under a non-perpetual, subscription-based licensing scheme - as is the case for some SaaS providers!). In case you don't get anywhere with them in getting a permanent key, please contact me by email.

As you know, I am not part of Scalix/Xandros anymore, but as far as I know, there was no change in policy regarding this at any point in time, so I will still assume this was human error or similar, and license keys for regular Scalix customers are, by default, and reflecting the contents of the EULA, permanent.

Best,
Florian.