RedHat Enterprise Linux 3 licensing

[nilesh vaghela]

A discussion may be useful to you.

But before making any decision contact redhat ?


Charith Perera wrote:

So you're saying that even if I don't want to use the RHN network, I need to
purchase the subscription if I install the OS on a machine? If that's the
case then I guess there's nothing much to be done. If you have any sources
where this is stated clearly, please be kind enough to let me know. I will
need to present proof to those who control the funds in my company :)


I just double-checked. Red Hat releases the CD's (even the binary CD's)
under the GPL.

That means they *cannot* control what you do with the CD's once you have
them. Including installing them on 500 machines if you wanted.

What they *can* do, is control what you do with the RHN subscription. Only
one box can use RHN, and that's nontransferrable according to the EULA.

You could purchase one copy, use RHN for updates, then take the resultant
RPM's and toss them in a yum repository, then use Fedora's yum to update
your other systems.

We personally haven't done that because we use some of the features of RHN.
We've taking advantage of the RHN pricing for 55 servers we maintain.

However, our goal is to implement a replacement RHN-like system in-house,
then only renew one copy of RHEL next year. If we can't do that
cost-effictively, we'll renew all 55.

RHN is the value-add for us.

--
Ken Snider

You can also visit

http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_us.html?country=buying+a+Red+Hat+Subscription+from+Red+Hat&

Appendix 1
Subscription Services *Red Hat Subscription Services ("Subscription
Services")*

*1.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (AS, ES, WS, Desktop), Red Hat Directory
Server and Red Hat Certificate System*

For each Installed System, Client will receive access to (a) the applicable
Software via the applicable channel on Red Hat Network, (b) the applicable
Software updates and upgrades, when and if available, via the Red Hat
Network Update Entitlement, and (c) the applicable level of production
support services described in Section 3.2 herein.

For each subscription to the Proxy or Satellite Starter Pack for Red Hat
Desktop, Client receives access to (a) the Red Hat Desktop software for ten
(10) Installed Systems, (b) one (1) subscription to the Red Hat Network
Proxy or Satellite Server Service, as applicable, (c) ten (10) Red Hat
Network Management Entitlements, (d) access to the applicable Software
updates and upgrades, when and if available, for the ten (10) Installed
Systems, and (e) the basic production support described in Section 3.2 of
this Appendix 1. For each subscription to an Extension Pack for Red Hat
Desktop, Client receives access to (a) the Red Hat Desktop software for
fifty (50) Installed Systems, (b) access to the applicable Software updates
and upgrades, when and if available, for the fifty (50) Installed Systems,
and (c) the basic production support described in Section 3.2 herein.

The use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Desktop software is subject
to the end user license agreement set forth in Appendix 2. Red Hat only
provides Services for: Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES using a maximum of
two-way SMP hardware and sixteen (16) gigabytes of RAM; Red Hat Enterprise
Linux WS using a maximum of two-way SMP hardware; and Red Hat Desktop using
a maximum of one-way SMP hardware and four (4) gigabytes of RAM.