Info about business edition

[keropiko]

Hello all,

since i show the announcement for the opnsense business edition, i am a home user, but i would like to know if the reliability improvements only, are going to be applied to the free version sonner or later, also.

Just asking so in case i will upgrade because some of them are important.

thank you in advance

[marjohn56]

You usually find that as the business edition is stability focussed it gets things after they have been released into the community edition... you are the guinea pig.

[chemlud]

Nobody forces you to install the latest and greatest the day it get's released. Except if there are essential security bug fixes...

[franco]

Based on the open source approach of the business edition you can see everything going on at https://github.com/opnsense/core/commits/stable/21.4

Since the business release builds on a previous community release you get all those patches plus patches that have been added later. In all cases these patches land in the master branch as per standard development guidelines.


Cheers,
Franco

[Ricardo]

If the business edition can be freely downloaded from download
opnsense.com, its the installation phase / post-install activation phase which is blocked until a valid license key is entered?

[allebone]

I wonder if you can change the CE install to BE or if you have to reinstall?

[franco]

If the business edition can be freely downloaded from download
opnsense.com, its the installation phase / post-install activation phase which is blocked until a valid license key is entered?

The business images are freely available for now although their VM counterpart image is not. That might change, but there are no immediate plans. We are simply using the channels that have been established before.

That being said 21.4 images are slightly improved versions of 21.1.4. You can use them to the full extent, but the business subscription really is for 1 year of updates on that and that you can't without a subscription. Same for business plugins bundled with it where you need the subscription to install it in the first place.

So these images are like broken clock: right twice a year if you go through the trouble of reinstalling them for use and do not care about updates.

I wonder if you can change the CE install to BE or if you have to reinstall?

You can move freely between the new business and community versions since 21.1.3. That was what the firmware GUI and API reload was all about.

We have no strong data for downgrade scenarios between major versions, but 21.1/21.4 and 21.7/21.10 etc. share the same ABI to sidestep complications.


Cheers,
Franco

[Maurice]

Installing 21.4 Business and converting to 21.1.4 Community is much faster than installing 21.1 and updating to 21.1.4. This makes the 21.1 images kind of obsolete, doesn't it?

Cheers

Maurice

[franco]

Sure, as soon as 21.1.5 is out with a new base/kernel it's probably the same speed on both?

We provide business release images for consistency with the community process. I don't see how that makes community image less useful as per this coincidental observation.

With that same logic you could pay for the business edition and then update to the next community release because you want the new OS quicker. That doesn't make the business version / image redundant.


Cheers,
Franco

[Gcon]

I have community edition 20.1.4 setup as a trial install at a particular site. It is looking good and we want to switch to the newly-released 20.4 Business Edition.

Question - what's the easiest way of going about this, if we had a license ready to go?  Can the existing install be upgraded, or do I have to download the Business Edition installer and start again? If so... can the config I have for the community edition be imported into the business edition?

I am hoping I can just put in a license key, and enable the change in the GUI, and it downloads whatever it needs to from the Internet. Looking forward to your replies. Thanks.

[marcquark]

I have community edition 20.1.4 setup as a trial install at a particular site. It is looking good and we want to switch to the newly-released 20.4 Business Edition.

Question - what's the easiest way of going about this, if we had a license ready to go?  Can the existing install be upgraded, or do I have to download the Business Edition installer and start again? If so... can the config I have for the community edition be imported into the business edition?

I am hoping I can just put in a license key, and enable the change in the GUI, and it downloads whatever it needs to from the Internet. Looking forward to your replies. Thanks.

i'm not a dev so take this with a grain of salt, but since 21.4 is based off of 21.1.4 it should be as simple as changing the repository to the commercial one and entering a license key.

what could become an issue is if you upgrade beyond 21.1.4 and then want to switch over to 21.4 since package versions may start to deviate slightly.

[franco]

Yes, correct, change to mirror "Deciso (HTTPS, NL, Commercial)", select OpenSSL, Business and enter subscription. Save and check for updates.


Cheers,
Franco

[Gcon]

Yes, correct, change to mirror "Deciso (HTTPS, NL, Commercial)", select OpenSSL, Business and enter subscription. Save and check for updates.

That's perfect - thank you very much.

[Buyaa121]

Thanks for sharing this, I also didn't know what is the best to do. Building a business, in my opinion, is much easier now because you have access to any kind of information and you can ask for help from a person who knows how things work. For example, when I wanted to create a site for my business, I asked for some advice on a forum and someone recommended using a fast landing page builder. I created it very quickly even if I didn't create one before.

[franco]

Not to self: that last comment looks like spam and user is under obervation.