One of my accounts runs RHEL. They are asking how the RH licensing works. It got me to wondering so I thought I'd ask here.
Here is the scenario:
You buy 10 RHEL's.
You carry full support for 3 years on these 10 licenses.
Now you renew support for 6 of the RHEL licenses.
Can you use the other 4, but not have support on them?
If RH came in and did an audit would you be okay, or are you in violation since you don't have support on the 4 licenses?

TIA for your thoughts on this.

You are totally entitled to not have licenses for whatever you want. The license is for updates and support from redhat, not the product itself.

Hi

I am actually trying to get the answer to the same question. So far, the answer appears to be a resounding "no". That is, if you go to RHN and get a 30 day evaluation subscription, then download one of their RPMs and 30 days later you are still using that RPM for production use, it doesn't appear to be covered under the license. I found this answer on the Redhat website. This makes me think that one cannot use their RPM indefinitely, but I'd really like for someone who really knows the answer to comment on this.



Issue:
You mentioned licensing - what does this mean? I thought Linux was free.

Resolution:
Except for a few components provided by third parties (for example, Java) all the code in Red Hat products is open source and licensed under the GPL (or a similar license, such as the LGPL). So you always have free access to the source code. In fact you can download it from our FTP servers at any time. However, Red Hat does not provide free access to the binaries of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and these, combined with an annual subscription to Red Hat Network, access to upgrades, and a selected support services, are the components that Red Hat bundles into each Red Hat Enterprise Linux solution. Since every Red Hat Enterprise Linux product includes support for the system on which it is installed, Red Hat supplies the products with a per-system usage/support subscription. This simple model ensures that systems which useRed Hat Enterprise Linux are able to access the maintenance, services and product upgrades to which they are entitled. Of course, as mentioned before, this has no impact on your access to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code.

I 'think' I understand that Red Hat Enterprise License is never free. The Enterprise product has to be paid for. But once you've bought it and used it a year or two and decide not to have support on it can you still use it? I hope so, but like Socrates399 said, I would like clarification.

The simple solution is to use Centos, which is a re-baged version of RHEL, totally free (and legal if you wondered).
As RH say, you (ie Centos) is free to download the src and re-pkg it (without RH logos and support) and give it away.

You can still use it (it still runs) but RHN access will die so you won't be able to use up2date/yum to get the certified updates from RHN that go together to make it "RHEL".

not that simple really. what if you think you might wish to bring a box into support at some point in the future? it's possible that you could just replace the centos-release rpm with redhat-release but i'd be sure there'd always be a tell tale sign somewhere that it was centos at some point.

As you say, you'd have to replace it, in which case it wouldn't have any Centos stuff.
Some people have multiple identical dev and prod boxes, but only the prod ones are registerd RH.
The others are Centos equiv.

I know this is an old thread, but I didn't see the
answer that was given to me by a Red Hat sales rep.
He said that you are not purchasing a license to use
Linux, you are purchasing a subscription for support
and access to updates.

This means you can continue to use a Red Hat system
whose subscription has expired. However, you will not
have access to support or updates. If at a later time
you decide you want support, just buy a new subscription
for the existing system and register it with Red Hat.

Ok...my question is similar but have some confusion -
For RHEL, what i learnt is that the money paid is for support subscription only and not for the OS i.e RHEL license. And we can get a free copy of RHEL for 30-days evaluation. Now can I use this copy in non-production enviroment(educational training purpose only) after 30-days evalution time is expired. Since my purpose is for educational training only, so support subscription is not an important issue for me.

I am trying to find a direct answer whether it is legal or not to continue use RHEL 30-days evaluation copy after the 30-days expiry in a non-production enviroment(educational training purpose only) [without being refer to any other linux distro like CentOS.]


thank you.

I hope this will answer your question.

Your questions about 30 days evaluation is a question of support not a license issue.

1) You cannot get an evaluation copy unless your not a subscriber or have no entitled to any RHEL subscriptions. The reason you got an evaluation copy is from the a legitimate seller or distributor. He/she will give you a key for a 30 days evaluation. Getting an evaluation without a key is....you know. Also as a subscriber, you will be getting evaluation let say your from RHEL 4 and you want RHEL 5 to evaluate. Its not the other way around from 5 to 4 or 3.

2) Lets say you have a 30 day evaluation and it expired. You can continue using for as long as you want but without telephone or software support.

3) If your an individual and use it for educational purposes & have no means using this for monetary gain, I guess you can use it. And if your a corporate or enterprise and using it for production. I don't get the idea why you don't have to subscribe since your making a profit after all for using it.

Note: #3 is just my 2 cents. ^_^

As an additional Note:

You can read about the new licensing issue about RHEL 5 Installation Number. You can skip it but I as said the nature of not getting the software thru authorize distribution....is you know that already.

http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_103_8967.shtm

Also, Red Hat has an Official Course Ware with RHEL 5 DVD in it and of course, a discount coupon for RHCE Exam.

And my purpose is totally for education only and to teach students Redhat Linux... thats all.

Thank You much backroger for the clearification!

A note on CentOS though (despite your request not to be referred to CentOS), the benefit would be that all the repos, etc are directed to CentOS versions, so that means that you can keep your systems up to date, secure, etc. Still effectively redhat but safer (if you don't get RH updates).

Just so we are absolutely clear. What Centos does is this. They download the source code that RHEL is made from (freely available to all). They remove any RH proprietary stuff (mostly logos). Then they compile it and place it on the net. Virtually every package is binary compatible between the two. Any book on RHEL is also a book on Centos. When RHEL releases an update Centos goes through the same process (remove proprietary and compile) then posts the updates to their repos (usually the next day).

RH works very closely with Centos becuase it is the easiest way for them to get people used to their product. Many companies do the exact same thing with universities. IBM, HP(scientific equipment), and many others, sell their products to universities for a fraction of what they charge corporations. They do this so that when the students get to working in the corporate world they will be used to using their product. People tend to buy what they are used to running.