NetWare 6 and 6.5 licensing explained

(Last modified: 30Apr2004)

This document (10074523) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

goal

fact

Novell Small Business Suite 6.0

Novell NetWare 6.0

Novell NetWare 6.5

Novell SMall Business Suite 6.5

symptom

Customer not entirely certain how licensing works in NW6.x

fix

NetWare 6 licensing comes in three varieties:

1. Regular
One server license is needed per server and as many user licenses as you have active users (ie users who log in; user objects that never log in do not count). When a user license is consumed it is remembered for 90 days, unless the Admin explicitly frees it in iManage. If you have three servers and 100 PCs, but 150 users that use those PCs, you need three server licenses and 150 user licenses ( even though only 100 can be connected concurrently). One user ID should only ever consume one license, even if logged in concurrently from any number of PCs to any number of NetWare 6 servers in the same tree. Note this does not mean it is OK for more than one individual in your organisation to log in with the same ID; this is a breach of licensing conditions.

2. Small Business
Works basically the same way as standard NetWare 6: if you have one SBS server and concurrent 20 users, you need a server license and 20 user licenses. If you have two SBS servers you need a second server license but still only as many user licenses as you have users. The second server license is free with with every purchase of a SBS server license. You can either install the same license a second time, but it has to go into a different container in the tree. Or you can contact Novell directly to request a second one. You can also have more than two servers in the Tree, but you have to purchase a second server license, which will allow you to install two additional servers following the same rules. One user license is good for connection to all servers in the same tree. The only difference from standard NetWare 6 user licensing is that when a user logs out that user license becomes immediately available for re-use by another user ID, there is no 90 day wait. Small Business 6.0 is limited to a maximum of 50 user licenses, aka 50 concurrent users. You can however create unlimited User objects in your tree.

3. Educational
The customer needs to to contact Novell and apply for a CLA9. They will then get licenses that behave as concurrent ones. Education requires a match between the server and the user licenses, meaning that the server license has to indicate that it is an educational license to allow educational user licenses to be consumed. The licensing is similar to redbox in that it does a hard stop when it hits the license limit. The key difference is that educational licenses are concurrent; when a user logs off the license is freed up to be used by another user immediately.

MLA licenses are different; the server MLA license alerts the licensing code that it is MLA and thus it does not even look for user licenses. There are no user MLA licenses. The same applies to so-called "CLA/MLA" licenses; these are just MLA licenses obtained under a different agreement, and look and function identically to MLA licenses.

With the release of Novell NetWare 6, Novell charges only for the number of NetWare users that you have in your environment, and not how many servers you have, so DO NOT ASSIGN USER LICENSES TO SERVERS. However, each server is required to have its own unique server license.

To allow you the greatest flexibility for your architectural needs, you can download as many unique server licenses as you need. One is supplied with each Redbox copy of NetWare 6, but for a varitey of reasons you may need more. If so, just fill in the registration form at http://www.novell.com/licensing/eld/LRequest.jsp?ENCRYPTION=NW6 (Regular licenses) or http://www.novell.com/licensing/eld/LRequest.jsp?ENCRYPTION=NW6A (Academic) and Novell will generate a unique license, and email it directly too you.

NetWare 6.5 licensing comes in three varieties:

1. Regular
One server license is needed per tree (in opposite to Netware 6.0, where each Server needs it's own license) and as many user licenses as you have active users (ie users who log in; user objects that never log in do not count). The same Netware 6.5 Server license is also installable unlimited times into the same tree if necessary. When a user license is consumed it is remembered for 90 days, unless the Admin explicitly frees it in iManager. If you have three servers and 100 PCs, but 150 users that use those PCs, you need three server licenses and 150 user licenses ( even though only 100 can be connected concurrently). One user ID should only ever consume one license, even if logged in concurrently from any number of PCs to any number of NetWare 6.5 servers in the same tree. Note this does not mean it is OK for more than one individual in your organisation to log in with the same ID; this is a breach of licensing conditions.

2. Small Business
Works the same way as standard NetWare 6.5, except that it's limited to a maximum amount of 100 Users. User licenses follow the same rules now as for the regular Netware product, e.g licenses stick with a User object for 90 days, in opposite to 6.0 Small Business.

With the release of Novell NetWare 6.x, Novell charges only for the number of NetWare users that you have in your environment, and not how many servers you have, so DO NOT ASSIGN USER LICENSES TO SERVERS. Each server is required to have a server license. However, under NetWare 6.5 your server license may be installed on up to 1,000 servers in the same tree.

Server and user licenses need to match. You cannot mix an Academic or Small Business server license with regular user licenses for example.

NetWare 6.0 and 6.5 user licenses are not interchangeable. NetWare 6.0 user licenses will permit logins only on NetWare 6.0 servers; NetWare 6.5 user licenses will permit logins only on NetWare 6.5 servers. Having both 6.0 and 6.5 user licenses in the tree does not affect anything.

document

Document Title:	NetWare 6 and 6.5 licensing explained
Document ID:	10074523
Solution ID:	NOVL82245
Creation Date:	13Sep2002
Modified Date:	30Apr2004
Novell Product Class:	NetWare Novell eDirectory

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