I’m trying to wrap my brain around licensing, and I have a few specific questions. Hopefully this is an okay place to ask them.
Firstly, I understand a FusionHub Solo license is free and permanent. But in InControl it says it expires one year after I acquired it. Does this auto-renew or is it something I have to remember to update annually?
Secondly, is there a limit to the number of FusionHub Solo licenses an account can acquire? For instance, I just deployed an instance for a client who only has one remote access point. If I want to do the same setup for a different client in a different InControl group, can I use a second FusionHub Solo license for that?
Thirdly, I read somewhere that InControl is free while the device is still under warranty. When the warranty on my MAX BR1 Mini expires in a year, I’ll have to pay $29 to gain access for another year, correct? What about the FusionHub instance? I see that its warranty expires the same day as the Solo license; does that mean when I renew it in a year I get another year of access to IC2 for free as well? Or will that be another $29?
Finally, if I find the need to pay for a FusionHub Essentials license in the future, can those 5 peers be split between multiple groups/FusionHub instances? Or would I need multiple licenses to cover that use case?
It is free but not permanent, it only lasts one year. At that point you would either need to pay for a full license, or get another free license. If you go the free license way, you have to backup your config and redeploy a new FH with the new license and then add the configuration file back in.
Technically no, but see the first comment. Not sure you want to keep renewing/redeploying FH’s constantly.
As long as your device is under warranty all the extra IC2 stuff comes with it. If you let the warranty lapse, you do have the possibility to use IC2, and just pay for that (the $29), but all the SpeedFusion features and what not may not work so it might be easier to do a full warranty renewal.
Its basically 5 peers total. Your FH cannot be split between multiple groups. It will sit in the one group, but your other devices can technically be in another group/instance/etc., and be paired to that FH instance.
It is, but if you want to manage it in InControl after the end of year one you have to pay for a IC2 subscription ($29USD / Year).
Yes that’s fine. You can have as many FusionHub Solo licenses as you like.
The $29USD for the FusionHub is the license cost to manage it in IC2.
You can’t split the individual peer licensing from an essentials license. If you want to use pooled Licensing you need to speak with a Peplink partner who can provide that as a service.
The other thing of note is PrimeCare devices are special in that the FusionHub Peer licence is included in the PrimeCare license cost at the device end. So you could have a FusionHub Solo (with 1 peer licence) and connect as many PrimeCare devices to it as you like.
So then the cheapest way to avoid reconfiguring FusionHub every year is to purchase the $500 FusionHub Essential license, is that correct?
Does that also include InControl2, SpeedFusion, etc., for that instance? I see there is an $89 1-year EssentialCare plan for FusionHub Essential which provides InControl. Would this also be necessary for full functionality?
Likewise, it looks like the cheapest way to maintain full service on the MAX BR1 Mini is the 1-year EssentialCare plan (Peplink | Pepwave Online Shop), is that correct?
Finally, some of my potential use cases would be pretty intermittent. If I let my initial warranty expire for the MAX BR1 Mini, would I be able to apply a new EssentialCare plan, say, two years from now? Or would the lapse in coverage void my eligibility?
You also have to factor in hosting costs, 1 cloud server is roughly $5/month on Vultr, so like $60 a year.
If you did 5 FH Solo servers a year that would be roughly $300, and your time for redeploy/restup. Still cheaper than the 5 peer license, just a little extra work.
Additionally, if you purchase the 5 peer license, you cannot upgrade it at a later time. You would essentially need to buy another peer license if you needed more.
This is the yearly renewal price for the FH Essential warranty, to keep all functions working. If you just want to monitor the equipment only through IC2 that is the $29 fee.
Yes the BR1 will also need a warranty to keep these features for IC2 active, like remote management etc.
@Nick_Bair, Yes you can but there are limitations to the type of warranty and time frame in which you can add the warranty after the expiration date. Most times this involves downloading a diagnostic report of the device to send to Peplink at the same time in order to show the equipment is still functioning correctly.