I have recently installed Xenserver 6.5 onto a local development server for testing. I wanted to active using the free license from Citrix but seem unable to.
When I navigate to the License Manager dialog, I can see the "Active Free XenServer" button.
But when I select the dev-xenserver-01 the "Active Free License" box disappears.
Does anyone know why this is happening, I assume you can active a free license for a 2 socket machine, I've seen mentions of a free trail. Am I still in that period and need to wait?
XenServer 6.2 and 6.5 do not require any license to use the free version: you can use all free features without activation.
The "Activate Free XenServer" button in XenCenter dates from versions prior to 6.2, where you did need to re-request a license each year for the free edition. Because XenCenter can be used with older versions of XenServer, the button remains (confusingly!).
If you want to try out the premium features of 6.5, you'll need an Enterprise Edition trial license, available from https://www.citrix.com/products/xenserver/try.html .
XenServer 6.5 comes in three editions: Free, Standard (same features as Free, but with Citrix support), and Enterprise (premium features, and support). You can find a feature matrix at http://support.citrix.com/content/dam/supportWS/kA460000000CmyyCAC/XenServer_6.5_Feature_Matrix.pdf .
Cheers,
David Cottingham
XenServer Product Management, Citrix.