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Be careful with DirectAdmin - licensing change may require action
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Be careful with DirectAdmin - licensing change may require action

jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
edited March 2022 in General

If you have a DirectAdmin installation, you may need to have read a thread for the latest: https://forum.directadmin.com/threads/important-upgrade-your-directadmin-to-ensure-compatibility-with-our-new-licensing-system.65330/

If your night is like mine then if you don't update the licensing by hand, your licensing may stop working. Just a heads up, hopefully someone else doesn't have the same evening.

Honestly I just updated DA like a week ago, so while this is from 2021 obviously something just hit tonight. CentOS 7. All of the reasons that thread even suggests that this would happen, none were relevant. New version, supported OS, all that jazz. Keep an eye on your servers. Peace out <3

Thanked by 3Ympker Arkas level6

Comments

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited March 2022

    I posted quickly and I may have a modifier. I'm wondering if my DA updates had failed, it was run fleet wide and a two month old update (when not a security update) isn't really that long ago. With me being out so much in January, maybe it's possible that I don't recall when I last confirmed an update, maybe I'm mixing up some memories?

    Still, I'd bet a lot of others are sitting on a DA install that hasn't been updated in 2 months. If that's you, you definitely will experience this unless you update. Run it now:

    /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/getDA.sh current

    If license already expired, you may need to use getLicense.sh with your license key to force an update immediately.

    Thanked by 1level6
  • KermEdKermEd Member
    edited March 2022

    Having just read that theat - what the actual hell is wrong with them :D. They want to save a few bucks and shut off an old license server that's probably costing them $100/month tops - at the risk of ostracising anyone using older panels and OSes.

    There literally is no reason to make this change other than to penny pitch a few customers... Interesting as my understanding is people use Direct Admin to save money (i.e. the exact demographic to have old servers that might not be upgradable).

    The abysmal notice is just ... Wow. This isn't a support issue (something not working on some old Ubuntu install) but actually intentionally breaking everyone. And for what? So they can save a few bucks on their side? Gotta love it. Anyway it doesn't impact me - but it's like they have never actually thought about who their demographic is and why.

    Thanked by 3Chuck jar DreamCaster
  • It looks like most of the people it impacts are using RH5 or 4.... Which honestly are as secure as Windows XP and shouldn't be on the internet.

    I saw one dude talking about using php 4.4.......

    Thanked by 1Aractus
  • KermEdKermEd Member
    edited March 2022

    @jrheiland said:
    It looks like most of the people it impacts are using RH5 or 4.... Which honestly are as secure as Windows XP and shouldn't be on the internet.

    I saw one dude talking about using php 4.4.......

    Total rant for a moment, not in terms of what I'd do but what it looks like to me...

    Just my opinion here, regardless of what people are using it shouldn't be up to direct admin to gatekeep what is acceptable system versioning and what isn't. Nor should any client be required to justify it to them.

    This isn't a support issue. This isn't an EOL issue. It's a minor cost savings at best.

    They are actively disabling activation for anyone using direct admin more than what, 4 versions old? With what, 1 month's notice? They keep saying that the OS is EOL, so what? No one is asking for support or to write new software for old systems - this is entirely for them to save cash by shutting down license servers. What reason do they even have to rush this?

    They could have handled this a hundred different ways. Opening licenses up (i.e. Adobe CS2 style), pay the $30/month to keep their old activate server up, provide general use keys (Win XP). Maybe a 1 year notice, other adult things real companies do when cutting off old clients.

    Why they decided to force everyone to update all their servers, panels, licensing in 30 days is just crazy to me. Especially given the demographic using their panel.

    We should just create our own FU open source panel with all the bells and whistles - and screw dealing with companies with license servers period :D.

    Thanked by 1jar
  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    Php 4.4 ... ?

    Holy mother or a Broken Jar.

    Thanked by 2Boogeyman jrheiland
  • @deank said:
    Php 4.4 ... ?

    Holy mother or a Broken Jar.

    Now now, we all know the size of your PHP version doesn't matter. It's what you do with it that matters.

    Thanked by 1jar
  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    Insisting using Php 4.4 (from 2006) is like insisting to go out with a 86 year-old woman when you are 21.

    It is just wrong!

    Thanked by 1TimboJones
  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran
  • @KermEd said: Having just read that theat - what the actual hell is wrong with them . They want to save a few bucks and shut off an old license server that's probably costing them $100/month tops - at the risk of ostracising anyone using older panels and OSes.

    They don't care about the server cost at all. If they don't push, some customers never going to touch newer software(OS, etc) versions and managing older versions with newer ones is PITA for them.

  • I saw the thread. WTF people running RHEL 4 when RHEL 9 is going to be released just this year.

  • deankdeank Member, Troll
    edited March 2022

    I have absolutely no sympathy for those running Php 4, CentOS4, and such.
    My absolute minimum would be php 5.6 and CentOS 6 at least.

  • But i want to run php4 cause i bought a $3000 script years ago to run /s

  • @deank said:
    Insisting using Php 4.4 (from 2006) is like insisting to go out with a 86 year-old woman when you are 21.

    It is just wrong!

    But how will I use the mysql() function in php7+? i cant be bothered to use mysqli or pdo /s

  • @Ahfaiahkid said: But i want to run php4 cause i bought a $3000 script years ago to run /s

    Some South Asian guy on Fiverr will upgrade it to PHP 8.1 just for $5 and you bought it for 3k?

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    The new licensing changes are interesting to say the least. Mark was kind enough to generate a multi-use license so we can just bake the license into our Directadmin template but it's still hating.

    Francisco

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    @deank said: I have absolutely no sympathy for those running Php 4, CentOS4, and such.

    I have a couple MVS 3.8j mainframe VMs. It's a 24-bit OS from 1981. Do you have any sympathy for me?

    I do not run PHP on them, btw.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited March 2022

    @jrheiland said:
    It looks like most of the people it impacts are using RH5 or 4.... Which honestly are as secure as Windows XP and shouldn't be on the internet.

    I saw one dude talking about using php 4.4.......

    Anyone who hasn't updated DirectAdmin (specifically the panel, not the associated software like exim, apache, etc) in 2-3 months. Which isn't unreasonable if there's not a vulnerability.

  • @jar said: Anyone who hasn't updated DirectAdmin (specifically the panel, not the associated software

    Does DirectAdmin not auto-update, at least for minor updates?

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited March 2022

    @Daniel15 said:

    @jar said: Anyone who hasn't updated DirectAdmin (specifically the panel, not the associated software

    Does DirectAdmin not auto-update, at least for minor updates?

    Only if you set it to: https://docs.directadmin.com/directadmin/general-usage/updating-da.html

    Personally I like to take my time and not get caught with my pants down from a bad update fleet wide. This time I got caught with my pants down for, I suppose, not updating. I thought I had but I'm sticking to my guns that the update wasn't old enough or otherwise critical enough to justify breaking anyone not running it.

    But most people probably aren't setting it to simply because it wasn't set to on install.

    Thanked by 1risharde
  • risharderisharde Patron Provider, Veteran

    This is actually quite insightful to me if I ever am able to release another software product so thanks for this post

    Thanked by 1jar
  • If you run into problems with updating DA, you could try an manual update:
    https://docs.directadmin.com/directadmin/general-usage/updating-da.html#manual-update-using-cli-commands

    Thanked by 1jar
  • @jar said:

    @Daniel15 said:

    @jar said: Anyone who hasn't updated DirectAdmin (specifically the panel, not the associated software

    Does DirectAdmin not auto-update, at least for minor updates?

    Only if you set it to: https://docs.directadmin.com/directadmin/general-usage/updating-da.html

    Personally I like to take my time and not get caught with my pants down from a bad update fleet wide. This time I got caught with my pants down for, I suppose, not updating. I thought I had but I'm sticking to my guns that the update wasn't old enough or otherwise critical enough to justify breaking anyone not running it.

    But most people probably aren't setting it to simply because it wasn't set to on install.

    That's why you run dev environments to ensure updates are stable before they are rolled out to prod. If not, either changes need to be made or hour software is too old and needs to be updated.

    @jar said:

    @jrheiland said:
    It looks like most of the people it impacts are using RH5 or 4.... Which honestly are as secure as Windows XP and shouldn't be on the internet.

    I saw one dude talking about using php 4.4.......

    Anyone who hasn't updated DirectAdmin (specifically the panel, not the associated software like exim, apache, etc) in 2-3 months. Which isn't unreasonable if there's not a vulnerability.

    That seems super silly to update the software on the os and not the panel itself. Even then, legacy oses only get updates for packages to a point.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited March 2022

    I think you might not view it as simply from my vantage point @jrheiland. Regardless, if auto update is a default right now it wasn't not long ago and it's worthy of warning people. This won't just impact people in my unique situation. Individual DA users are very likely not manually updating very often, especially those with free licenses from their hosts.

    But anyway, I don't think it's weird at all to update things that have security patches but hold off on things that don't. That's basically the philosophy of an LTS distro. I don't need bleeding edge feature updates I need security and consistency.

    Thanked by 1AlwaysSkint
  • @raindog308 said:

    @deank said: I have absolutely no sympathy for those running Php 4, CentOS4, and such.

    I have a couple MVS 3.8j mainframe VMs. It's a 24-bit OS from 1981. Do you have any sympathy for me?

    I do not run PHP on them, btw.

    Is that running airline reservation system or school scheduler?

  • @jar said:
    I think you might not view it as simply from my vantage point @jrheiland. Regardless, if auto update is a default right now it wasn't not long ago and it's worthy of warning people. This won't just impact people in my unique situation. Individual DA users are very likely not manually updating very often, especially those with free licenses from their hosts.

    But anyway, I don't think it's weird at all to update things that have security patches but hold off on things that don't. That's basically the philosophy of an LTS distro. I don't need bleeding edge feature updates I need security and consistency.

    At the very least, turning off the auto updates allow for the update to be carried at the least impacting time and when support is available for the odd time shit goes sideways.

    As a policy, we never released firmware updates on Fridays or Mondays.

    Thanked by 1jar
  • jrheilandjrheiland Member
    edited March 2022

    @jar said:
    I think you might not view it as simply from my vantage point @jrheiland. Regardless, if auto update is a default right now it wasn't not long ago and it's worthy of warning people. This won't just impact people in my unique situation. Individual DA users are very likely not manually updating very often, especially those with free licenses from their hosts.

    But anyway, I don't think it's weird at all to update things that have security patches but hold off on things that don't. That's basically the philosophy of an LTS distro. I don't need bleeding edge feature updates I need security and consistency.

    That is 100% the point of an LTS. But that's not what I'm saying. In your case, you're using updated enough software. I was more looking at the people complaining that were using RH4-6 which has been EOL even in LTS for a while.

    Thanked by 1jar
  • It's common place to not support OS's that have long been EOL for many reasons. It's naive to suggest someone needs to support OS's long EOL without a premium support contract. If you're surprised you're on your own running an unsupported OS for production, you're shitty at your job and should be replaced.

    Thanked by 2jrheiland jar
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