Upgrade path from Extreme Management Center 8.5.7.28

[Keith9]

We have some ubuntu VMs on prem for Extreme Management Center and Analytics and the version is 8.5.7.28.  They work fine but they come up as older software according to Crowdstrike Falcon Protect (its NGAV is on everything, including these ubuntu vms). 

Whats the upgrade path here?  Can I snapshot it and upgrade to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, possibly reverting snapshot if it doesnt work?

Thanks in advance!

[Keith9]

Stefan, what I’m comparing against is Broadcom took over VMware and is actively working to destroy it.  They took away free ESXi, which was a great way for home labbers to learn the product, get familiar with it and push for it in their professional career.  Then they took away the perpetual licensing, rolling everything to subscription based with 300-900x increases.  

The comparison here is nobody wants subscription.  Perpetual licensing is king.  People are getting subscription fatigue… things like Microsoft o365, NGAV products, email encryption and filtering, firewall maintenance-  all stuff that “stops working” when you stop paying.

With perpetual licenses, you own the product.  It doesn’t just disable itself if you stop paying SnS costs.  If you stop paying support then you just can’t ask for help or expect to do an update.  However the product continues to work just fine without issue.  If I stopped paying Microsoft, Proofpoint or Palo Alto for example, those products would completely stop working.  Broadcoms trying to do the same thing with VMware and every other company… it’s getting tiring.  Like I said subscription fatigue.

Just throwing out my point of view.  I’ll ask my rep what the costs here but it’s just my opinion it’s an unpopular move.  If it’s too much, we’ll just run the version we have forever since it won’t just stop.  Maybe we’ll send the SNMP traps to another system we have.

[James_A]

You were presumably paying support on XMC before anyway. There is a transition price for the first year but after that you have to pay full subscription price.

[Zdeněk_Pala · Accepted solution]

Let me clarify:

The XMC customer with valid support contract ending on day X can be transitioned to Site Engine with subscription ending on day X.

A valid maintenance contract was always required to access to upgrades, new versions, and new features.