Network Edition Starter 15 User License Discontinued?

batfastad · Post by **batfastad** » Fri May 22, 2015 5:48 am

Hi everyone
We were looking to renew our Zimbra NE Starter license and the quotation we had was alot more than we have previously paid.
I have since found out that the 15 user pack is now discontinued, replaced by a 25 user pack. Is that correct?
Thanks

phoenix · Post by **phoenix** » Fri May 22, 2015 5:53 am

You need to speak to Sales to get a definitive answer to this sort of question. If you only have a small number of users you might care to take a look at ZeXtras - their pricing starts at ten users, I use it myself and it's an excellent bunch of products.

batfastad · Post by **batfastad** » Fri May 22, 2015 6:21 am

I presume ZeXtras is based on the open source Zimbra edition, so we would lose the NE features?

It turns out I can't find a comparison table of the open source vs Network Edition anywhere on the Zimbra site but from what I remember it gives us multi-domain support and improved online/backup restore.

We don't use multi-domain support much anymore and it looks like backup/restore can be handled with ZeXtras.

This might actually be the way to go, we probably don't use the NE features enough anymore to justify the expense of the NE license vs something like ZeXtras.

Cheers, B

phoenix · Post by **phoenix** » Sat May 23, 2015 9:55 am

What do you mean my "multi-domain support" - if you mean the Admin functions then yes, you would lose that. I think you'll find the Backup module is perfectly adequate for backup/restore functions and you won't lose any functionality. For a Product Comparison (this is one of those things that seems to get lost on this forum/site) take a look here:

https://files.zimbra.com/website/docs/Z ... arison.pdf

To answer your other point, ZeXtras is used in the Open SOurce version of ZCS and can be used in the NE version but I believe it will provide more than enough for what you need. If you have any doubts or questions on the product then feel free to post on the ZeXtras forum.

jorgedlcruz · Post by **jorgedlcruz** » Sat May 23, 2015 5:21 pm

Hi batfastad,
Let me point your question someone in the Sales team to this question, as maybe if you are using Open Source Edition you can use the 25% of discount, sounds good, and the you can compare.
The Network Edition come with bunch of Features but specially with Technical Support, Backup, etc. Know that you have the Support Phone or email and it will be in the other part a Zimbra Engineer is a must. Also the Network Edition gives you Touch Client, and High Fidelity Preview, and ZeXtras doesn't offer nothing like this.
Also, please note that Zimbra doesn't support ZeXtras in Network Edition - https://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/ZeXtras:_Z ... plications
We definetly need to have the Comparison Table between editions in the main website, not in a PDF that is difficult to find, sorry about that.
Best regards.

batfastad · Post by **batfastad** » Sat May 23, 2015 5:40 pm

Oh ok, so according to that secret feature comparison, multiple domains is supported by the open source edition! And I don't mean domain admins, just the ability to handle many different domains attached to a single Zimbra user. Fantastic news! Always thought we needed NE for that!

Also one thing I was sure of is that the Network Edition Starter Pack never had access to tech support. Which is why I have never once contacted tech support in all our years as an NE Starter Pack customer.

Glad I posted about this now though. We probably would have just renewed our existing license if the per-mailbox price had stayed the same for us.

So final thing I suppose, what's the process for "downgrading" from NE to open source.

Is it a backup, wipe, install open source, restore data job (or a ZeXtras migrate

) ?

Or is there an in-place downgrade process?

Cheers, B

phoenix · Post by **phoenix** » Sun May 24, 2015 2:59 am

There is no restrictions on the number of domains that you can host in Zimbra open source edition. I also believe that you're correct, the starter packs never had access to support. For the replacement of NE with OSS version I've always just done an "upgrade" with the same version of NE that you currently have installed, if you're not on the most recent version of ZCS then you can upgrade to that. Obviously this goes with the proviso that you take all the necessary backups prior to touching your server. If you intend to move to new hardware then the ZeXtras migration tool is the thing to use.