Ubuntu Pro - FAQ

Livepatch latest kernel support is for
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64-bit x86 6.5 (HWE)

I am using
Ubuntu Noble Numbat (development branch) Linux 6.8.0-11-generic

When will 24.04 LTS get Livepatch support?

Most likely when it turns into an actual LTS with its .1 release…

But also surely not before the actual release date.

Thank you Lech! One more if I may, if I have 10 vsphere hosts running say like 200 ubuntu vm’s of compatible versions. Then the 10 physical licenses cover all of those?
I encountered an issue recently where we purchased what I thought was 10 vmhost/physical licenses which actually turned out to be 10 individual vm licenses. It’s a very long and drawn out ordeal. Suffice to say the waters being so murky with what exactly to buy and then exactly how to employ licenses to cover my situation. I felt it best to shotgun the question out (so to speak).

Is there any documentation and information how Ubuntu Pro works with selfhosted Landscape server? We have both servers that have internet access and those that does not. Our goal is to have our selfhosted landscape server to handle all the ubuntu repos, pro repos and the pro licens reporting, so we dont need any proxy/internet access for the servers, only access to our selfhosted landscape server that have internet access, is this a possible senario?

Hi,
what if I need to enable Ubuntu Pro on multiple VMs with Ubuntu Server on an IaaS environment (VMware based, but not a Public Cloud) where I don’t have any control on the nodes (and there are a lot)?

I cannot for sure buy a node license for each node managed by my cloud provider…
And I only have visibility of my VMs and I cannot specify any rule to bind those VMs to a bunch of specific nodes.

Is it possible to buy licenses per single VMs?

Thanks

A post was split to a new topic: Security of Non-Pro systems

yes, that’s correct. 10 physical licenses would cover your 200 vms. Just remember to cover all physical machines in your environment, to be compliant. so if you have 10 vsphere hosts you need 10 Ubuntu Pro subscriptions. If you have 20, then you need 20, etc.

yes, pls contact our sales team, and they will be able to help you out.
https://ubuntu.com/contact-us/form?product=pro

Livepatch security coverage is available as soon as an Ubuntu LTS is generally available, so that includes day 1 of the Ubuntu LTS release, until the LTS goes end-of-life (EOL). Livepatch will cover the machine for the 5 years of standard support, and also through the expanded security maintenance (ESM) window which is 12 years, or more.

Any nuance around Livepatch coverage revolves around ensuring kernel updates are applied every 9 (for HWE kernels) to 13 months (for GA kernels), because Livepatch doesn’t allow you to defer rebooting for 12 years. Applying a kernel update means upgrading the kernel package, and rebooting the machine.

Lech, Continued thanks. One more if I may; “All physical machines in your environment”

Logically this should mean only those that either, you wish to manage with Ubuntu Pro, or in a virtualized environment only those hypervisor hosts that contains vm’s you want to manage with Ubuntu Pro.
Can you help me understand which is correct?

hi @benh - according to the Ubuntu Pro Service Terms you should cover “all Ubuntu systems within an environment”. So, for example, if your service on production is using 3 physical servers, then you need 3 licenses, not 1. Otherwise you would not be covering the whole environment

Hope this clarifies?

Continued thanks Lech. So it really doesn’t help, unless I’m being incredibly dense. So I’m wanting to purchase U Pro coverage for all Ubuntu VM’s hosted on 10 vsphere hosts. Now is this every Ubuntu system in our environment? Nope, but it is all of them on 10 of our 20 hypervisor hosts. I get the feeling that this is not a supported scenario? Also it’s SUPER hard to get any information (other than thru you) when all mention of ‘supported-hypervisors’ was removed from the related U Pro docs back in Dec 2023. In additions we’ve been ghosted by both an assigned account rep as well as a sales guy I tried contacting via the Ubuntu Pro website.
There’s more to this story than just that, but suffice to say we’ve been trying to buy the correct license since Nov 2023.

uh, I am really sorry to hear that, @benh .

if you have 20 hosts running Ubuntu VMs in your environment then, indeed, 10 Ubuntu Pro physical subscriptions won’t cover that. but with 20 Ubuntu Pro subscriptions you cover the whole environment including all Ubuntu VMs running on top. If you have 10 physical hosts with Ubuntu VMs, and the other 10 hosts are not running any Ubuntu -then you would be fully covered with 10 subscriptions.

I would love to listen to the full story and I am happy to grant you 1 month free access to Ubuntu Pro. to get you started. Could you please reach out to me directly over email at lech.sandecki[at]canonical.com