What are XG home license limits?

Question

Does someone know if there are any limitations to home license besides hardware cap and non-business usage ? For example if I can activate more than one devices with my Sophos ID ? 
 I'm asking because my devices is already "in production state" - I mean it serves as a home router and now I have limited possibility to test things out. It would be nice if I could use the license on a VM for testing.

Patryk Sidor · Accepted Answer

Hi, 
 
 Procedure for installing Home Licensee on Sophos XG 85. 
 
 Ok, for the start What we have and What we need.

We have:

Hardware Appliance with: Intel Atom Baytrail Dual Core (1.33 GHz), 2 GB DDR3, 8 GB eMMC, 2x USB, 1x COM RJ45. 
 
 We don&rsquo;t have: 
 
 Graphic interface like VGA port, Bigger drive, any tutorial how clean and write other software than that dedicated for Hardware Appliance. 
 
 2. We need: 
 
 Drive that has at least 10GB or more of space, it's the minimum amount of space for installation of Home appliances, Graphic interface to see what we're doing (Serial cable, RJ45 to COM or USB port), some installation media such as USB drive or pen-drive (I use the firmware SFOS 17.0.5 MR-5). 
 
 Let&rsquo;s start from the beginning - Hardware . 
 
 The hardware appliance is a micro computer, on board we have one cpu unit, one bios integrated circuit, one eMMC circuit, one BIOS battery and&hellip; One SATA port and one four PIN power port like in Floppy drive.

On other post One write that we must erase a whole drive to install the software appliance but question is how ? 
 Maybe there is other way to achieve this with DD, some linux distro&hellip; I try this but I always have some issue to do that right, So we use standard installation media. 
 
 Procedure to install Home Appliance.

Turn of your hardware appliance, disconnect power cord from power connector. 
 Open your hardware appliance (there are 2 screws on both sides and two on the bottom), connect SATA drive (HDD or SSD) to SATA connector and use adapter to connect power to the drive. Do not short-circuit anything, use some glue for a drive or tape. 
 Close the housing. 
 Connect RJ45_COM->COM cable to your PC or MacBook and to hardware appliance - COM port settings are:

5. DON&rsquo;T POWER ON APPLIANCE BEFORE CONNECTING A COM PORT !!! ISERT USB INSTALLATION MEDIA WITH THIS FIRMWARE SFOS 17.0.5 MR-5. 
 
 6. Use &bdquo;putty&rdquo; in Windows or &bdquo;Serial&rdquo; and connect to power off appliance, you will see black screen - don&rsquo;t worry :) next, connect AC power to appliance. Power ON appliance and fast press couple of times F2 key to enter the BIOS. 
 
 7. Next one, ensure your BIOS settings are the same as mine, the most important thing is boot setting and hard drive settings.

8. The couple screens will show a different setting on my appliance that you need on yours appliance to install Home version. 
 
 Go to: Boot menu -> Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities 
 
 Change Boot Option #1 -> Boot from your second installed drive, mine is WD3200BEKT 
 Boot Option #2 -> Disabled. We will be booting our hardware appliance from USB drive installation media.

On main BOOT menu disable option &bdquo;boot from MMC - sem08G&rdquo; because we don&rsquo;t wan&rsquo;t to boot from main drive. Disable all other boot option. On the first position nable boot from USB installation media. Save settings and reboot.

9. After boot process complete you will be asked if you want to install Sophos XG appliance, the warning message will appear that all data on all drives will be deleted. The first driver for installation will be your eMMC drive - it's OK, and the one will be drive that you installed. You will be asked you are sure to delete all data - YES :) 
 
 10. After installation process the appliance will be restarted - his F2 key to enter BIOS, change boot order as you see on my &bdquo;Hard Disk Drive BBS Priorities&rdquo; screen and &bdquo;main BOOT&rdquo; screen. 
 
 11. The Hardware Appliance will boot with Home Appliance version. You have to register the appliance like always with your Home Appliance Key that was send to your e-mail. If you see an error that appliance has some problems after paste a key na hit the register couple of time, check register later. 
 
 12. Have Fun, and remember everything you do you are doing on your risk. Don&rsquo;t use such appliance in production environment it's illegal !!! This is made only for test and education environments !!!

PaulWarren · Answer

Hi Slawski. The home use license will work on either 3rd party hardware or in a virtual environment. Provided you stick within the terms (i.e. home use) then you can have more than one registered under the same Sophos ID as Billbob suggested. However, if you encounter a problem getting the second serial, make sure you are logged out of Sophos ID/MySophos prior to completing your second request. 
Regards 
Paul

Kumar Arasu · Answer

Hi Patryk, 
 I read your article on how to install Home Licence on Sophos XG 85 with great interest. 
 Although you mention that there is no VGA port on the XG 85 but most of the network appliances like the XG 85 would normally have VGA connector (IDC connector) on the motherboard but not connected to the case. 
 I cannot see the whole XG 85 motherboard from the photo of your article because the SSD is blocking it. 
 Please can take a clear photo of the whole XG 85 motherboard and post it so that I can check if there is a VGA connector. 
 If there is a VGA connector on the XG 85, it would make installation of any Distro much easier. 
 Cheers,