The license key installed on an instance sets its edition, Standard Edition (SE) or Enterprise Edition (EE), and with it the feature set. An administrator manages the key on the “Admin” → “License” page.
What the license determines
The edition named in the key decides whether security scanning and reporting, and analytics reports are available: they work in EE and are withheld in SE. Every other feature works in both editions. The table by feature is on the Editions page.
The instance takes its edition from the key as follows:
- no key is installed: the instance runs in trial mode, and every feature of EE is available;
- the key names the edition
ee: the instance runs as EE; - the key names the edition
se, names no edition or names one this build of the product does not know: the instance runs as SE; - the key fails verification or has been revoked: the instance runs as SE, and administrators see a banner.
A key is issued to a customer and signed by the vendor. The instance checks the signature with the keys built into the product; the check runs on the instance without network access. The key carries the customer name and identifier, the license identifier, the issue date, the license type and a section for Deckhouse Code with the edition, the number of licensed seats, the expiry date, the cut-off date and the date until which product updates are covered.
Installing or removing a key is recorded in the Audit events as license_set and license_removed.
Viewing the license
Go to “Admin” → “License”. The page also opens from the license banner through the “Manage license” link.
Without a key the page shows “No license is installed on this instance.” With a key it shows the “License information” table:
| Row | Content |
|---|---|
| “Customer”, “Customer ID” | The customer the key was issued to |
| “License ID” | The identifier of the key; audit events and the revocation list refer to it |
| “Issued on” | The date the key was issued |
| “License type” | The type of the license as issued |
| “Edition” | The edition from the key, se or ee; “—” when the key names none |
| “Status” | “Active”, “Expired”, “Revoked” or “Invalid” |
| “Valid until” | The expiry date, or “Perpetual” for a key without one. “Expires soon” appears next to the date 30 days before it, “Expired” after it |
| “Updates covered until” | The date until which the key covers product updates, or “Unlimited”. “Updates ending soon” appears next to the date 30 days before it, “Updates ended” after it. The date does not change which features are available |
| “Seats in use” | The number of active user accounts and the licensed seats, “N of M”, with “Exceeded” when the number is above the limit; “N seats in use” for a key without a seat limit |
Dates are calendar dates in UTC; pointing at “Expires soon”, “Expired”, “Updates ending soon” or “Updates ended” shows the exact time.
A seat is taken by an active user account: blocked users, bots and service accounts take none. The number is refreshed every 10 minutes. Exceeding the limit shows “Exceeded” and a banner; the feature set does not depend on the number of seats.
The status is “Revoked” when the license identifier is in the revocation list built into the product, and “Invalid” when a field of the Deckhouse Code section of the key has an unexpected type. In both states the instance runs as SE. The revocation list reaches the instance with a product update, so a key can become revoked after an upgrade.
License banner
Administrators see a banner at the top of every page while the license needs attention; other users never see it. The banner carries the “Manage license” link to the license page. One banner is shown at a time, the most severe:
| Banner | State | Can be closed |
|---|---|---|
| “No license is installed on this instance.” | No key is installed | No |
| “The installed license key is not valid for this instance.” | The stored key fails verification | No |
| “The license has been revoked. Contact your vendor.” | The license identifier is in the revocation list | No |
| “The Deckhouse Code section of the license could not be parsed.” | The status is “Invalid” | No |
| “The instance license expired on %{date}. Renew it to stay licensed.” | The expiry date has passed | No |
| “Active users (%{count}) exceed the licensed seats (%{limit}).” | There are more active accounts than licensed seats | Yes |
| “The instance license expires on %{date}.” | 30 days before the expiry date | Yes |
A closed banner stays hidden for 7 days; it comes back earlier when the key or its state changes.
Installing a key
- Go to “Admin” → “License”.
- Paste the key into the “License key” field under “Install license”. The field hint reads “Paste the license key you received from your vendor”.
- Select “Install license”.
The message “License key has been installed.” confirms the installation. The new key replaces the key stored before and takes effect at once. A key that fails the check is not stored, and the previous key stays in place.
A key is a text of about 1 KB made of the capital letters A–Z and the digits 2–7. Line breaks, spaces, letter case and trailing = signs picked up while copying are ignored.
The page shows the reason a key was refused:
| Message | Cause |
|---|---|
| “The license key could not be parsed. Make sure it is copied in full.” | The text is not a license key, or it is incomplete or altered |
| “The license key signature is not valid for this installation.” | The signature does not match the vendor keys built into this build of the product |
| “The license is not valid yet — it starts at a future date.” | The validity period of the key starts later than the current time of the instance |
| “The license has been revoked. Contact your vendor.” | The license identifier is in the revocation list built into the product |
| “The license key does not contain a license for Deckhouse Code.” | The key was issued for another Deckhouse product |
| “The license key is too long to store.” | The pasted text is longer than 4096 bytes |
Removing a key
- Go to “Admin” → “License”.
- Select “Remove license” and confirm the question “Are you sure you want to remove the license key?”.
The message “License key has been removed.” confirms the removal. The instance returns to trial mode with every feature available, and administrators see the banner “No license is installed on this instance.” until a key is installed.
Expiry
The key carries an expiry date, shown as “Valid until”, and a cut-off date after it, which the page does not show. The clock of the instance decides which of the dates has passed.
- 30 days before the expiry date “Expires soon” appears next to the date, and administrators see the banner “The instance license expires on %{date}.”; the banner can be closed for 7 days.
- From the expiry date the status is “Expired”, and administrators see the banner “The instance license expired on %{date}. Renew it to stay licensed.”, which cannot be closed. Between the expiry date and the cut-off date the license is in its grace period: the feature set does not change.
- From the cut-off date an instance with an EE key runs as SE.
A key without a cut-off date keeps its feature set after the expiry date; a key without an expiry date (“Perpetual”) never expires. Expiry of an SE key changes the status and the banner only.
When an EE key reaches the cut-off date:
- scan policies stop adding scanner jobs to pipelines, and scheduled scans stop;
- the pages of scan policies, the dependency list and license compliance answer 404, their menu items disappear, and the scanner integrations disappear from the integration lists and settings;
- the DefectDojo integration stops processing reports;
- the analytics report pages answer 404, their menu items disappear, and the GraphQL fields behind them return null.
Collected data stays stored: the SBOM reports are shown again as soon as a valid EE key is installed, and the analytics pages are built from the issues, merge requests and pipelines that remain in the instance. A renewed key is installed like any other key, and the features return at once.
Getting a key
Keys are issued by the vendor. The “License” page carries the contact line “Need a license or have a question? Contact us on the Deckhouse Code website or write to contact@deckhouse.ru.”; the website link is https://deckhouse.ru/products/code/.