License expiration and renewal

Big picture

Review options for tracking Calico Enterprise license expiration.

Concepts

We highly recommend using the license agent using Prometheus to get alerts on your Calico Enterprise license expiration day to avoid disruption to services. Regardless of whether you using the alerting feature, here are some things you should know.

FAQ

How long does it take to get a new Calico Enterprise license?

After you submit a sales purchase order to Tigera, 1-2 days.

Is there a grace period?

Yes, there is a grace period of 30 days (as of April 2022).

Does Manager UI display license expiration?

Yes. The license indicator in Manager UI (top right banner) turns red when the license expires.

What happens when a license expires or is invalid?

caution

Although users can still log in to Manager UI, your deployment is no longer operational. All policy enforcement stops, except for policies in the default tier. In most cases, you will experience broken connectivity (depending on your policies in the default tier). Calico Enterprise stops reporting flow logs, DNS logs, and Calico Enterprise metrics, which affects other UI elements like Service Graph and dashboards. Although some elements may appear to work, actions are not saved, and you should regard your deployment as non-functional. We recommend that you proactively manage your license to avoid disruption.

What happens if I add nodes beyond what I'm licensed for?

• Node limits are not currently enforced
• All Calico Enterprise features still work

Do licenses cover free upgrades in Calico Enterprise?

Yes.

How do I get information about my license? Monitor the expiration date?

• Prometheus!. Monitor days till expiration, nodes available, and nodes used.
• Use kubectl to get license key information