[00:00] When it comes to licensing Ignition and a Docker container, there are some nuances that are important to keep in mind. In this lesson, I'll go over what to expect and what options are available so you can choose the option that's best for you. You may already be familiar with the standard 6 character license key. This license identifies your purchase and ties it to an Ignition Gateway. Ultimately a license file gets created and saved to disk on your Gateway in this lives in the data folder in the Ignition install directory. It's important to remember with containers, you'll need a volume to persist this license file in order for the gateway to remain licensed if you stop and start your container. Earlier in this course, I showed how to create named volumes that were tied to the data folder for each gateway. These named volumes would contain that license file. However, part of what ties your license to your gateway is the image that's used. If you change the image that's tied to your gateway, even with the named volume that houses the license file, the license will become invalid. Let's say for example that you want to change the version of Ignition that one of your containers is running.

[01:08] You stop your container, pull an image for the new version, and start up a container using the same named volume from before. This will invalidate the license because that same license was activated on a gateway tied to a different image. The gateway will enter emergency activation mode and you'll have seven days to contact support to resolve the issue before the gateway's unlicensed. In order to avoid this situation if you're going to be changing images unactivate your license and reactivate it afterwards. This would be the same process you would go through if you're switching your license from one gateway to another outside of a container. If you have internet access you'd simply go to the licensing page in the config section of your gateway web page and click unactivate and then reactivate it on the new gateway or after starting up a container with the new image. If you're offline, you would receive request files that must then be transferred to a computer with internet access. You can view more information about licensing and activation on our licensing and activation page in the user manual, which I'll link to in the description.

[02:07] The other type of license that's available is an eight character leased license key. This license is different from the standard license in that the Gateway needs to frequently check in with an activation service in order for the license to remain valid. When activating a leased license, you need to enter the license key and then an activation token, which is a long unique string of characters associated with your key. Without the token, you will be unable to activate the license. Once entered, the gateway continues to reach out to the activation service every hour and as long as the service is reached and the timeout period is reset, the license remains valid. If the activation service can't be reached there's a default timeout period of four hours that gives some cushion to resolve any issues. This method checks for the number of uses at one time as opposed to the gateway was activated on so it's ideal for a containerized environment. However, this depends on the gateway having internet access at all times. As you can see there's some extra attention required when it comes to licensing Ignition in a container.

[03:06] Hopefully this breakdown provides some clarity and assists you in choosing the right option for your situation. You can talk to your sales representative if you need further help in determining which options suits you best.