License Keys

Requesting License Changes

To request a license change, simply send an email to support@flux.ly with the following information:

  • The Flux version(s) you will need
  • The host name or IP address of each new machine you are adding, along with the license type (production, development, etc.)
  • The host name or IP address of each existing machine you are removing

If you aren’t sure what the host name or IP address of a new machine is, you can run the following command from your Flux installation directory and include the output in your email:

java -jar flux.jar

Make sure to include this output for each new machine.

Installing License Keys

To install a license key, simply place it in your Flux installation directory and run the configure script located there.

This script simply embeds the license key in flux.jar. If you would prefer to install the key manually, make sure that the license key is placed in flux.jar correctly. Otherwise, you may experience errors later on.

Advanced Users (Java knowledge required)

If you do not want to embed the license key, Flux can also find it from the Java class path. Simply include the directory where your license key file is located on your Java class path. Note that Flux will encounter errors if there are old or expired license keys on the class path.

Once you have successfully installed your new license key, be sure to destroy any existing copies of the previous key (if you install the key by embedding it using the configure script, the old license key file will be automatically deleted and you do not need to manually destroy it). This will prevent Flux from inadvertently picking up an old or expired copy of the license key and ensure that your key matches the records for your account, as well as protecting you against unintentional violations of the Flux license agreement.

License Key Errors

If your license key is not expired but you are experiencing an error message indicating that it has, you may be experiencing one of the following problems:

  • Your engine needs to be restarted. Engines running a development license must be restarted every 7 days, and QA licenses every 90. If you have exceeded this threshold, Flux will display an error and you will need to restart the engine.
  • Your machine’s host name or IP address is not listed in the license key. If this occurs, following the instructions in Requesting License Changes above to request a new license key with your host added.
  • There is an older instance of the license key on the Java class path. Flux loads the key from the Java class path, so any older key on the class path can cause errors when Flux checks the machine information and license expiration. For this reason, you should always be sure to destroy any old copies of a license when you receive a new one, and that only the latest license key is on the Java class path.
  • You are running in a Unix-based environment and the /etc/hosts file is not configured correctly. See below for more information.
  • The license key was corrupted during transfer. If it is necessary to transfer a key from machine to machine, we recommend archiving the key before transferring it, then extracting it at the destination to ensure it retains its integrity.

Installing License Keys on Unix / Linux

Flux gathers its host information from Java. On some Unix-based systems, Java may have difficulty gathering host information if the /etc/hosts file is not configured correctly, which can cause Flux to inadvertently believe that the machine is not properly licensed.

Typically, this would occur if the loopback address (127.0.0.1) occurs in the /etc/hosts file before the actual IP address. For example, your /etc/hosts file may look something like this:

# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
127.0.0.1       localhost

In this case, you would modify your /etc/hosts to look something like:

# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
<IP address>      <host name>
127.0.0.1            localhost

Where <IP address> is the actual IP address of the machine, and is the actual host name (one of which must match the entry for this machine in the Flux license key).

License Key Order

Flux will check license keys in the following order:

  1. Production
  2. Warm Standby Disaster Recovery
  3. Cold Standby Disaster Recovery
  4. QA/UAT
  5. Development

Flux will check all host names for a particular license type before moving on to the next license type, so if your machine matches a production license, Flux will not check for a development license, and so on.