Licensing and license-dependent behavior

To use Airlock Microgateway, a valid license is required. Airlock Microgateway is available in a Premium and a free Community edition. The available editions are compared in the article Airlock Microgateway editions and support.

Request a license

  1. Request either a Community or Premium edition license through the web form:
    1. Request a community license
      A license will be sent automatically within minutes.
    2. Request a premium license
      Your sales partner will contact you for licensing.
  2. Check your inbox for the license key message and store the microgateway-license.txt file locally.

A throughput threshold is applied and enforced for the Community edition only. See table Community vs. Premium editions in detail to choose the right license type.

Configure/change the license

  1. Store the license in the Microgateway Operator namespace, in a Kubernetes secret with the name airlock-microgateway-license and the key microgateway-license.txt. Use the following command:
    2. copy
    kubectl -n airlock-microgateway-system create secret generic airlock-microgateway-license  
--from-file=microgateway-license.txt=<my-local-microgateway-license.txt>
  2. To change a license (e.g. when upgrading from Community to Premium), use kubectl apply to apply the new license to the airlock-microgateway-license secret in the airlock-microgateway-system namespace.

There is no need to restart the Airlock Microgateway Operator. Kubernetes Secrets are updated at intervals of about one minute. Wait for the new license to become active.

Monitor license information with metrics and logs

Apart from the Community edition license, you should always order a Premium edition license that covers your (calendar-based) monthly request count.
We have implemented a set of license-related metrics. Use them to monitor if your current Airlock Microgateway license is still sufficient and to update/change your license in time.

  • Metrics:
  • License-related metrics with explanations are listed below in this article.

For a detailed list of available metrics with a short description, see available metrics in Prometheus format.

  • Operator logs:
  • License information on a daily base for
    • license expiration due date,
    • on expired license,
    • when license is missing or invalid.
  • License details at every start of the Microgateway Operator or after license exchange/upgrade.

Behavior with invalid or expired licenses

Licenses are treated either as valid, invalid or expired. Differences between invalid and expired licenses are shown in the following table.

  • Corresponding metrics:
  • microgateway_license_valid
  • microgateway_license_expiry_timestamp_seconds

License validity

Definition and behavior

Valid license

  • Definition:
  • Valid (metric microgateway_license_valid = 1) Community or Premium edition license.
  • Microgateway Engine behavior:
  • Traffic is secured according to the configuration of the Airlock Microgateway Engine and the kind and scope of the license.

Invalid license

  • Definition:
  • Missing or invalid signed license (metric microgateway_license_valid = 0).
  • Microgateway Engine behavior:
  • All traffic is blocked.

Expired license

  • Definition
  • The license is expired (metric microgateway_license_valid = 0) as soon as the license expiry timestamp metric value is reached.
  • Microgateway Engine behavior:
  • Pods created before the license expiry timestamp run normally.
  • Pods created after the license expiry timestamp block all traffic.
  • Operator and Pods are not affected by the license status:
  • The Airlock Microgateway Operator runs normally.
  • Based on the label for injection, the Airlock Microgateway Operator​ injects the Microgateway Engine container into Pod. Therefore, only these Pods are affected. See also the article Labels and annotations for Airlock Microgateway.