Licensing

Installing your license

Your license is a single base64 value. Set it as the EE_LICENSE environment variable on both the API and the worker:

environment:
  EE_LICENSE: <the value provided to you>

Alternatively, put the license in a file and set EE_LICENSE_FILE to its path:

environment:
  EE_LICENSE_FILE: /etc/husonym/license

When both variables are set, the file wins over EE_LICENSE.

EE_LICENSE is read once, when the service starts. The file named by EE_LICENSE_FILE is read again at most once a minute, so a renewed license is picked up without a restart: replace the content of the file and the new key takes effect within about a minute. A key that cannot be verified, or a file that is empty or unreadable, is ignored and reported in the logs. The key already in place stays in force.

The service always starts, whatever the license: absent, unreadable or expired. In the first two cases it logs the reason and runs without a license.

The license is checked on every request and follows the clock. An expiry never needs a restart. A renewal needs none only with EE_LICENSE_FILE.

Verification happens entirely offline. Husonym never contacts us to check your license, so it works in an air-gapped environment, and we collect nothing about how you use it.

note

The license must be set on the worker as well as the API. With it missing from the worker, data-sync job runs still execute, but their job hooks and the account-hook notifications are skipped, and initializing the schema of a Microsoft SQL Server destination fails. A PII detection job run fails.

What the license covers

The rule is the same for every request: creating, modifying and executing require a valid license; reading, stopping and deleting never do. In practice, a valid license is needed to create, configure and run jobs — the core of the product — as well as to create or modify job and account hooks, to create or modify Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage connections, to initialize the schema of a Microsoft SQL Server destination, and to use the bulk anonymization call and the PII text transformer — whether it is mapped directly, stored in a user-defined transformer or called from a script. Your license may also restrict which connection types you can create (see Usage limits).

Husonym itself does not depend on the license to start. Authentication, run logs and metrics are available whether or not a license is installed, and the access rules (roles) apply with or without one.

As your license approaches expiry

Husonym does not stop abruptly. It moves through four stages, and the interface tells you which one you are in.

Stage	When	What happens
Active	more than 30 days remaining	everything works
Expiring	within 30 days of expiry	everything works; a banner shows the date
Grace period	after expiry, for a further period	everything still works; a banner asks you to renew
Expired	after the grace period	new job runs stop

The grace period is normally 14 days, and your license may specify a different length.

What happens if a license expires

Once the grace period ends, Husonym stops starting work. It does not lock you out and it never touches your data. The instance keeps starting and serving requests.

Refused:

• creating new jobs, and changing the configuration of existing ones
• starting new job runs, manually or on a schedule
• resuming a paused schedule
• creating or modifying a hook, and turning a hook back on
• creating or modifying an Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage connection

These are refused with the message account does not have an active license. Also refused, each with its own message: initializing the schema of a Microsoft SQL Server destination, the bulk anonymization call, and the PII text transformer.

Keeps working:

• viewing every job, run, run log, connection, hook and mapping in your history
• pausing a schedule, and turning a hook off
• cancelling or terminating a run that is already going
• deleting jobs, hooks and connections

Runs already in progress when the license expires are not interrupted. One exception: a run that maps the PII text transformer asks the API to rewrite each value, and the API refuses once the license has expired, so that run fails.

Nothing is deleted, and no configuration is lost. Installing a renewed license restores everything immediately — no data migration, no re-setup.

Usage limits

Your license may include limits agreed in your contract, such as a maximum number of jobs or connections, or the set of connection types included. When you reach one, Husonym declines the action and names the limit so you know what to ask for:

this license allows 20 job(s) and 20 already exist;
contact us to raise the limit

Reaching a limit never affects anything already running.

Renewing, or asking a question

Write to contact@husonym.com. Renewing means replacing the license value: with EE_LICENSE_FILE, replace the content of the file and the API and the worker pick it up on their own; with EE_LICENSE, change the value and restart the API and the worker. Nothing else changes.

If you have lost your license value, ask us rather than assuming a new one is needed: we keep a record of what was issued and can re-send it.