Manage your InfluxDB Clustered license

Install and manage your InfluxDB Clustered license to authorize the use of the InfluxDB Clustered software.

• Install your InfluxDB license
• Verify your license
  • Verify database components
  • Verify the Secret exists
  • View license controller logs
• Recover from a license misconfiguration
• Renew your license
• License enforcement
  • A valid license is required
  • Periodic license checks
  • License grace periods
    • License expiry logs
    • Query brownout

Install your InfluxDB license

1. If you haven’t already, request an InfluxDB Clustered license.

2. InfluxData provides you with a license.yml file that encapsulates your license token as a custom Kubernetes resource.

3. Use kubectl to apply and create the License resource in your InfluxDB namespace:

   kubectl apply --filename license.yml --namespace influxdb

InfluxDB Clustered detects the License resource and extracts the credentials into a secret required by InfluxDB Clustered Kubernetes pods. Pods validate the license secret both at startup and periodically (roughly once per hour) while running.

Verify your license

After you have activated your license, use the following signals to verify the license is active and functioning.

In your commands, replace the following:

• NAMESPACE: your InfluxDB namespace
• POD_NAME: your InfluxDB Kubernetes pod

Verify database components

After you install your license, run the following command to check that database pods start up and are in the Running state:

kubectl get pods -l app=iox --namespace influxdb

If a Pod fails to start, run the following command to view pod information:

kubectl describe pod 
POD_NAME
 --namespace influxdb

Verify the Secret exists

Run the following command to verify that the licensing activation created a iox-license secret:

kubectl get secret iox-license --namespace influxdb

If the secret doesn’t exist, view license-controller logs for more information or errors.

View license controller logs

The license controller component creates a Secret named iox-license from your License. To view license controller logs for troubleshooting, run the following command:

kubectl logs deployment/license-controller --namespace influxdb

Recover from a license misconfiguration

If you deploy a licensed release of InfluxDB Clustered with an invalid or expired license, many of the pods in your cluster will crash on startup and will likely enter a CrashLoopBackoff state without ever running or becoming healthy. Because InfluxDB stores the license in a volume-mounted Kubernetes secret, invalid licenses affect old and new pods.

After you apply a valid License resource, new pods will begin to start up normally.

InfluxDB validates a license when you apply it. If the license is invalid when you try to apply it, the license controller won’t add or update the required secret.

Renew your license

Before your license expires, your InfluxData sales representative will contact you about license renewal. You may also contact your sales representative at any time.

Apply your renewed license

When you receive your renewed license file from InfluxData:

1. Use kubectl to apply the updated license:

   kubectl apply --filename license.yml --namespace influxdb

   You may see a warning about missing kubectl.kubernetes.io/last-applied-configuration annotation. This warning is expected and can be safely ignored—the license will be applied successfully.

2. Verify the license update by checking that:

   • The iox-license secret is updated
   • Database pods remain in Running state
   • No license-related errors appear in pod logs

License validation timing

InfluxDB Clustered validates licenses:

• When pods start up
• Periodically during operation (roughly once per hour)

After applying a renewed license, the system should automatically detect and use the new license during the next validation cycle.

Troubleshooting license renewal

If you experience query failures with “no license found” errors after applying a renewed license:

1. Check the license secret:

   kubectl get secret iox-license --namespace influxdb -o yaml

   Verify the secret was updated with the new license data.

2. Check license controller logs:

   kubectl logs deployment/license-controller --namespace influxdb

   Look for successful license processing messages or any errors.

3. Verify pod status:

   kubectl get pods -l app=iox --namespace influxdb

   Ensure all pods are in Running state and not crash-looping.

4. If issues persist, you may need to restart affected services:

   # Scale down the querier service
   kubectl scale deployment iox-shared-querier --replicas=0 --namespace influxdb
   
   # Wait for pods to terminate, then scale back up
   kubectl scale deployment iox-shared-querier --replicas=1 --namespace influxdb

   Service restart should not be routinely necessary. If you consistently need to restart services after license renewal, contact InfluxData support.

License enforcement

InfluxDB Clustered authorizes use of InfluxDB software through licenses issued by InfluxData. The following sections provide information about InfluxDB Clustered license enforcement.

A valid license is required

Kubernetes pods running in your InfluxDB cluster must have a valid License resource to run. Licenses are issued by InfluxData. If there is no License resource installed in your cluster, one of two things may happen:

• Pods may become stuck in a ContainerCreating state if the cluster has never had a valid License resource installed.
• If an expired or invalid license is installed in the cluster, pods will become stuck in a CrashLoopBackoff state. Pod containers will attempt to start, detect the invalid license condition, print an error message, and then exit with a non-zero exit code.

Periodic license checks

During normal operation, pods in your InfluxDB cluster check for a valid license once per hour. You may see messages in your pod logs related to this behavior.

License grace periods

When InfluxData issues a license, it is configured with two expiry dates. The first is the expiry date of the contractual license. The second is a hard expiry of the license credentials, after which pods in your cluster will begin crash-looping until a new, valid license is installed in the cluster.

The period of time between the contractual license expiry and the hard license expiry is considered the grace period. The standard grace period is 90 days, but this may be negotiated as needed with your InfluxData sales representative.

License expiry logs

The following table outlines license expiry logging behavior to show when the log messages begin, the level (Warn or Error), and the periodicity at which they repeat.

Query brownout

Starting one month after your contractual license expiry, the InfluxDB Querier begins “browning out” requests. Brownouts return FailedPrecondition response codes to queries for a portion of every hour.

Brownouts only occur after the license has contractually expired. Also, they only impact query operations–no other operations (writes, compaction, garbage collection, etc) are affected.