Install a license

Install a license

Each instance of Splunk server must have its own license. This topic discusses the different Splunk licenses, how to install or update a license, and what to do when you have a violation on your license.

Note: You must purchase a separate license for every instance of Splunk that you deploy.

Which license?

Splunk provides two standard types of licenses, a Free license and an Enterprise license. To evaluate Enterprise features, you can request a trial Enterprise license before purchasing.

If you evaluate a Splunk Preview release, it will include the required license.

Note: Splunk 4.x currently ships with a 500MB Enterprise trial license, which is enabled by default. The Free license will be available in an upcoming release. Once the Free license is available, Enterprise trial licenses will only be available by request.

Free versus Enterprise

When you download Splunk for the first time, you are asked to register. Your registration authorizes you to receive the Free license, which allows a maximum indexing volume of 500 MB/day. The Free license is not a trial license and does not have an expiration date. The Enterprise license enables higher data indexing volume and the following additional features:

• Multiple user accounts and access controls.
• Distributed search and data routing.
• Deployment management.

Important: Beginning with 3.4.2, users running Splunk with the Free license can set their instance to receive data from a fowarder. In earlier versions of Splunk, users needed an Enterprise license to change this distributed setting.

To evaluate these features before you purchase an Enterprise license, you can request a 30-day trial Enterprise license.

Find more information about the different license features here. Also, read Splunk's Free license agreement.

Trial license

You can request trial Enterprise licenses of varying size and duration. The default evaluation period is 30 days. If you are running with a trial license and your license expires, Splunk continues to index your data. However, you will not be able to search until you install a new license.

Preview license

Splunk's Preview releases require a different license that is not compatible with other Splunk releases. Also, if you are evaluating a Preview release of Splunk, it will not run with a Free or Enterprise license. Preview licenses typically enable Enterprise features, they are just restricted to Preview releases.

Forwarding license

A forwarding license is only necessary if you want to enable Splunk Security on the web UI of your forwarding instance. It is not necessary to use it when forwarding data. A free instance, or Enterprise trial instance includes this functionality by default. A LightWeight forwarder does not need a license as the web UI is disabled by default.

A forwarder license is included with the product. You do not need to contact Sales or Support to request this license.

1. Stop Splunk (./splunk stop)

2. Copy $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/splunk-forwarder.license to $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/splunk.license

3. Start Splunk (./splunk start) This license does not limit how much data you can forward from that machine.

Note: This 1 MB/day forward-only license is not subtracted from your existing license(s) and can be applied to multiple forwarders.

Install your license

All Splunk servers have a license located in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/, whether it is a Free license (splunk-free.license) or an Enterprise license (splunk.license). You can install and update your licenses with the CLI or using Splunk Web.

Install a license using Splunk Web

1. Log into Splunk Web as the admin user.

2. Click Manager>License.

3. Click Change License.

4. Paste in your license key and click Save.

5. Return to the main Manager tab and click Restart Splunk.

Pre-seeding your license before first time run

Starting with 4.0.2, by default when you start Splunk for the first time, it moves aside any existing 3.x license and replaces it with a temporary Enterprise trial license. This allows you to bring up the new version of Splunk without having your license be expired until you get your new one copied in.

If you are migrating to Splunk 4.0.2 or later and have a valid 4.x license, you can pre-seed the license file so that it pulls in and installs your new license the first time you start Splunk 4. This is useful if you have to deploy multiple instances and don't want to have to manually copy the new license in after starting Splunk on each machine.

• Migrate to 4.0.2 or later, but don't start Splunk yet.
• Copy your new license into $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/splunk-user.license.
• Start Splunk.

If you're making a deployable package, you can include the splunk-user.license file with your updated license in it before you tar/zip it up for deployment to other systems.

License violations

Violations occur when you exceed the maximum indexing volume allowed for your license. If you exceed your licensed daily volume on any one calendar day, you will get a violation warning. The message persists for 14 days. If you have more than 5 violations in a rolling 30-day period, search will be disabled. Search capabilities return when you have less than 5 violations in the previous 30 days or when you apply a new license with a larger volume limit.

Note: During a license violation period, Splunk does not stop indexing your data. Splunk only blocks search access while you exceed the allowed number of license violations.

• Was this topic useful?
• Post a comment