1 Introduction
To run Mendix apps in production on the Mendix Cloud, they must be linked to a licensed node. Without a licensed node you can still deploy your app and test it, however it will only run for a couple of hours before shutting down, cannot be scaled and has limited operational information available.
This page explains how you can link your app to a licensed node. It covers the following:
- Linking Your App to a Licensed Node
- Unlinking a Free App from its environment
- Exchanging Linked Apps Between Nodes
These instructions will not move databases, file storage, or any other environment configurations to another node. Only the deployment package of a Mendix model – the app as built in Mendix Studio Pro – is moved.
2 Basic Concepts and Overview
When you deploy an app to the cloud, whether it is a Free App or a licensed app, it will consist of a number of parts:
- Mendix Runtime – essentially one or more instances of your app running in a container
- Routing layer
- Network
- Database
- File storage service
This is the Mendix environment.
In a node in the Mendix Cloud, you may have one, or more, of these environments.
For a Free App, your app has a single environment which allows you to test your app. However, this comes with restrictions on how long it will run. In addition, you cannot scale the app, and the operational capabilities are limited. For more details on the restrictions of a Free App, see Mendix Cloud.
In a licensed node you have everything you need to stage and deploy your app. You can have several different environments to support development: test, acceptance, and production, for example. With Flexible Environments in Mendix Cloud v4, you can even specify the number and names of your environments. You can scale licensed environments by providing more memory or multiple instances, and you can configure and monitor them using the tools in the Developer Portal.
3 Prerequisites
3.1 Obtaining a Licensed Node
To license an app, you need to have a licensed cloud node available:
If you want to license a single app for between five and a hundred users, you can order the Mendix Basic package online. See Mendix Basic Package for more details.
If you have an existing contract which allows for more licensed nodes, use the Request New App Node app to request a new node from Mendix Support. For more information, see Licensing Apps.
If your contract does not allow for more licensed nodes, please contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM).
If you do not fall into any of the categories above, please contact Mendix Support.
3.2 Authorization
You need to be the Technical Contact of the node, otherwise you will not have the rights to link an app to the node.
You need to have enabled two-factor authentication. See Two-Factor Authentication.
4 Linking Your App to a Licensed Node
You have deployed an app: either as a Free App, or to a licensed node. You now want to link it to a licensed node, or to a different licensed node. There are several steps you need to carry out:
- Back up your data
- Unlink from the current environment
- Connect your app to a licensed node
- Restore the backup of your data
For the specific case of swapping two apps between licensed nodes, see the guidance in the Exchanging Linked Apps Between Nodes section.
4.1 Backing Up
When you remove an app from its environment you may want to take the data (database and file store) with it. It is a good idea, in any case, to take backups before performing major activities.
For more information on downloading a backup, see Download a Backup.
When you unlink your Free App from its environment, the environment will be permanently deleted. This means that you will not be able to recover any data once the app is unlinked.
If you are unlinking from a licensed node, the node is NOT deleted and data is retained in the node.
4.2 Unlinking From Current Environment
Before you can link an app to a new environment, you need to unlink it from its current environment. All apps will be created as a Free App by default the first time they are deployed. In most cases, therefore, you will have to unlink them.
4.2.1 Unlinking a Free App
To unlink a Free App, do the following:
Go to the Developer Portal.
Select the app which you want to unlink.
Go to Environments in the left navigation panel.
If the Environments tab shows the following message, then your app is not currently linked to a node and you can go straight to the Connecting Your App to a Licensed Node section.
Click Unlink your app.
Click Yes, delete all data and unlink this app to confirm.
Your Data will be deleted.Validate with your Two-Factor Authentication.
Your app has now been unlinked from the Free App environment.
4.2.2 Unlinking a Licensed App
It is not possible to unlink an app from a licensed node. The only way to do this is to connect another app to the licensed node; this will unlink the existing app automatically.
An example of how this behavior can be used is given in the Exchanging Linked Apps Between Nodes section.
4.3 Connecting Your App to a Licensed Node
If there is already an app linked to the target node, it will be unlinked automatically.
Apart from the app, the rest of the environment(s) in the target node will remain the same. This includes:
- the container and its configuration (including memory, instances, and environment variables)
- Routing layer
- Network
- Database (both structure and content)
- File storage service (including all content)
To connect your app to a licensed node, do the following:
Go to the Developer Portal.
Select the app you want to link to the node.
Go to Environments in the left navigation panel.
Click select a node.
Click Use this Node.
If there is already an app linked to this node, you will be asked to confirm that you want to replace it. Click Continue to confirm.
Validate with your Two-Factor Authentication.
Your app is now connected to this node.
4.4 Restoring Backup
After you have linked your app to a licensed node, it will be using the resources currently in that node. For example, the data in the existing database, if there was an app previously deployed to the node.
If you want to use the data which was originally in your app, you will need to restore the backup from your old node. For more information on restoring a backup, see Restore a Backup.
You can only restore data to an existing database. This means that there must have been an app deployed to the licensed node before you attempt to restore data.
5 Exchanging Linked Apps Between Nodes
If you want to swap the nodes of two apps which are already linked to nodes, you can do it by creating a new (third) app. By using the fact that linking an app to a node will remove an app which is already linked, you can use this app to unlink one app. You can then move this app to the other node, unlinking the app which is there. Finally, you can put this app into the first node.
For example, take the following case:
App A is on Node 1
App B is on Node 2
You want to swap them so that App A is on Node 2 and App B is on Node 1
To link App A to Node 2 and App B to Node 1, follow these steps:
Create a new blank app App C which is not connected to any environment.
Link App C to Node 1 (see the Connecting Your App to a Licensed Node section, above). This will unlink App A.
Now that App A is unlinked from Node 1, it can be linked to Node 2.
App B will now no longer have a node. You can now link App B to Node 1.
You have now swapped App A and App B between nodes.