Licensing Apps

Introduction

On Mendix Cloud, you can build Free Apps, which let you try things out and build and test apps using all the functionality of Mendix.

You can also deploy apps without a license to another public or private cloud of your choice, such as SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). This gives you the opportunity to try things out and to build and test apps using the functionality of Mendix as well as your target cloud.

Unlicensed apps, running outside Mendix Cloud, have some restrictions. These restrictions are listed in the table below.

¹ More information on the capabilities of different license options is available on Mendix Platform Pricing.

² End-users of your app are classified as either internal or external. You must report this classification for licensing purposes by implementing User Metering for each end user of your app. The USAGE_METRICS_EMAIL_FIELDS custom variable is deprecated and should no longer be used for user classification. Use User Metering instead to ensure accurate and consistent user classification across your application portfolio. Only end users whose Mendix accounts are marked as Active are counted towards the number of end users of the app.

³ Depending on the configuration of your chosen cloud, a container and runtime may be restarted if it appears unhealthy because the runtime has stopped.

For each environment for which you want to remove the restrictions placed on an unlicensed app, you need a license. The method for applying a license differs depending on where you are deploying your app.

The app checks for a license each time it is started. If the license expires while the app is running, it will continue to run until the next time it is started, when the license will be checked again.

User Types and Definitions

Mendix licenses follow user-based pricing plans. This means customers pay based on how many users need access and what type of access they require for their Mendix applications. Customers can purchase user licenses in the following categories:

Multi-App Internal User

These are internal users (employee or contractor of the customer or affiliated company or group) who can access any number of applications and are licensed under the Multi-App Internal User Pack. Each internal user is counted as one unique user, regardless of how many apps they access.

Single-App Internal User

An internal user (employee or contractor) licensed for only one specific application and counted as one user limited to a single designated app. They are licensed under the Single-App Internal User Pack.

External User

A user who is not an employee or contractor of the customer or its affiliates, and is explicitly marked “External” within your Mendix application data. This is one unique user across all apps designated for external use and licensed under the External User Pack.

For more information on legal definitions, refer to Order Form Definitions.

Obtaining a Mendix License

You can obtain a Mendix license from Mendix Support, as described below. If you want to deploy to SAP BTP or Mendix on Kubernetes, you can also use this process to obtain a subscription secret. Follow these steps:

1. Open the Request New App Node app and use the form to fill in the basic information, such as the app name and hosting type. Click Next.

2. Depending on the hosting type you select, you may need to provide additional information about your app. For example, if you are deploying the app locally on a virtual machine, you need to provide the server ID. If prompted, fill in the requested information and click Next.

3. Click Save to submit your request.

Mendix Support will contact the Technical Contact via a ticket in the Support Portal.

If you are hosting your app somewhere else, such as on Cloud Foundry, Mendix Support will provide the following license credentials:

• LicenseId – a unique identifier for your license, based on where it is being deployed
• LicenseKey – a Base64 string

An example LicenseId is aab8a0a1-1370-467e-918d-3a243b0ae160. The LicenseKey is a very long Base64 string.

Activating a Mendix License

Once you have obtained a new Mendix license, link it to your app as described below. The specific steps depend on where you deploy your app.

Mendix Cloud

For a Mendix app to run in production on Mendix Cloud, it must be linked to a licensed node in Mendix Cloud. This process is described in Licensing Mendix Cloud Apps.

SAP BTP

To license a Mendix app on SAP BTP, you need to supply a Subscription Secret that is linked to your app.

You can add this subscription secret as part of creating an environment on SAP BTP. You can also add or change the subscription secret on the Environment Details page of the environment you wish to license.

For more information, see SAP Business Technology Platform.

Siemens Insights Hub

To license an Insights Hub app, you need to provide your License ID and License Key as Cloud Foundry environment variables. See Cloud Foundry, below, for instructions on how to do this.

Mendix on Kubernetes

To license a Mendix app on Mendix on Kubernetes, you need to supply a Subscription Secret or license credentials for your app. See below for how it can be added to either a Connected or Standalone cluster.

In addition to the licenses for your apps, you will also need to license the Mendix Operator, which helps deploy your app to a Mendix on Kubernetes environment. For details on the Mendix Operator license, see Licensing Mendix on Kubernetes.

Mendix on Kubernetes Connected

You can add the subscription secret when creating an environment on Mendix on Kubernetes. You can also add or change the subscription secret on the Environment Details page of the environment you wish to license. For more information, see the Change Subscription Secret section of Deploying a Mendix App to a Mendix on Kubernetes Cluster.

Mendix on Kubernetes Standalone

You will need to add the license credentials and configure the license in the Mendix Custom Resource (CR) for your Mendix on Kubernetes environment. For more information, see the Editing the CR section of Using Command Line to Deploy a Mendix App to a Mendix on Kubernetes Cluster.

Cloud Foundry

The following steps describe activating the license for deployments using the Cloud Foundry Buildpack. If you are deploying using Portable App Distribution, follow the steps in the Portable App Distribution section below.

To activate a license on your app running on Cloud Foundry, you need the license credentials provided by Mendix Support.

The two environment variables LICENSE_ID and LICENSE_KEY need to be set to the values of the LicenseId and LicenseKey provided by Mendix Support. Do this by running the following two commands, replacing <YOUR_APP> with the name of your app.

cf set-env <YOUR_APP> LICENSE_ID <LicenseId>
cf set-env <YOUR_APP> LICENSE_KEY <LicenseKey>

Then restart the app so that the environment variables are read, and the license goes into effect.

Docker

The following steps describe activating the license for deployments using the Docker Buildpack. If you are deploying using Portable App Distribution, follow the steps in the Portable App Distribution section below.

To activate a license on your app running in a Docker container, you need the license credentials provided by Mendix Support.

Two additional environment variables, LICENSE_ID and LICENSE_KEY, need to be set to the values of the LicenseId and LicenseKey provided by Mendix Support. To do this, add them to the startup command for your container.

docker run -it \
  … \
  -e LICENSE_ID=<LicenseId> \
  -e LICENSE_KEY=<LICENSE_KEY> \
  mendix/mendix-buildpack:…

Kubernetes

To activate a license on your app running on Kubernetes, you need the license credentials provided by Mendix Support.

Two additional environment variables, LICENSE_ID and LICENSE_KEY, need to be set to the values of the LicenseId and LicenseKey provided by Mendix Support. To do this, add them to the deployment command for your app.

Windows Server

To license a Mendix app on Microsoft Windows, follow these steps:

1. Obtain your server ID.
2. Request a license key from Mendix Support.
3. Insert the license key on the server.

For full instructions on how to do this, see Activate a Mendix License on Microsoft Windows.

Unix-Like Server

The following steps describe activating the license for deployments using the M2EE tool. If you are deploying using Portable App Distribution, follow the steps in the Portable App Distribution section below.

To license a Mendix app on Linux or another Unix-like operating system, follow these steps:

1. Open the interactive m2ee console.
2. Use the command show_license_information to obtain your server ID.
3. Request a license key from Mendix Support.
4. Activate your license on the server, using the m2ee command activate_license.

For more instructions on how to do this, see Linux Deployment.

Portable App Distribution

To activate the license on a Mendix app using Portable App Distribution on either Docker, Cloud Foundry, or Unix-like servers, follow these steps:

1. Open the $ConfigName.conf in etc/configurations. 2.  Add the LicenseID and LicenseKey to your runtime configuration:

# License configuration
runtime.params {
  License.LicenseID = <licenseId>
  License.LicenseKey = <license_Key
}

The values for these properties can also be passed by using environment variables for your deployment type, or by creating a separate config file.