Licenses

A Botream license says until when the server may run tasks and how many people and machines may use it. Administrators upload it under Administration → Licenses; without one, Botream runs as a 30-day trial.

#What a license counts

A license has an expiry date and three counts:

A user who has both permissions (for example a member of the Admin role) takes an Administrator and a Bot Creator seat. Deactivated users, users who only run tasks or use the Inbox, and agents that are waiting for approval, rejected or deactivated take no seat.

The license is valid through the end of its expiry day (UTC).

#The server key

Every license is issued for one server. Each Botream server has a server key, 25 characters in five groups such as 7K3QD-M2XRA-9TV4N-HB8EW-C5GJP, made from the machine's identity (the Windows machine id). It stays the same across restarts, upgrades and reinstalls on the same machine, and differs on every other machine.

To get a license:

1. Open Administration → Licenses and copy the Server key with its copy button.
2. Send the key to whoever issues your licenses.
3. Upload the .lic file you receive. It works only on the server whose key it carries.

A license file copied to another server is refused there. When the database is moved to another machine (for example a restored backup on new hardware), the licenses uploaded on the old machine no longer count and the new server runs as a trial until a license for its own key is uploaded. When you plan to move Botream to another machine, ask for a license for the new machine's key beforehand.

#The trial

A server without a license runs as a 30-day trial from its first start, with no limits on users and agents. Administrators see a banner at the top of the app with the days left. When the trial ends, tasks no longer run until a license is uploaded; everything else keeps working.

#Uploading a license

Only members of the Admin role see the Licenses page (it is a role, not a permission: no other role can be given it).

1. Open Administration → Licenses.
2. Click Browse… and choose the .lic file you received.
3. Botream checks the file's signature and shows what it contains: customer, license id, server key, issue and expiry dates, and the three counts. If the new license allows fewer seats than are in use, the confirmation says so.
4. Click Install license. The new license is in force at once; every upload is kept in the history and recorded in the audit log (LICENSE_UPLOAD).

A file is refused when it is not a Botream license, when it was changed after it was issued (the signature no longer matches), when it was issued for another Botream installation, when it was issued for another server (its server key is not this server's), when it is an older license made before licenses were issued for one server, or when it has already expired. The message names both server keys, so you can ask for the right license.

The page shows the license in force with a status — Valid, Expires soon (30 days or less), Expired, Trial or Trial expired — the seats in use against what the license allows, and the uploaded licenses. When several licenses were uploaded, the newest one that has not expired is in force.

#When the license expires

• Administrators see a banner 30 days before the expiry date, and a red banner once it has passed.
• After the expiry date, runs do not start: the Run dialog, debugging, the API, schedules and triggers are refused with "The Botream license expired on … An administrator can upload a new license under Administration → Licenses." Everyone sees this message where runs are started, and schedules and triggers record each refused run in their last result.
• Signing in, editing tasks and uploading a new license keep working. As soon as a new license is installed, runs start again.

#When the seats are used up

Users and agents already in use always keep working, even when a smaller license is uploaded. Only additions beyond the license are refused, with a message that names the count, for example "The license allows 5 Bot Creators (users who edit tasks) and 5 are in use.":

• creating or activating a user, or giving a user roles, so that more active users can manage users (Administrators) or edit tasks (Bot Creators);
• giving a role the Manage users and roles or Edit tasks permission when its users would need more seats;
• a directory account signing in for the first time, or with new groups, that would need a seat (the sign-in is refused);
• approving an agent, turning an approved agent on again, or a new machine connecting when approval is not required, beyond the licensed Runners.

To free a seat, deactivate a user, take the permission away from one of their roles, or deactivate or reject an agent.

#For whoever issues licenses

Licenses are made with the Botream License Generator (Botream-License-Generator.exe), an internal tool that is not part of the server or agent installers. It signs each file with a private key that never leaves the computer it was created on; the server only holds the matching public key.

Every license needs the customer's server key: type it in the Server key field of the form (dashes and spaces are optional, and the letters O, I and L are read as 0, 1 and 1), or pass --server-key on the command line. The key is part of the signed content, so it cannot be changed in the file afterwards. The suggested file name includes the first group of the key. See the repository README for how to build it and back up its key.