Your DataOrchester needs a licence to keep its engine running: without one, every start runs the engine for two hours, and then it stops. This is how to put a licence on it, keep it current, and give it back. For what a licence actually is and how it behaves, see How licensing works.
Important
Configuration editing never needs a licence. You can install, configure and inspect an instance before it is licensed, and every start runs its engine for two hours while you put a licence on it — only keeping it running after that requires one.
Your Portal account
Licences are handled in the Portal at dataorchester.com, under your account. The account is your email address, and you can sign in to it three ways:
| Way | How |
|---|---|
| Password | Your address and a password of at least 6 characters, including a digit |
| Sign in with Google, with a Gmail or Google Workspace account on the same address | |
| Microsoft | Sign in with Microsoft, with a work, school or personal Microsoft account on the same address |
All three open the same account. Signing in with Google or Microsoft for the first time creates it, with the address already confirmed; it needs no password, and you can add one later on your account page. Password sign-in works only once a password is set. Forgot it? Get a link by mail to set a new one.
Your account page also links and unlinks Google and Microsoft. Link one there when its address is not the account's, or when the sign-in page says the provider does not confirm the address.
The buttons
A licence is handled with a few buttons: some in the licence pane of the DataOrchester, the rest in the portal, on your organization's page and on each DataOrchester's page.
| In the licence pane | What it does |
|---|---|
| Copy DO Id | Copies the DO Identifier: a block of text that describes this DataOrchester and holds no secret. |
| Check for licence | Collects the licence bound to this DataOrchester now, rather than at its next automatic check. |
| Register offline | Registers an offline key. While the DataOrchester holds an offline licence, it reads Register new key. Not offered while a Free licence is in force online: a Free licence runs online only. |
| Release licence | Gives an offline licence back and produces a release key. |
| Copy release key | Copies the release key of the licence given back last. |
Your organization's page has two panels:
- Licences is the stock: what the organization holds that no DataOrchester uses yet — Free permanent, Full and Satelite by the month, Full and Satelite permanent — with how many of each are available and the unit price. It is also where you buy them: the To buy column sets how many of each to order. Months are held as a balance: no time passes on a month while it sits in the stock.
- DataOrchesters has a row for each DataOrchester, with the licence it runs on, its expiry and the months left. A licence in force that no DataOrchester runs on yet has a row of its own, marked not activated.
| On your organization's page | What it does |
|---|---|
| Purchase | Claims the free licence at once, and opens the order review for everything else set in the To buy column. |
| Move one | Moves one available permanent licence to another organization you administer. |
| Add a DataOrchester | Adds a DataOrchester on a licence from the stock: one that already runs, from its DO Identifier, or a new one, from install commands. |
| Remove | The − at the start of a row. Removes the DataOrchester from the organization and returns its licence to the stock. |
| Bind | On a row marked not activated: opens the licence's page, to bind a DataOrchester to it. |
| Change | Runs the DataOrchester on the licence picked beside it, from the stock. |
| Add a month | The + beside the months. Takes a month from the stock and adds it to the DataOrchester's term. |
| Give back a month | The − beside the months. Returns the last month to the stock, while it has not started. |
| Auto | Renews the DataOrchester's term from the stock before it ends. Nothing is charged. |
| Offline | Opens the DataOrchester's page at Convert to Offline. |
| Copy offline key | Copies the offline key an offline DataOrchester should run on. |
| Key actions | Opens an offline DataOrchester's page, with Replace offline key and Release. |
| On the DataOrchester's page | What it does |
|---|---|
| Bind | Binds a DataOrchester to the licence, from its DO Identifier. |
| Replace machine | Moves the licence, with its term, to another machine, from that machine's DO Identifier. |
| Convert to Offline | Switches the licence to an offline key, for a DataOrchester with no internet access. Not for a Free licence, which runs online only. |
| Replace offline key | Cuts a new offline key from a fresh DO Identifier. |
| Release | Takes the release key a DataOrchester produced and brings the licence back online. |
Each row offers only the buttons that apply to it right now: Offline on a DataOrchester online on a licence that is not Free, Copy offline key and Key actions once it is offline, months and Auto on a licence by the month, and so on. The DataOrchester ID on a row opens the DataOrchester's page, and so do Key actions and Bind; Offline opens it at Convert to Offline. Paid licences can be bought once online purchase is open; until then, contact us to buy one. The free licence can be claimed either way.
Every change acts at once, with nothing to save. Only Remove, and a Change that leaves a licence by the month, ask first: both lose the month running. A change reaches the DataOrchester within about four hours, or at once with Check for licence in its licence pane.
Two hours per start
Every start runs the engine for two hours, whatever its licence says: starting it from the site, restarting it after saving its configuration, or starting its service or container. After that it keeps running only while its licence is in force; otherwise it stops. Starting an engine its licence will not keep running tells you why, and when it will stop; the log says so too.
- An engine the licence stopped starts again by itself once a valid licence arrives: at its next licence check, from Check for licence, or when a key is registered.
- A licence that arrives while the engine still runs on the two hours of a start that loaded without one makes it load its configuration again and restart once, so everything the licence enables applies at once. An engine that loaded with its licence is never restarted this way.
Online activation
If your DataOrchester can reach the internet, nothing has to be typed into it:
- Get a licence into the stock. In the Licences panel of your organization's page, set the quantities in the To buy column — Free, months of Full or Satelite, or a permanent licence — and select Purchase. The free licence is claimed at once: it needs a confirmed email address, and there is one per person and one per organization. A paid order opens Review your order, with the price in your currency and its tax: select Pay, and once the payment is confirmed the licences are in the stock. No account yet? Create one first, with an email address and a password, or with Google or Microsoft.
- In the DataOrchester's licence pane, select Copy DO Id.
- On your organization's page, select Add a DataOrchester. Pick its licence from the stock, paste the DO Identifier and select Link. A licence by the month starts its first month now. A licence whose row reads not activated is bound from its own page instead: select Bind on its row, paste the DO Identifier and select Bind again.
- The DataOrchester collects the licence at its next check, within four hours. Select Check for licence in the licence pane to collect it now. An engine the licence stopped starts again by itself as soon as it has one, and one still running on the two hours of its start restarts once.
To install a new DataOrchester instead, select Add a DataOrchester, pick its licence and select Show install commands. The licence's page gives the commands that install DataOrchester and activate the licence at its first start, so there is nothing to paste. A licence by the month starts its first month at once.
The DataOrchester signs every request with its own key, the portal answers with a licence signed by Amtiri, and the DataOrchester verifies that signature itself before applying it. Nothing is trusted blindly, in either direction: the DO Identifier you pasted is what tells the portal which key to expect, so only that machine can collect the licence bound to it.
From then on the DataOrchester checks in when it starts and every four hours after that, and renews its licence by itself.
What a check-in sends
Each check-in is one request to dataorchester.com, over HTTPS and signed with the DataOrchester's own key. It
describes the installation, never a person:
| Sent | What it is |
|---|---|
| The install's id | The identifier derived from the DataOrchester's own key, made when it was installed |
| The licence's serial | Which licence it holds, so the portal knows whether its latest renewal arrived |
| Version and licence state | The engine version, and the state of its licence as the licence pane shows it |
| Counts | How many modules, variables, peers and dashboard panels it runs: numbers only, never their names or settings |
| The Site's address | Only when one is set, so the portal can link to the Site |
| Hardware hashes | Only on a DataOrchester bound to its hardware: hashes of the machine's UUID, the board and disk serials, the network addresses, the processor and the memory, each salted with the install's id before it leaves the machine, so the same hardware at two customers never looks alike |
Each request also carries a one-time number, the time, and the licence protocol and signing keys the engine trusts, so an old or copied request is refused.
It never sends users, passwords, the configuration, programs, dashboards, process values, logged history or files. The portal keeps the time of each check-in, the version, the state, the counts and the Site's address with the install; the privacy policy says for how long. A DataOrchester on an offline key never checks in.
Offline activation
For a DataOrchester with no route to the internet, on any licence but Free — a Free licence runs online only. Everything travels in and out as text:
- In the licence pane, select Copy DO Id, and carry the DO Identifier out.
- On your organization's page, add the DataOrchester as for online activation: Add a DataOrchester, pick a licence that is not Free, paste the DO Identifier and select Link.
- On its row, select Offline. On the DataOrchester's page that opens, paste the same DO Identifier once more and select Convert to Offline. The portal shows the offline key: a licence file issued for that DataOrchester and no other. Copy it — Copy offline key, on its row, hands it over again at any time.
- Carry the key in. In the licence pane, select Register offline, paste the key and select Register. An engine the licence stopped starts again by itself, and one still running on the two hours of its start restarts once.
Going offline is a one-way step for that licence: from then on the DataOrchester runs on its offline key and never contacts the portal, and only a release key produced on the machine brings the licence back online. Until then, its row offers no Remove and no Change, and no month can be given back: the key in the machine keeps it running whatever the portal records.
Renewing
A licence by the month runs until the expiry in its row, and the row shows the months left, the running one included:
- Add a month takes a month from the stock and moves the expiry one month later. A term that has ended starts again from now.
- Give back a month returns the last month to the stock, as long as it has not started.
- Auto renews the term from the stock: 48 hours before it ends, it takes a month of the same edition and moves the expiry one month later. It never charges a card. When the stock runs short, the DataOrchester whose term ends first is renewed first; when it is empty, nothing is taken and the term ends. The owners get a mail after each renewal, and the reminder a week before a term ends says whether the stock covers it.
A Free or permanent licence never ends, so it has no months and no Auto. Months for the stock are bought in the Licences panel, with Purchase.
Online — nothing more to do. While it can reach the portal, the DataOrchester collects each new expiry by itself and renews its licence a week at a time, and the portal confirms the licence at the check-ins in between. Without that confirmation it runs for seven days before it stops, and the licence pane warns from the second day. That holds for every edition, Free and permanent included: a DataOrchester that cannot reach the portal for longer needs an offline key, which a Free licence cannot have.
Offline — the new expiry reaches the machine in a new key:
- Select Add a month on its row, once per month. The row shows New key needed.
- Select Copy offline key on its row. It cuts one new key carrying the new expiry, from what the portal already holds, so nothing has to be fetched from the machine. The old key is superseded, and copying again hands over the same new key: three months added make one key.
- Carry it in and register it with Register new key in the licence pane.
Until the new key is registered, the machine runs on its old key, up to its expiry and the 7 days of grace after it. Auto works the same way: it moves the expiry, and its mail asks for steps 2 and 3.
When an expired licence gets new months or its payment is settled, an online DataOrchester collects it at its next check, reloads its configuration and starts by itself; Check for licence does it at once. An engine that an operator stopped stays stopped — start it again yourself.
Giving a licence back
When you retire or rebuild a machine, give its licence back so it can run another.
Online — select Remove, the − at the start of its row, and confirm. The DataOrchester leaves the organization and its licence returns to the stock: a permanent licence whole, a licence by the month with the months it had not started. The month running is lost, and the confirmation says how many months return. The DataOrchester you removed stops within about four hours, at its next licence check — or seven days after it last reached the portal, if it cannot reach it, and up to two weeks if it has not been updated. Remove it once you are done with the machine, not before. Removed the wrong one? Add it again with Add a DataOrchester and its DO Identifier, and it collects a licence again.
Offline — an air-gapped DataOrchester cannot be told anything by the portal, so its offline key stays valid whatever the portal forgets. That is why its row offers no Remove: it has to give the licence back itself.
- In the licence pane, select Release licence, then Release. From this moment the DataOrchester holds no licence, and a running engine stops at its next licence check, within four hours.
- Select Copy release key, and carry the release key out.
- In the portal, select Key actions on its row. On the DataOrchester's page, select Release, paste the release key and select Release again.
The licence stays on that DataOrchester and is online again: if the machine can reach the portal, Check for licence collects it and the engine runs on. To use the licence on another machine, select Remove on its row, or move it with Replace machine. The key given back, and any key cut for that machine before it, can no longer be registered on it.
A machine that is gone — failed, wiped or unreachable — cannot produce a release key. Tell us, and we release the licence from our side: it is free at once, and we send you a revocation to keep. If that machine ever comes back, paste the revocation into Register new key in its licence pane: the licence ends there, and the engine stops — once the two hours of its start are over, if it was started less than two hours earlier.
Replacing an offline key
Replace offline key cuts a new key from a fresh DO Identifier. You need it when:
- the DataOrchester was updated to a version that no longer trusts the key its licence was signed with — the licence pane says so; or
- its hardware changed, and the licence pane says it is running on its grace period.
- In the licence pane of that DataOrchester, select Copy DO Id.
- In the portal, select Key actions on its row. On the DataOrchester's page, select Replace offline key, paste the DO Identifier and select Replace offline key again. Copy the new key.
- In the licence pane, register it with Register offline — or with Register new key, while the DataOrchester still holds its offline licence.
A key is replaced only for the same DataOrchester, on hardware that still matches its licence closely enough. If the portal answers that the hardware no longer matches, contact us and we reissue the key for the changed machine.
Moving a licence to another machine
A licence runs one DataOrchester at a time.
- Online — select the DataOrchester ID on its row to open its page. Select Replace machine, paste the new machine's DO Identifier and select Replace machine again. The licence moves with its term: the new DataOrchester collects it by itself, and the old one stops within about four hours.
- Offline — give the licence back on the old machine first, as described above, which brings it back online. Then, on the DataOrchester's page, select Replace machine with the new machine's DO Identifier, then Convert to Offline with the same DO Identifier, and register the key on the new machine with Register offline.
To run a DataOrchester on another licence instead — another edition, or a permanent licence in place of one by the month — pick it from the stock in the Licence list of its row and select Change. A licence by the month takes one month from the stock and starts a term of one month; a permanent one takes an available permanent licence. The licence it leaves returns to the stock, as with Remove. The DataOrchester picks the new licence up within about four hours, or at once with Check for licence. Changing to Free warns when the DataOrchester last reported more than 50 variables: on Free, it would stop two hours after its next start.
Next steps
- Activating at install
- How licensing works — states, renewal and what stops an engine
- Configuration reference
- Upgrading