Licensing

Using the library requires a license and a license key. This article first describes different types of licenses, followed by License Key Location details and other technical information.

Please also see the Software License Agreement.

Free Trial License

To evaluate actionETL, please request a free 30-day trial license.

All developers of software that uses the actionETL library require a Developer license.

Executing software that uses the actionETL library for production, quality assurance, test (on a test server), or other purposes that are not developing activities requires an Execution license.

Pure build servers that never test or execute software that uses the actionETL library do not require a license.

Developer License

A Developer license:

  • Is tied to one named developer, and the license key is tied to the domain/computer account of the developer
  • Gives the developer the right to:
    • Use the actionETL library for development purposes (including debugging and execution) on an unlimited number of computers (but only on one computer at a time)
    • Contact support and get help with issues, as described in the support documentation

Execution License

An Execution license:

  • Is tied to one named computer and/or one named domain/computer account
  • Provides the right for the computer and/or domain/computer account to execute software that uses the actionETL library
  • Does not allow performing development activities

There are three types of Execution licenses:

  • Execution Node Account License
    • Allows a single named domain/computer account to execute actionETL applications on a single named computer
  • Execution Node License
    • Allows any domain/computer account to execute (including simultaneously) actionETL applications on a single named computer
  • Execution Account License
    • Allows a single named domain/computer account to execute actionETL applications on any computer (including simultaneously)
Note

If using a Node license on a virtual machine, it’s the virtual machine that is licensed, not the underlying physical computer.

Account and Node Licenses

Each Trial, Developer, and in some cases Execution license is tied to one named Account, i.e. the computer login account that runs the actionETL application.

You provide the account name (without any domain part) to envobi to generate the license. When logged in to the target account, you can get the account name by executing the command (on either Windows or Linux):

whoami

Execution licenses can be Node locked, i.e. tied to one or more named computers. The node name is the DNS hostname (without the domain parts), or the NetBIOS name if the computer is not part of a domain.

To get the node name, execute on the target computer or virtual machine:

In PowerShell:

[System.Net.Dns]::GetHostName()
Note

You can also execute an actionETL application without a license to get the exact account and node names. Check the start of the log file, which includes a line with:

... System.Environment | HostName='MyHostName' UserName='MyAccountName' ...

License Level

Licenses are either Standard or Pro, where Standard has some limitations and fewer features. To use Pro features, both the Developer license used and the Execution license used must be of the Pro level.

Trial licenses are Pro level.

Standard licenses have the below limitations.

Max Distinct Worker Types

actionETL tracks how many distinct worker types are created in each worker system invocation, and limits the Standard license to 50 distinct worker types. As a rule of thumb, this allows the Standard license to run worker systems of low and medium complexity, but typically not of high complexity.

The limit only applies within each worker system. Multiple worker systems within one application, as well as multiple applications, can be created to partially work around this limit. This can however be inconvenient, in which case an unlimited Pro license is a better choice.

  • Each worker type, including generics, count as a distinct type, e.g. CopyFileWorker, XlsxSource<Product>, and XlsxSource<Sales> would count as three types. The same applies to any user custom worker type.
  • Each worker type, e.g. CopyFileWorker, is only counted once per worker system, and can be created an unlimited number of times.
    • The same set of worker types can therefore be created and run an unlimited number of times, e.g. processing millions of files.
  • The number of worker types used is logged at the end of each worker system invocation e.g.: "WorkerTypesUsed=7"

This example for instance creates 13 workers, but for licensing purposes this only counts as 7 distinct worker types, since some worker types are used multiple times.

Port Pass-through Dataflow Workers

All licenses allow creating custom reusable (parent) workers by composing (i.e. combining) existing (dataflow and non-dataflow child) workers. See e.g. the Custom SCD Worker example.

Unlike Standard licenses, Pro licenses furthermore allow using port pass-through dataflow workers. This enables creating custom reusable dataflow (parent) workers that have dataflow inputs and/or outputs, and have their dataflow child workers implement the actual dataflow processing (as opposed to having to re-implement the dataflow processing of existing dataflow workers).

This feature is both powerful and useful, see Custom Dataflow Pass-through Workers for details.

The smallest setup would have:

  • One Developer Standard license
  • One Execution Node Account Standard license

A medium sized setup might have:

  • Three Developer Standard licenses
  • Two Execution Node Account Standard licenses (e.g. test and production server)

A larger setup might have:

  • Five Developer Standard licenses
  • Two Execution Account Standard licenses (unlimited execution computers with distinct accounts e.g. test and production)

All of the above setups could have Pro licenses instead of Standard.

Note that from a license cost perspective, compared to an Execution Node Account license:

  • The more distinct accounts you need to execute the applications on the same computer, the more advantageous the Execution Node license becomes
  • The more computers you need to execute the applications on using the same account, the more advantageous the Execution Account license becomes

License Key Location

By default, actionETL applications look for a license file named "actionetl.license.json" in the BaseDirectory, which is normally the same directory as the executable.

Alternatively, set either or both of the following license configuration settings which will be processed in the below order; if these explicit license locations contain any license, then the default location will not be automatically read:

  • LicenseText - Verbatim license text. This allows the application to read the license text by any arbitrary means, using it to set this configuration.

  • LicenseFileNames - Semi colon separated list of license (absolute or relative) file names.

Important

Setting a non-default license location must be done before the worker system is created, i.e. using option 1 or 2 in AConfig Configuration Facility.

License Expiration

The expiration is defined by the license "expiration" and "endDate" fields.

Perpetual License

Each release has a version number that generally follows NuGet with SemVer 2.0 standards, i.e. a "Major.Minor.Patch[-Prerelease]" version, e.g. "1.13.0" or "1.14.0-beta.1", where "Major" increments on breaking changes, "Minor" increments on backward compatible new features, and "Patch" increments on backward compatible bug fixes.

Each initial (non-pre-release) "Minor" release (i.e. version X.Y.0) defines the MinorVersionReleaseDate, a date that remains unchanged for new "Patch" releases until the "Minor" or "Major" version is incremented.

For licenses with an active support subscription, you may use any available release, including new “Major” and “Minor” versions released after your license purchase.

Paid licenses are perpetual, and are valid indefinitely for any release with a MinorVersionReleaseDate not greater than the end date of your last active support subscription for the license. This includes any “Patch” releases where the “Major” and “Minor” versions have not changed since the end date of your support subscription.

For instance, a new perpetual license with an "endDate" one year in the future allows running any (including any new "Major" and "Minor") actionETL versions released within one year, as well as any later "Patch" releases that still have a MinorVersionReleaseDate not greater than the license "endDate". The license never expires, but doesn't support "Minor" or "Major" releases released after "endDate". To use these even newer releases, a new license is required, normally received via a support subscription.

Note

Big advantages of this approach include:

  • An existing commercial license running an existing actionETL version will never expire - it's only when upgrading to a newer "Major" or "Minor" version that the license could potentially become invalid.
  • Even if you let your support subscription lapse, you will still get access to any later "Patch" releases of your existing "Minor" version.

TimeLimited License

Trial and Beta licenses are TimeLimited, where the license is valid (for any contemporary or older actionETL version) up to and including the "endDate", and invalid after that date.

License Content

Here is a sample license file, with two Perpetual Standard licenses for the "stewartp" and "sqlprod" named accounts, and two TimeLimited Pro Trial licenses for the "nickc" named account and the "sqlprod02" server. In this way, multiple license files and groups can be combined in a single file by adding the individual license group JSON objects to the top level "licenseGroups" JSON array. Note that otherwise the only user editable properties are the "comment" properties, which can be added and used for e.g. contact details. 

{
  "licenseGroups": [
    {
      "comment": "Comment, can be modified.",
      "watermark": "ACME Inc",
      "id": "EAAAA",
      "licenses": [
        {
          "comment": "Comment, can be modified.",
          "id": "EAAAA-AAADS-AZZIE",
          "product": "actionETL Developer Standard",
          "expiration": "Perpetual",
          "endDate": "2021-07-20",
          "account": "stewartp"
          "description": "Stewart Pendragon"
        },
        {
          "id": "EAAAA-ABAES-AZZRS",
          "product": "actionETL Execution Standard",
          "expiration": "Perpetual",
          "endDate": "2021-07-20",
          "account": "sqlprod"
          "description": "SQL production"
        }
      ],
      "signature": "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"
    },
    {
      "id": "EAAAB",
      "watermark": "ACME Inc Trial",
      "licenses": [
        {
          "comment": "Comment, can be modified.",
          "id": "EAAAB-AAADP-AZZIBB",
          "product": "actionETL Developer Pro Trial",
          "expiration": "TimeLimited",
          "endDate": "2020-03-25",
          "account": "nickc"
          "description": "Nick Carter"
        },
        {
          "id": "EAAAA-ABAES-AZZRS",
          "product": "actionETL Execution Pro Trial",
          "expiration": "TimeLimited",
          "endDate": "2020-03-25",
          "node": "sqlprod02"
          "description": "SQL production server"
        }
      ],
      "signature": "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"
    }
  ]
}

See Also