What happens when a license expires?

[jgruwell]

What happens when a perpetual enterprise license expires? Does Splunk just nag you about the license or does it stop working?

[jgruwell · Accepted solution]

So I got a response from Splunk support that clarifies things a little. The license itself is perpetual but the support is not and that is what will be expiring. The way the GUI represents it leads you to belive the license is expiring but it is really just the support for it that expires.

[dwaddle]

I just checked ours, and our "perpetual" license has a 2038 expiration date.

[jgruwell]

jbsplunk,

My company has decided to replace Splunk with another product so getting a new license isn't an option. I am just trying to determine if Splunk will cut us off completely like some products do or if it will just nag us that the license is expired. I wish there was better documentation on what an expiring license means to the functionality of the product.

[jbsplunk]

You'll need to use another enterprise license, or switch to the free one:

http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Admin/MoreaboutSplunkFree

[jgruwell]

jbsplunk,

Mine says it expires in about one month so I am trying to figure out how that is going to impact Splunk.

[jbsplunk]

I think Splunk perpetual licenses aren't actually perpetual, but they don't expire for a really long time, until 2038, iirc.

[jgruwell]

dwaddle,

I was wondering the same thing! The license says that it is perpetual but then it also has an expiration date. So this has me curious what will happen when the expiration date comes.

[tympaniplayer]

I was wondering that too!

[dwaddle]

The concept of an expiring "perpetual" license is somehow very confusing to me. How can you have something that is both perpetual, and expiring?

[jbsplunk]

A dialog comes up that forces you to enter new license information.

[jbsplunk]

You'll be forced to enter a new license. You can't do anything else.

[jgruwell]

How does it impact the functionality of Splunk? Can you just bypass that and continue or does it keep you stuck there until you enter a new license?