The licence key
Every installation of ITSM Engine has a licence key. It's free, it records who runs the desk, and the free key limits nothing.
Ask on itsmengine.com/licence → Key comes by email → Paste it in the setup wizard → First admin
- Ask for one at itsmengine.com/licence with your organization's name and an email address.
- The key comes by email.
- The setup wizard asks for it before the first admin is created.
What it is
A key looks like ITSME1.eyJ2Ijox….Qm9v…: what it says, and a signature. It names the organization and the email
address it was issued to, when, and what it entitles.
The desk checks the signature itself, with the public key it ships with:
- It never calls home. Nothing is sent anywhere to check it, so the desk works without internet access, and nobody can switch it off from outside. (An admin can turn on a daily check-in, which only informs.)
- A running desk never stops because of it. Without a key, or with one that is wrong or expired, everything keeps working; only the limits of the free key apply.
- It isn't the licence terms. Those are the public licence in the repository; the key records who runs this desk.
What it entitles
A key can say which plugins may be turned on, and how many staff users may be active.
[!NOTE] The free key says every plugin and any number of staff users, with no end date, so nothing is limited.
Should a key ever have limits, they work like this:
| Limit | How it works |
|---|---|
| Staff users | Everyone under Settings → Users who isn't disabled, invited people included. Contacts, requesters and portal users never count. At the limit, inviting someone or enabling a disabled user is refused, with a message saying why; disabling someone frees their place. |
| Plugins | Plugins the key doesn't list can't be turned on. A plugin that is already on stays on and keeps working. |
Two rules always hold:
- Nothing is ever taken away: a smaller key on a bigger desk, or an expired key, turns nothing off, locks nobody out and hides no data. Settings → Installation says what is over the licence.
- Work is never limited: cases, incidents, problems and changes are created whatever the key says.
Settings → Installation
Licence shows who the key names, the plugins and staff users it allows (and how many are active), when it was issued and its id. Replace key… takes a new key, checks it first and records the change in the audit log ("Replaced the licence key").
To keep the key with the rest of your configuration, set LICENSE_KEY in the environment instead; the desk then shows
it as set there, and it is changed only there.
The daily check-in
Off unless an admin turns it on: Settings → Installation, Licence, Check in once a day (or
LICENSE_CHECK_IN=true).
| Part | Details |
|---|---|
| What is sent | Once a day, a fingerprint of the key (its SHA-256) and the version the desk runs. |
| What is never sent | Nothing about your organization's cases, people or settings. |
| What the answer says | Whether the key is still the one to use. If it was replaced by a newer key or withdrawn, the Licence card says so, so you know to add the new one. |
[!NOTE] That's all it does: whatever the answer, and whether or not the service answers, nothing in the desk changes, stops or is limited.
Lost your key?
Ask for it again on itsmengine.com/licence with the same email address. The key in a running desk is also under Settings → Installation (its id), and in your backups of the database.