Apply a license in Chef Infra Client

This document outlines the licensing requirements and enforcement policies for Chef Infra Client.

Depending on the distribution you download and install, you may have to add a license key to run Chef Infra Client. You must also accept the Chef End User License Agreement (Chef EULA) when you first run Chef Infra Client.

Licensing requirements

Chef Infra Client has different licensing requirements depending on the distribution you download.

License required

License key requirements are enforced:

At the point of download for the binaries from Progress Chef Download Portal or through Habitat package distribution.
At first run when using runtime installations and workflows, if the binaries are from the Chef API.
For Chef software from any other sources not listed above, such as public Ruby gems or channels outside of the official Habitat distribution and download portal.

No license key requirement

Chef Infra Client doesn’t require a license key to:

Use runtime installations and workflows when using your own source to download binaries.
Execute any non-download commands using software obtained from an official source.

Add a license

Chef Infra Client has three ways to set a license:

An environment variable
A command line option
The command line interactive dialog

After setting a license key, Chef Infra Client validates it with Progress Chef’s licensing service.

Environment variable

You can set the license key by setting the CHEF_LICENSE_KEY environment variable:
```
export CHEF_LICENSE_KEY=<LICENSE_KEY>
```

Command line option

You can set the license key using the --chef-license-key CLI option:
```
chef-client --chef-license-key=<LICENSE_KEY>
```

Interactive license dialog

If you run a chef-client command and a license key isn’t already set, Chef Infra Client starts an interactive licensing dialog.

To set a license key with the CLI interactive dialog, follow these steps:

Verify the version of Chef Infra Client you have installed:
```
chef-client --version
```
It should return version 19.0.54 or greater for Infra Client RC 1.
Run chef-client in local mode and why-run mode:
```
chef-client --local-mode --why-run
```
Local mode runs Chef Infra Client on your local machine as if it were running against Chef Infra Server. why-run mode shows you what Chef Infra Client would configure during a Chef Infra Client run.

At the first prompt, select I already have a license ID.

Please choose one of the options below (Press ↑/↓ arrow to move and Enter to select)
‣ I already have a license ID
  I don't have a license ID and would like to generate a new license ID
  Skip

Enter your license key at the second prompt.
```
Please enter your license ID:  <LICENSE_KEY>
✔ [Success] License validated successfully.
```
After entering the license key, Chef Infra Client verifies your license and the run completes.

Accept the End User License Agreement

When you first run Chef Infra Client, you must accept the End User License Agreement (EULA).

Chef Infra Client accepts a license using a command line option, environment variable, or config file.

Options

Chef Infra Client accepts the following license acceptance options:

accept: Accept the license and attempts to persist a marker file locally. Persisting these marker files means future invocations don’t require accepting the license again.
accept-silent: Similar to accept, but no messaging is sent to STDOUT.
accept-no-persist: Similar to accept-silent, but no marker file is persisted. Future invocations will require accepting the license again.

Command line option

To accept the Chef License, run chef-client with the --chef-license option:

chef-client --chef-license <LICENSE_OPTION>

Environment variable

To accept the Chef License, set the CHEF_LICENSE environment variable:

export CHEF_LICENSE="<LICENSE_OPTION>"
chef-client OPTION VALUE

Config file

You can accept the Chef License in the Chef Infra Client or Knife config files.

On a workstation, set this in the ~/.chef/config.rb or ~/.chef/knife.rb files. On a node, set this in the /etc/chef/client.rb file.

chef_license "<LICENSE_OPTION>"