Apply a license in Chef Infra Client

This document outlines the licensing requirements and enforcement policies for Chef Infra Client 19.

Licensing requirements

Chef Infra Client 19 has different licensing requirements depending on the distribution you download.

No license enforcement

Chef Infra Client doesn’t require a license to run if you download an official distribution.

This includes:

Downloading Infra Client from the customer portal.
Installing the Infra Client Habitat package.
Installing Infra Client using the migration tool or native installer.

License required

You need a license key to run Chef Infra Client when you:

Download it from unofficial sources (public Ruby gem).
Use runtime installations and workflows.

Add a license

You can set a license in Chef Infra Client 19 using one of three methods:

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

If you set a license key, Chef Infra Client validates it with Progress Chef’s licensing service.

Environment variable

To set the license key, add the CHEF_LICENSE_KEY environment variable:

export CHEF_LICENSE_KEY=<LICENSE_KEY>

Command line option

To set the license key, use the --chef-license-key CLI option:

chef-client --chef-license-key=<LICENSE_KEY>

Interactive license dialog

If you run a chef-client command and choose to set a license, Chef Infra Client can start 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
```
This 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.

Next step

After installing Chef Infra Client and adding a license, you can test it by running an example cookbook.