Add a License Key to Redpanda Console

To enable enterprise features for Redpanda Console, you must have an Enterprise Edition license to load at startup. This guide explains how to configure Redpanda Console to load the license key from its local configuration.

This option is best for deployments that are not connected to a Redpanda cluster. If you plan to connect Redpanda Console to a Redpanda cluster, consider uploading the license to the Redpanda cluster. See Add an Enterprise Edition License to Redpanda Console.

Prerequisites

You must have an Enterprise Edition license. To get a trial license key or extend your trial period, generate a new trial license key. To purchase a license, contact Redpanda Sales.

If Redpanda Console has enterprise features enabled and cannot find a valid license locally or in the connected Redpanda cluster, it shuts down. See Redpanda Licenses and Enterprise Features.

Add a new license to Redpanda Console

To add a new license to Redpanda Console, you have two options:

Use a license file

  • Standalone

  • Kubernetes embedded

  • Kubernetes standalone

Set the licenseFilepath property in the /etc/redpanda/redpanda-console-config.yaml configuration file:

licenseFilepath: <path-to-license-file>

Or set the REDPANDA_LICENSE_FILEPATH environment variable:

export REDPANDA_LICENSE_FILEPATH=<path-to-license-file>

By default, when deploying Redpanda Console with the Redpanda Operator or Redpanda Helm chart, Redpanda Console inherits the license provided to Redpanda in enterprise.license or enterprise.licenseSecretRef. See Add an Enterprise Edition License to Redpanda in Kubernetes for details.

You cannot override the inherited license.

For production deployments, the safest and most secure way to provide your license is to store it in a Kubernetes Secret and reference it using enterprise.licenseSecretRef in your values.yaml. This keeps sensitive license data out of your Helm values and version control. Example:

enterprise:
  licenseSecretRef:
    name: <your-license-secret-name>
    key: <your-license-key-field>

Alternatively, you can set the license directly in your Helm values using console.config.license or console.config.licenseFilepath, or with environment variables, but these methods are less secure for production environments.

console:
  extraEnv:
    - name: REDPANDA_LICENSE
      value: <license-key-contents>

Apply with:

helm upgrade --install redpanda-console redpanda/console -f console-values.yaml

Use the license key contents directly

If you don’t want to provide a path to the license file, you can use the contents of the license key directly.

  • Standalone

  • Kubernetes embedded

  • Kubernetes standalone

Set the license property in the /etc/redpanda/redpanda-console-config.yaml configuration file:

license: <license-key-contents>

Or set the REDPANDA_LICENSE environment variable:

export REDPANDA_LICENSE=<license-key-contents>

By default, when deploying Redpanda Console with the Redpanda Operator or Redpanda Helm chart, Redpanda Console inherits the license provided to Redpanda in enterprise.license or enterprise.licenseSecretRef. See Add an Enterprise Edition License to Redpanda in Kubernetes for details.

You cannot override the inherited license.

For production deployments, the safest and most secure way to provide your license is to store it in a Kubernetes Secret and reference it using enterprise.licenseSecretRef in your values.yaml. This keeps sensitive license data out of your Helm values and version control. Example:

enterprise:
  licenseSecretRef:
    name: <your-license-secret-name>
    key: <your-license-key-field>

Alternatively, you can set the license directly in your Helm values using console.config.license or console.config.licenseFilepath, or with environment variables, but these methods are less secure for production environments.

console:
  extraEnv:
    - name: REDPANDA_LICENSE
      value: <license-key-contents>

Apply with:

helm upgrade --install redpanda-console redpanda/console -f console-values.yaml

Update an existing license

To update an existing license:

  1. Update your configuration file or environment variables with one of the following:

  2. Restart Redpanda Console to make the changes take effect.

Next steps

Check the Status of Licenses.

Suggested reading