Support and licensing
Clustron Zaris is free to build with and includes a support window. Running it in production is licensed. This article explains what's free, what needs a licence, and how the web console's support window behaves.
What's free
- Downloading Zaris and building with it — the client SDK, in-process mode, and every API.
- The full data plane and coordination primitives — key-value, locks, leases, counters, watch, transactions — plus replication and failover.
- PowerShell administration — create, start, stop, and scale stores; configure security and TLS.
- Three months of included support for each deployment.
What needs a support licence
- Production use. Per the licence in the source, production use requires a commercial support licence.
- Continued support — SLAs and direct access to the team — after the included three months. See Support plans.
- The web console after the support window ends (below).
The support window and the web console
Each deployment includes three months of support, tracked from its first run. During the window the console shows a quiet countdown chip in its top bar. After the window ends — unless a valid support key is set — the web console locks to a licence screen. Locking only the console is a courtesy: production use of Zaris requires a commercial licence regardless, and that licence covers the whole product, not just the console.
This is a soft gate on an operator convenience. It never touches:
- the data plane — reads, writes, and coordination keep serving,
- replication and failover,
- PowerShell administration.
A production cluster keeps running exactly as before; only the console UI is gated until you have a support licence.
Configure it
Everything is configurable through environment variables (which win) or configuration:
| Setting | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
ZARIS_SUPPORT_WINDOW_DAYS | 90 | Length of the included support window, in days. |
ZARIS_SUPPORT_KEY | — | The signed licence token issued with your plan. A production key fully enables the console (Licensed); a free development key enables it flagged as non-production. |
To re-enable the console after the window ends, set ZARIS_SUPPORT_KEY to the token issued with your licence and restart the console.
The support key is a cryptographically signed token, not an arbitrary value — it is signed by Clustron's private key and verified offline by the console against a built-in public key, so it needs no internet connection and cannot be guessed, edited, or forged. Each token is issued to your organization and can carry an expiry. The first-run date is likewise recorded in a tamper-evident marker, so the window can't be reset by editing it.
Non-production / evaluation. There is no self-set bypass flag. If you need the console past the included window for development, evaluation, or CI, ask us for a free development key — it's the same kind of signed token, issued at no cost, and shows the console as non-production. Email sales@clustron.io.
(Zaris is source-available, so this is a soft gate meant to prompt a licensing conversation, not a hard DRM scheme.)
Get a licence or support
To buy a production support licence — or to talk through which plan fits — see Support plans or email sales@clustron.io. If you already have a plan and need help, reach the team at support@clustron.io.