License enforcement and usage reporting

F5 AI Gateway requires a license to run. AI Gateway periodically reports usage data to a F5 service over the internet.

Get the license

Download the license from MyF5. A license is a JSON Web token (JWT).

  1. Log in to MyF5.

  2. Go to My Products & Plans > Subscriptions to see your active subscriptions.

  3. Find the subscription under which you licensed AI Gateway, and select the Subscription ID for details.

  4. Download the JSON Web Token from the subscription page.

Use the license

Use the license according to the instructions in Run on Kubernetes documentation.

How enforcement and reporting works

  1. Initialization:

    1. Upon startup, AI Gateway reads the license from the F5_LICENSE env variable.

    2. If the license is invalid or not provided, AI Gateway will fail to start.

  2. Periodic checks – every hour, AI Gateway performs the following actions:

    1. License expiration check:

      1. Checks the expiration of the license.

      2. Logs a warning if the license is nearing expiration and an error if it is expired.

    2. Connect to the F5 service to report the usage data and verify the license:

      1. AI Gateway sends usage data along with the license.

      2. If AI Gateway can’t connect the F5 service, or the F5 service fails to verify the license:

        • AI Gateway logs an error immediately.

        • If the problem persists for seven days, it logs an error message every minute.

        • If the problem persists for thirty days, it continues logging an error message every minute and stops accepting new client requests.

What usage data is sent to F5?

AI Gateway sends an integer value representing the number of requests processed for billing purposes.