How do Licenses work with dev boxes and migration

[joe32jk3]

Hello. I'm hoping someone can answer a simple question that no one on my team seems to know and Looker Sales has even ghosted me over:

We are trying to move 3 looker boxes (DEV, QA, PROD) from AWS account to another account (their LZA accounts).  We have 4 licenses total. We have licenses for dev users and viewer users yes, but I'm told we have 4 licenses for the three 3 boxes above plus a TEST box.  We are on standard or enterprise license I believe (definitely the self-hosted version).

To aid in this move we'd like to either create a two boxes for one license that straddles two environments as we move (these boxes would have 'viewer users').  I've been told multiple times that this is not allowed with the license.  A few more questions:

1. Are we allowed to create a DEV box (no 'viewer users', only 1 dev setting things up; this is not a 'production).  And NOT use up a license? 

2. How does looker prevent this (#1).  I was able to setup said 'temp' dev box and yes it did ask for a license but it never asked to de-license another machine as would be seen in other products (unraid, protools, the list goes on in the hundreds).   Reading the pricing information it looks like every time I create a new machine using our license we are billed extra?

3. If Looker automatically bills every time I create a machine using our license, then how do I remove that machine from our additional charges going forward (after I created it)? I want to quickly prevent additional charges after standing up a test box if that is what's happening. 

4. I assume it's prorated by the year?  I'd hate if I set up this test box trying things out (which I did) and it charged us a 'platform' for a year.

5. I know everyone's pricing is different, but how would I know how much this additional temp box would cost? It has no 'viewer users', maybe only 1 dev. I don't have access to our contracts or pricing information. What should I ask of those who do have this information? Is the cost of this additional box the 'platform cost' + plus the '1 developer user' cost?  
 

[a_aleinikov]

Hi @joe32jk3 ,

Here what I think:

1. DEV boxes need a license. Even with just 1 developer and no viewer users, Looker still requires a license for every environment (DEV, QA, PROD, TEST).

2. License control: Looker licenses are tied to the server instance. You can spin up a temp box, but it will ask for a license key — and yes, you need to track/disable old boxes manually to avoid extra charges.

3. Removing machines: To avoid charges, decommission or shut down the temp instance and contact Looker Support or your account manager to inform them, so it’s cleared from billing.

4. Billing cycle: Typically, licenses are annual (not prorated monthly), so adding a temp box may result in a full-year charge — check your contract.

5. Pricing details: You should ask your contract owner or Looker admin for:

   • Platform base cost

   • Per-user (developer/viewer) cost

   • Whether temp/test environments count toward your license total