Knox SDK frequently asked questions — Licensing

Although the process varies between SDKs, the main steps are:

1. Obtain a license key.
2. Prepare your app with the necessary license key handling logic.
3. Activate the license key.

For implementation details, see About licenses.

The KPE Premium license key is a paid commercial key that provides access to Premium and Standard app permissions from Knox. It allows you to use premium Knox features in commercial deployments of your apps, such as ProKiosk mode, Network Platform Analytics, and certificate management.

It is a commercial key that you need to use in conjunction with the Knox Platform for Enterprise (KPE) key on devices running Knox v2.7.1 or lower. You can generate a single backwards compatibility key to use with multiple KPE keys.

If you want to use the KPE key, you need to do two things:

• Activate the KPE key by calling the API method KnoxEnterpriseLicenseManager.activateLicense. This asks for permission to use API methods from select SDKs.

• Activate the backwards compatible key by calling the API method EnterpriseLicenseManager.activateLicense. This sends the request to a Samsung License Server. The backwards compatible key itself has no permissions.

The order in which you activate the KPE key and backwards compatible key does not matter.

You need to activate a backwards compatible key in the following cases:

KLM On-Premises

• BCK is not required if your:

  • device’s Knox version is 2.8 or higher

  • KLM On-Premises version is 2.3 or higher

  • license key is new (issued in 2020 or after)

• For all the other cases, BCK is required.

For more information on license activation, see Activate a license.

No, you do not need to associate your app with a backwards compatible key.

Please refer to the table below for an explanation of how license key names have changed over time:

In August 2017, the new Knox Platform for Enterprise (KPE) license replaced both the:

• Enterprise License Management (ELM) license — This license grants apps the permissions to call APIs for free Knox features. ELM keys will undergo an End-of-Service, as described in When is the ELM license service terminated? and must be replaced, as described in What should I do if I want to service my app which uses an ELM license? by December 2021.

• Knox License Management (KLM) license — This license grants apps the permissions to call APIs for paid Knox features. KLM keys will continue to work indefinitely; however, you can no longer get new license keys. To increase the number of paid activations on your existing KLM license, you must contact Samsung directly and cannot go through a Knox License reseller.

We highly recommend you to switch to the new KPE Premium license key, which offers greater flexibility in terms of:

• generating new development keys through the Knox Partner Portal Generating KPE Premium key
• purchasing additional license activations through Knox License resellers

Assuming that you have not hardcoded the KLM key into your app, you should not need to modify your app code. You just need to update your key values, for example, on a back-end web server or cloud storage service. Replace the:

• ELM key with a Backwards Compatible Key, which gets passed to the existing API method EnterpriseLicenseManager.activateLicense

• KLM key with a KPE key, which gets passed to the existing API method KnoxEnterpriseLicenseManager.activateLicense

For more detail, see About licenses, Get a license, Activate a license, and Declare Knox permissions. See also: What should I do if I want to service my app which uses an ELM license?

Existing ELM license keys are reaching End-of-Service. For more info, see:

• When is the ELM key service terminated?
• What should I do if I want to service my app which uses an ELM license?
• What is happening to existing KLM license keys?

1. Any KPE license key

   You can use KPE license keys by themselves if your devices are running Knox 2.8 or higher.

2. Backwards compatible key + any KPE license key (KPE Development, KPE Standard, KPE Premium)

   A single backwards compatible key may be activated with multiple KPE license keys.

   Note that the backwards compatible key is required with the Knox Tizen SDK for Wearables and with the Knox SDK on devices running Knox 2.7.1 or lower.

3. ELM + Any KPE license key

   The legacy Enterprise License (ELM) may be activated alongside any KPE license key (KPE Development, KPE Standard, KPE Premium). It supports all devices.

4. ELM + KLM

   Only possible if you have existing ELM and KLM keys to activate.

By design, licenses are periodically and automatically revalidated. However, in certain cases (for example, if a device is offline for an extended period of time), automatic revalidation does not occur.

If a previously activated license is not validated for 180 days, the license assignment will be automatically released. Automatic license assignment release is not applied to licenses with unlimited assignments (Knox Platform for Enterprise Standard license and Knox Platform for Enterprise Premium license).

Permissions are the rights to use specific features of a Knox product. For a full list, see License permissions.

Standard permissions allow your app to use a number of management and security features on Samsung devices. They are granted through free license keys: the KPE Development or KPE Standard keys. Both of these keys are generated through your KPP dashboard.

Premium permissions allow your app to use a wide range of advanced device control features, in addition to all of the Standard permissions. Premium permissions are granted through the paid KPE Premium license key purchased via Knox Resellers, as well as through the KPE Development key generated by KPP. Note that the Premium permissions granted through the KPE Development key do not apply to commercial deployments.

1. Look up which permissions you need on License permissions.

2. Declare the permissions in your application’s manifest file. See Declare Knox permissions for more information.