# License clarification **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Tags:** license\ **Created:** [August 14, 2024, 9:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/license-clarification/364934 "2024-08-14T21:34:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elastic\_noob1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/elastic_noob1/32/125492_2.png) [@elastic\_noob1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elastic_noob1)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2024, 9:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/license-clarification/364934/1 "2024-08-14T21:34:03Z")
We have a platinum license that will expire in Oct 2024. We are running 6.8 and plan to upgrade to 7.17. This upgrade will be a 2 step process: 6.8 \> 7.3 \> 7.17 I upgraded from 6.8 to 7.3 with the platinum license. I deleted the license using `curl -X DELETE "localhost:9200/_license?pretty"` and now I see this on the node: ```auto [2024-08-14T21:13:20,816][INFO][o.e.l.LicenseService] [usw2c-e62feb63-es-search-monitoring-eap-master-sre] license [TOMBSTONE] mode [trial] - valid [2024-08-14T21:13:20,835][WARN][o.e.l.LicenseService] [usw2c-e62feb63-es-search-monitoring-eap-master-sre] LICENSE [EXPIRED] ON [THURSDAY, JANUARY 01, 1970]. # IF YOU HAVE A NEW LICENSE, PLEASE UPDATE IT. OTHERWISE, PLEASE REACH OUT TO # YOUR SUPPORT CONTACT. # # COMMERCIAL PLUGINS OPERATING WITH REDUCED FUNCTIONALITY # - security # - Cluster health, cluster stats and indices stats operations are blocked # - All data operations (read and write) continue to work # - watcher # - PUT / GET watch APIs are disabled, DELETE watch API continues to work # - Watches execute and write to the history # - The actions of the watches don't execute # - monitoring # - The agent will stop collecting cluster and indices metrics # - The agent will stop automatically cleaning indices older than [xpack.monitoring.history.duration] # - graph # - Graph explore APIs are disabled # - ml # - Machine learning APIs are disabled # - logstash # - Logstash will continue to poll centrally-managed pipelines # - beats # - Beats will continue to poll centrally-managed configuration # - deprecation # - Deprecation APIs are disabled # - upgrade # - Upgrade API is disabled # - sql # - SQL support is disabled # - rollup # - Creating and Starting rollup jobs will no longer be allowed. # - Stopping/Deleting existing jobs, RollupCaps API and RollupSearch continue to function. [2024-08-14T21:13:20,852][INFO][o.e.h.AbstractHttpServerTransport] [usw2c-e62feb63-es-search-monitoring-eap-master-sre] publish_address {10.27.2.18:9200}, bound_addresses {[::]:9200} [2024-08-14T21:13:20,852][INFO][o.e.n.Node] [usw2c-e62feb63-es-search-monitoring-eap-master-sre] started ``` My understanding is it should have fallen back to free/basic license instead of tombstone per [this](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/45022) change but the license is empty: ```auto # curl -k http://localhost:9200/_license { } ``` I am trying to understand how the license would work. If I upgrade my clusters all the way to 7.17, what happens when the platinum license expires? Should it by default fall back to free & cause no interruptions(assuming I am not using the licensed features) or is there a manual step to make sure the license changes to free? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![elastic\_noob1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/elastic_noob1/32/125492_2.png) [@elastic\_noob1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elastic_noob1)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2024, 9:41pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/license-clarification/364934/2 "2024-08-14T21:41:18Z")
Added #license ---
**Author:** ![TimV](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/timv/32/13162_2.png) [@TimV](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/TimV)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2024, 11:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/license-clarification/364934/3 "2024-08-14T23:29:48Z")
GitHub is down at the moment, but as far as I can tell the issue you link to was a change in 7.7.0 There's no reason to expect 7.3 to display the behaviour you're asking about. > [@elastic\_noob1](#): > > This upgrade will be a 2 step process: 6.8 \> 7.3 \> 7.17 Why? What do you hope to achieve by going via v7.3 ? ---
**Author:** ![elastic\_noob1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/elastic_noob1/32/125492_2.png) [@elastic\_noob1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elastic_noob1)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/license-clarification/364934/4 "2024-08-14T23:55:04Z")
Client upgrades are handled by a different team and that is the path they insist on taking. So if I goto 7.17 and my license expires, it should default to Free and I should not see the logs related to licensing? ---
**Author:** ![TimV](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/timv/32/13162_2.png) [@TimV](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/TimV)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2024, 4:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/license-clarification/364934/5 "2024-08-15T04:12:51Z")
> [@elastic\_noob1](#): > > So if I goto 7.17 and my license expires, it should default to Free and I should not see the logs related to licensing? No. If you let the license expire then you will have an expired license rather than a free license. If you want to downgrade to a free license, then you should call the [Start Basic License API](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/start-basic.html) ---
**Author:** ![elastic\_noob1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/elastic_noob1/32/125492_2.png) [@elastic\_noob1](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/elastic_noob1)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2024, 8:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/license-clarification/364934/6 "2024-08-15T20:14:22Z")
thank you! That was helpful 🙂