When a database is installed as part of a product within a premise, it is possible that the end user may modify the schema. This can pose a challenge in terms of ensuring data integrity and security. Therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of the terms and conditions of the timescale agreement regarding schema modifications.
The question arises as to whether it is acceptable for an end user to modify the schema within the premises as a part of timescale license policy? If it is not acceptable, then how can we prevent them from doing so? As an end user they may find admin credentials, then how do we manage such a situation?
Hi @Mohammed_Iliyas_pate, I think you can use the proper permissions to grant or revoke users for modifying the schema.
The main intention of the license is to avoid other cloud providers to resell the extension as a service. If your business is not a cloud service trying to rent timescaledb instances as a service, probably you’re fine.
If you can share any insights about how you operate your business, we can easily check if we have a conflict of interest.
Thank you @jonatasdp for your quick response.
As an industrial automation firm, our application stores its data in a TimescaleDB database, which is a time-series database that can efficiently store and query large amounts of data over time. This database is located on the customer’s premises.
Although you may currently restrict user access to the database, and provide clear documentation and licensing guidelines, there is always a chance that the customer may obtain admin credentials during future maintenance work and modify the database schema.
Problem:
Question 1: This could pose a risk to the operation if the changes were made without proper knowledge of the database schema. For example, if the customer were to modify the structure of a table that the device relied on, it could cause errors or data corruption.
Question 2: Is there any license/clause within TimescaleDB Licensing that restrict our product consumers from modifying schema at their premises?
Question 3: Is this agreement sufficient to add along with our guidelines? TimescaleDB License Agreement | Timescale
Hi @Mohammed_Iliyas_pate , you’re welcome!
there is always a chance that the customer may obtain admin credentials during future maintenance work and modify the database schema.
I think you can explicitly show the risk for them and they should be responsible for any activity inside the database. I see you as a company providing professional services for setting up infrastructure on-premise for them.
Question 1:if you want to let them have full admin access, they should be aware of the consequences. Maybe always encourage them to stage changes in a staging environment first and then let you promote the production changes or at least under your supervision as the experts.
Question 2: No. As the license says:
Roughly speaking, as long as you are not offering TimescaleDB as a hosted Database-as-a-Service, you can use all Community features for free. For any questions, please contact [email protected].
Question 3: I think yes but not sure what service agreement you’re doing with them. As the license intention is just to avoid competitors offering TimescaleDB as a hosted Database-as-a-Service.
Thank you @jonatasdp for the detail explanation.
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