liferay 2026.q1 Free Tier and SQLServer

Community Liferay DXP Free Tier
1

I’m currently trying to upgrade a project from Liferay 7.4.3.112 to Liferay DXP 2026.Q1 LTS (Free Tier).

The target setup required by my client is:

  • JBoss EAP 8.0 for production, although I am using the Tomcat bundle for development

  • SQL Server

  • Java 21

In Liferay CE, SQL Server was not officially supported, but we were always able to make it work by providing a custom DB Factory. I tried the same approach here: I recompiled the DB Factory and placed the jar in the shielded container lib folder.

With this setup, Liferay is able to start, connect to SQL Server, run the upgrade successfully, and also verify the Free Tier license. However, after startup, when I try to access the home page, I am redirected to a license validation page with an error saying that SQL Server is not supported and that I should use one of the following databases: Hypersonic, MariaDB, MySQL, or PostgreSQL.

At first I searched the GitHub source code for the error message, but I could not find it anywhere. I then searched through the jars included in the bundle and found the string in:

com/liferay/portal/ee/license/c.class

So it appears that the distributed bundle contains license-checking code that is not present in the published GitHub source, and that this code is preventing the use of SQL Server even when a custom DB Factory is provided.

My question is: is this intentional?

If support for this approach has been removed in Free Tier, I need to give my client a clear answer and advise them either to:

  • purchase a DXP subscription, or

  • move to a different database.

So far I have received general reassurance that the core capabilities previously available in CE are still available, but this specific case seems to indicate otherwise.

I would appreciate a definitive clarification on whether this is an intentional product restriction in Free Tier, or an unintended interaction that may be addressed.

Also I would like to know if there may be other restrictions related to the production environment described above (i.e. Jboss), since I have not been able to trace any hint of this behaviour in the published list of breaking changes.

Thanks,
Alessandro

2

Hi Alessandro,

As you correctly point out, with Liferay CE, the ability to use Commercial Databases like SQL Server was removed. As you also pointed out, with CE it was relatively easy to incorporate a workaround.

There were also a number of product features that were not included with Liferay CE but were available to users of Liferay DXP with Enterprise Subscriptions - such as the graphical Process Builder for workflows, the SAML plug-in, MFA, and so on.

With the decision to move to a single, unified, modular platform the intention was to retain these differences. Our goal is to increase uptake of Liferay DXP via the Free Tier, and like many open source software companies to offer an “Open Core” model where features needed by Enterprises require a subscription.

With the new distribution model we needed to use Activation Keys to manage this. An unintended consequence of this model was that, as you’ve seen, the activation key actively blocks the Commercial Databases.

Having identified this, we’ve decided that stopping the use of one database or another is not our objective, since it does not relate to features developed by Liferay at all. As such, we are making a change, which will be available within the next day or two as follows:

  • From the 2026.q1.2 release all users (subscribers or not) will be able to use any Database that is listed in the Liferay DXP Compatibility Matrix
  • We are also updating our policy so that we have more flexibility to ensure that Free Tier users have access to a stable version of the platform. As such, moving forward, the exact version that can be used each quarter may not be the .0 version, but could be a later version selected by us

Based on this, you will be able to continue to use the Free Tier with SQL Server, without needing to purchase a subscription - although, of course, for Production Enterprise use-cases it is highly recommended to do so for the additional features, services, and support that a subscription provides.

We’ll be updating the Community Downloads page as soon as the 2026.q1.2 release is available - as noted above, this should be no more than a day or two.

I hope this helps!

Best regards,

Ben

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Is machine-readable release information available for free-tier-releases?
3

Thanks Ben, great news about Free Tier users not only getting the .0 versions, but also some selected ones after that…

1 Like