This guide covers the setup requirements and best practices for deploying Lightdash Enterprise Edition on-prem (on prem, on-premises, on premises). Lightdash Enterprise supports FedRAMP-ready deployments for government and regulated industries.
Prerequisites
- Postgres database with the
pgvector extension installed
Accessing the Lightdash image
The Lightdash image is available on DockerHub. Pin a specific version in production rather than latest:
For the versioning policy, upgrade cadence, and how to rehearse upgrades in UAT, see Upgrading Lightdash.
License key
A license key is required for Enterprise Edition features. Set it via the LIGHTDASH_LICENSE_KEY environment variable — the Lightdash team shares your key via 1Password. See enterprise features for configuration, validation, and network requirements.
After activating your license key
Once your license key is active, each Enterprise feature is enabled from its section on the enterprise features page — AI agents, data apps, embedding, MCP, custom roles, service accounts, SCIM, pre-aggregates, AI writeback, and multi-agent Slack channels.
If you need help enabling features or troubleshooting your deployment, contact the Lightdash team.
Migration from OSS
If you’re migrating from the open-source version to Enterprise Edition:
- Migrate to a commercial version matching your current OSS version
- Once a single container is running the commercial version, the connected database will be upgraded to include the commercial schemas
- Any other OSS containers will fail on restart but can be run temporarily
- Roll out the commercial version to all containers as soon as the first container successfully migrates
