New Distribution Channels for Liquibase Secure 5.0+

Applies to

• Liquibase Secure (Pro) v5.0+
• Liquibase Community (Open Source) v5.0+

Conditions

• Upgrading to v5.0+

Issue Summary

With the release of v5.0, Liquibase is now available in two separate distributions: commercial Liquibase Secure and open-source Liquibase Community. This allows Liquibase Community to be more lean and flexible without license-required commercial features, while Liquibase Secure now includes the majority of extensions in the box, allowing teams to scale quickly and safely.

More details about these releases can be found below:

• Liquibase Secure 5.0
• Liquibase Community 5.0

From v5.0 onward, Liquibase Secure (Pro) license keys can only be applied to the Liquibase Secure distribution. 

Error Messages

Installations with automated upgrades or that utilize Docker/Maven latest tags may find that upon upgrading to Liquibase Community v5.0, the license key is no longer recognized or commercial features are unavailable:

WARNING:
Liquibase detected the following invalid Community LIQUIBASE_* environment variables:

- LIQUIBASE_LICENSE_KEY

Error parsing command line: Using 'flow' requires a valid Liquibase license key. Get a free Liquibase license key and trial at https://liquibase.com/trial.

Resolution

The installer locations have changed. To fix this issue, you must install the Liquibase Secure distribution from the new download location in place of your current installation, and configure it to use your license key.

Detailed Migration Examples

CLI Binaries Migration

Before (4.33 and earlier): Downloaded from GitHub releases or liquibase.com/download-pro

After (5.0.0 and later): Download from liquibase.com/download-secure and install the appropriate package for your system (.zip, .tar.gz, or .exe installer).

Docker Migration

Before:

FROM liquibase/liquibase:latest

After:

FROM liquibase/liquibase-secure:latest
ENV LIQUIBASE_LICENSE_KEY=your-license-key-here

Maven Plugin Migration

1. If a dependency is set on liquibase-core, remove it. This dependency is included in the new com.liquibase:liquibase-commercial dependency.
2. If an explicit dependency is set on liquibase-commercial, update the groupId from org.liquibase to com.liquibase. This applies for Spring users.
3. If you are using the Maven plugin, update the Maven plugin groupId from org.liquibase to com.liquibase

Before (4.33 and earlier):

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.liquibase</groupId>
    <artifactId>liquibase-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>4.33.0</version>
</plugin>

After (5.0.0 and later):

<plugin>
    <groupId>com.liquibase</groupId>
    <artifactId>liquibase-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>5.0.1</version>
</plugin>

Note: The groupId has changed.

GitHub Actions Migration

Before (4.33 and earlier):

- uses: liquibase-github-actions/flow@v4.33.0
  with:
    # your parameters here

After (5.0.0 and later):

- uses: liquibase/setup-liquibase@v1
  with:
    version: '5.0.1'  # Requires 4.32.0 or higher
    edition: 'secure'
- run: liquibase flow # add your parameters as CLI flags

Note: The new approach uses a unified setup action followed by CLI commands, replacing the individual command-specific actions.

Verification

To confirm installation, run the command liquibase --version on the command line. The output to confirm a successful installation should state:

Liquibase Secure Version: 5.0.1
Liquibase Secure license issued to LiquibaseUser, valid until Wed Dec 31 20:59:59 PST 2025

If the version does not include "Secure" or reference a license, double-check that the Liquibase Community version was correctly uninstalled and attempt reinstalling the appropriate Liquibase Secure version from the new download location.

Important Security Notes

• Liquibase Secure is not available on GitHub (only the Community edition is publicly accessible)
• A license key is required for execution of all Liquibase Secure features
• Ensure your CI/CD pipelines and automated deployments are updated to use the correct Liquibase Secure sources from the new locations

Related Article(s)

Can older versions of Liquibase be installed?

WARNING: *** Duplicate <driver-name> JAR files ***

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