Administration

Licence activation and status

An installation licence binds to one Elowen instance and controls access to core updates and optional registry plugins. This guide is for administrators who can manage the instance; reading it does not grant administrative permissions.

Activate the licence

Open Settings → System and find the Licence card. If the instance is locked, you can also enter the key on the licence-required page.
Enter the activation key through the activation form. Never put it in a shell command or share it in a support message.
The running instance unlocks after activation. If the application announces a restart, wait for it to finish. A key already bound to another installation is refused; contact your provider if its binding needs to change.

You can replace the key from the Licence card. In a terminal, run elowen licence activate; if you do not provide the key through the environment, the command prompts securely. Do not put a key in command arguments or shell history.

Check licence status

In Settings → System → Licence, review the state, expiry, covered plugin count and last server contact.
Select Check now to contact the licensing server immediately, or run elowen licence in the terminal.
If the server cannot be reached, read the warning and its grace deadline. An outage does not immediately lock an installation with a stored valid licence.

The daemon checks in periodically; a successful check-in renews its grace period. A warning can appear before the deadline. Restarting does not extend that period.

Resolve a locked instance

Read the reason on the locked page or in the licence status. For an expired key, renew it with your provider and activate the replacement. For a server outage, restore connectivity and let the daemon check in. If the key was revoked or moved, contact your provider. A damaged licence record cannot be repaired by entering another key; restore the matching instance backup or contact support.

Protect the licence record

Keep the database and complete instance root in one backup set. Do not delete the licence record or copy it to another installation: it carries the instance identity to which the key is bound. For backup steps, see Safe updates and backups; for the full licensing behavior, see Licence.