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id, title, sidebar_label
| id | title | sidebar_label |
|---|---|---|
| claim-free-licence | Claim a Free licence | Claim a Free licence |
A self-hosted install runs unlicensed until you give it a licence. Free is a real tier in both deployments, and you can claim one for your install from the HQ portal.
What a licence is
A signed file. It carries the instance UUID it belongs to, the tier, the server allowance, feature toggles and an expiry. The control plane verifies the signature locally checking a licence never contacts HQ, and a running instance does not need HQ to be reachable.
Signing happens in exactly one place, in HQ. The control plane can only verify.
1. Find your instance UUID
In the control plane, go to Settings → Licence. The instance UUID is shown there. It is the identity your licence binds to.
2. Link the install to your HQ account
- Sign in at Vantage HQ. If you have no account, see Accounts and signup.
- Choose Link an instance.
- Paste the instance UUID and give it a name you will recognise.
Linking claims the UUID for your account. A UUID already linked elsewhere is refused with a conflict rather than silently moved.
3. Claim Free
With the instance linked, choose Claim Free on it. HQ issues a Free licence bound to that UUID and hands it back.
:::info One Free per account, per deployment The limit is enforced per account and deployment, so a Free cloud instance does not stop you claiming Free on a self-hosted install. Both the friendly pre-check and the issuer apply the same rule deliberately, because a pre-check stricter than the issuer would refuse something that would actually have worked. :::
4. Install the licence
Download the licence from HQ and paste it in the control plane at Settings → Licence.
The instance validates the signature, checks the UUID matches its own, and starts reporting the tier, allowance and expiry.
:::warning Cloud instances cannot paste a licence
On a cloud instance POST /license answers 409 cloud_managed, and the UI
hides the form entirely. A cloud licence is written directly by HQ. This is not
a restriction the injection path has to work around it writes to the database,
not through the endpoint.
:::
Renewing
Free licences are renewable from HQ within a renewal window near expiry; outside that window the renew call refuses. See Free tier.
Pasting a licence keeps working while the current one is expired that endpoint is exempt from the licence check, because it is the way out of degraded mode.
Moving the install to new hardware
Rebuilding produces a new instance UUID, and a licence binds to a UUID. Use Relink in HQ to move the licence across. The number of relinks per term is capped; the portal shows how many you have left.