License Activation
Two Ways to Activate
You can activate your license from two places in the dashboard depending on which stage you are at:
A — During Fresh Install Setup
- After creating the admin account, the dashboard redirects you automatically to the Activation screen
- Paste the license key from your purchase email into the key field
- Click Activate License
- The appliance validates the key with the licensing server, updates your access mode, and then continues to onboarding or the dashboard
If you want to skip activation at this point and stay on the Free plan, click Continue in Free Mode at the bottom of the Activation screen. TLSOps applies Free access and continues setup.
B — On an Already-Running Appliance Still Using Free Access
- Log in to the dashboard at
http://<machine-ip>:8080 - Click the gear icon to open Settings
- Under the Access & License card, enter your license key and click Activate
- TLSOps refreshes your access state immediately — no restart required
If the appliance is already on a paid plan, the Settings page shows the current plan details instead of another activation form.
License Binding
A license key is bound to the hardware fingerprint of the first machine it activates on. For planned moves to new hardware, use the Backup & Restore flow on first boot — that is the documented migration path. If activation reports a hardware-binding mismatch after a move, the current public UI does not expose a reset control, so
Offline Operation
TLSOps caches the validated license locally. If the licensing server is temporarily unreachable after a recent successful validation, the appliance continues running at the activated plan level for up to 5 days. If that cached validation expires before connectivity returns, access falls back to Free plan limits until a later background validation succeeds. Your network stays up throughout this process.
Plan Changes
If you upgrade, downgrade, or cancel your plan, the appliance picks up the change automatically during its normal access-status refresh cycle. In practice, reopening or reloading the dashboard is the simplest way to fetch the updated plan state if it has not appeared yet.