133 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
133 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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stage: Growth
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group: Conversion
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info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#designated-technical-writers
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type: howto
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---
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# Activate GitLab EE with a license **(STARTER ONLY)**
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To activate all GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) functionality, you need to upload
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a license. After you've received your license from GitLab Inc., you can upload it
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by **signing into your GitLab instance as an admin** or adding it at
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installation time.
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The license is a base64-encoded ASCII text file with a `.gitlab-license`
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extension. You can obtain the file by [purchasing a license](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/)
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or by signing up for a [free trial](https://about.gitlab.com/free-trial/).
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As of GitLab Enterprise Edition 9.4.0, a newly-installed instance without an
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uploaded license only has the Core features active. A trial license
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activates all Ultimate features, but after
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[the trial expires](#what-happens-when-your-license-expires), some functionality
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is locked.
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## Uploading your license
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The very first time you visit your GitLab EE installation signed in as an admin,
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you should see a note urging you to upload a license with a link that takes you
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to **Admin Area > License**.
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Otherwise, you can:
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1. Navigate manually to the **Admin Area** by clicking the wrench (**{admin}**) icon in the menu bar.
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1. Navigate to the **License** tab, and click **Upload New License**.
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- *If you've received a `.gitlab-license` file,* you should have already downloaded
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it in your local machine. You can then upload it directly by choosing the
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license file and clicking the **Upload license** button. In the image below,
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the selected license file is named `GitLab.gitlab-license`.
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- *If you've received your license as plain text,* select the
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**Enter license key** option, copy the license, paste it into the **License key**
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field, and click **Upload license**.
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## Add your license at install time
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A license can be automatically imported at install time by placing a file named
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`Gitlab.gitlab-license` in `/etc/gitlab/` for Omnibus GitLab, or `config/` for source installations.
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You can also specify a custom location and filename for the license:
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- Source installations should set the `GITLAB_LICENSE_FILE` environment
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variable with the path to a valid GitLab Enterprise Edition license.
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```shell
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export GITLAB_LICENSE_FILE="/path/to/license/file"
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```
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- Omnibus GitLab installations should add this entry to `gitlab.rb`:
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```ruby
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gitlab_rails['initial_license_file'] = "/path/to/license/file"
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```
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CAUTION: **Caution:**
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These methods only add a license at the time of installation. Use the
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**{admin}** **Admin Area** in the web user interface to renew or upgrade licenses.
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---
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After the license is uploaded, all GitLab Enterprise Edition functionality
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is active until the end of the license period. When that period ends, the
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instance will [fall back](#what-happens-when-your-license-expires) to Core-only
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functionality.
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You can review the license details at any time in the **License** section of the
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**Admin Area**.
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## Notification before the license expires
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One month before the license expires, a message informing about the expiration
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date is displayed to GitLab admins. Make sure that you update your
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license, otherwise you miss all the paid features if your license expires.
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## What happens when your license expires
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In case your license expires, GitLab locks down some features like Git pushes,
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and issue creation, and displays a message to all admins to inform of the expired license.
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To get back all the previous functionality, you must upload a new license.
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To fall back to having only the Core features active, you must delete the
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expired license(s).
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### Remove a license
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To remove a license from a self-managed instance:
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1. In the top navigation bar, click the **{admin}** wrench icon to navigate to the [Admin Area](index.md).
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1. Click **License** in the left sidebar.
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1. Click **Remove License**.
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## License history
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You can upload and view more than one license,
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but only the latest license is used as the active license.
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## Troubleshooting
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### There is no License tab in the Admin Area
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If you originally installed Community Edition rather than Enterprise Edition you must
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[upgrade to Enterprise Edition](../../update/README.md#community-to-enterprise-edition)
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before uploading your license.
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GitLab.com users can't upload and use a self-managed license. If you
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want to use paid features on GitLab.com, you can
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[purchase a separate subscription](../../subscriptions/gitlab_com/index.md).
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### Users exceed license limit upon renewal
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If you've added new users to your GitLab instance prior to renewal, you may need to
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purchase additional seats to cover those users. If this is the case, and a license
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without enough users is uploaded, GitLab displays a message prompting you to purchase
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additional users. More information on how to determine the required number of users
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and how to add additional seats can be found in the
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[licensing FAQ](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/licensing-faq/).
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