Tutorial: Perform an Offline Activation with a Fixed License Key⁠

• A fixed license key.

• An installed Access Server.

• A second, temporary Access Server with an internet connection or a support ticket, mentioned in the overview.

The activation process reads a number of unique machine facts from the system on which your Access Server is installed and uses them, along with your license key, to activate and lock the license key to your system. It unlocks the number of connections for which your license key is valid and locks it to the system on which you activated the license key. With an offline activation procedure, you retrieve the machine information from one offline Access Server (without internet access), export it to a text file, copy the text file to another online Access Server (with internet access), and then use that Access Server for the activation process. You then copy the resulting license file to the original machine.

1. Sign in to the Access Server you wish to activate (let’s call this the production server).

2. Run this command on the production server as the root user:

   /usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/liman id-marker >licinfo.txt

3. Copy the new file, licinfo.txt, with the hardware specifics for your production server, onto the Access Server you’ll use for activation (let’s call this the activation server).

4. Run this command on the activation server as the root user (and enter your license key):

   /usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/liman -i licinfo.txt Activate "LICE-NSEK-EYIN-HERE"

5. From the /usr/local/openvpn_as/etc/licenses/ folder, copy the new license key file from your activation server to the production server. The file will be named with the license key, for example, LICE-NSEK-EYIN-HERE.lic.

6. Your production server should now see the activated key and update the concurrent connection count. In rare cases, you may need to use systemctl restart openvpnas to restart the Access Server service to read the new license key.

Rather than setting up a second Access Server solely for the activation steps, you can contact us through our support ticket system and request offline activation. Include the following in your ticket:

• Your license key for activation.

• The machine file.

To obtain the machine file, follow these steps:

If the activation fails, check these scenarios:

• Verify the activation server can access our activation servers at licensing.openvpn.net or licserv.openvpn.net on port TCP 443. We keep the IP address static, so you can also allow 54.183.149.72 through a firewall if needed.

• Check if recent maintenance on your production server has changed the hardware/software combination. This can cause the licensing system to believe it’s running on a different server than the one where the license key was activated.

• If you’re using a virtual platform, moving the virtual machine from one hypervisor platform to another can cause the licensing system to see this hardware change and invalidate the license key.

• If you replace the network interface card on your server, or perform a clean reinstall of your server operating system, this can cause the license key to become invalid.

• If your operating system runs out of available memory, reboot the server. When there isn’t available memory, the licensing system is one of the first things to go.

You can use the command-line licensing manager program to view the current state of the licensing system. On the command line as the root user, use the commands below to see which license keys are on your system, which are having problems and why, and how many connections your server currently allows.

1. View the license key files on your server's file system:

   ls -la /usr/local/openvpn_as/etc/licenses/

2. Check the license manager tool to see problems and the allowed connections:

   /usr/local/openvpn_as/scripts/liman info

A sample output looks like this:

Manager: exception with license file /usr/local/openvpn_as/etc/licenses/ABCD-1234-EFGH-5678.lic:
machine properties validation failed: verify fail: ABCD-1234-EFGH-5678
[3:0:8]/mac=110/hd=000/cpu=110/pci=110/ino=110/iid=000 (LIC_VPROP)
Manager: exception with license file /usr/local/openvpn_as/etc/licenses/IJKL-0912-MNOP-3456.lic:
license key ID is expired (LIC_KEY_EXP)
Manager: exception with license file /usr/local/openvpn_as/etc/licenses/QRST-7890-UVWX-1234.lic:
signature verification failed (LIC_VERIFY)
INFO {'apc': False, 'concurrent_connections': 20}

In the output above, the license key ABCD-1234-EFGH-5678 fails the machine properties validation. This means the system hardware specifics are no longer the same as when you activated the license. The system then considers this license key invalid and skips it.

The output above shows that the license key IJKL-0912-MNOP-3456 has expired. If you haven't renewed it, you can do so on our website or buy a new one.

In the output above, the last line shows that the server is registered for 20 simultaneous connections.