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License Management

AudienceAdministrators
CoversActivation, renewal, offline, limits
Reading Time5 minutes

Exekra licenses are signed envelopes issued by the Customer Portal. Each license is bound to a Hub installation and enforced locally on the Hub. The Portal is involved only for issuance, renewal, and periodic validation.

First-time activation

When you first open the Hub after installation you will see the activation screen.

  1. Sign in to the Customer Portal and download your .lic file from the Licenses page.
  2. On the Hub activation screen, upload the .lic file.
  3. Create the admin account password. The admin email must match the email the license was issued to.
  4. Sign in to the Hub.

The Hub stores the license envelope locally and verifies its signature against the embedded public key. No network call is required to use the Hub after activation.

Offline activation

For air-gapped deployments where the Hub cannot reach the Customer Portal:

  1. Download the .lic from the Portal on a connected machine.
  2. Transfer the file to the Hub server using your standard secure-transfer process.
  3. Upload the .lic from the Hub's activation screen as in online activation.

Subsequent license validation runs against the embedded signature, which means the Hub continues operating without internet access. Online validation pings remain optional and informational.

Trial activation

Trial licenses are short-duration entitlements issued by the Portal. They activate the same way as production licenses and behave identically until expiry. A trial license is not intended for high-risk or business-critical production use; switch to a production license before relying on Exekra in production.

Renewal

When a license is about to expire, the Hub displays a banner on the dashboard. To renew:

  1. Contact Exekra sales or your account manager to request a renewal.
  2. Once renewed, download the new .lic file from the Customer Portal.
  3. In the Hub, open the License page and upload the new file.
  4. The Hub reactivates immediately. No restart is required.

The new license file replaces the previous one. Existing workflows, users, and audit records are unaffected.

License limits

Each license includes independent capacity limits per workflow execution mode. The Hub enforces these limits at the API boundary and surfaces them on the License page.

Unattended Runner limit

Maximum number of Runners that can register against this Hub for scheduled, webhook, and API-triggered work. New registrations beyond the limit are blocked with a clear error.

Developer seat limit

Maximum number of Studio users who can author workflows against this Hub. Adding a user beyond this limit requires removing or deactivating an existing seat.

Attended user limit

Maximum number of business users who can run workflows on demand from the Hub. Independent of Developer seats.

Per-cap expiry

Each capacity (Unattended, Developer, Attended) has its own expiry date so renewals can be staggered. The License page shows the current state, expiry, and grace status per cap.

License validation

The Hub performs local signature verification on every check. Periodic phone-home requests to the Customer Portal report posture for vendor-side visibility and are not on the critical execution path. Validation requests contain only the license identifier, installation identifier, and software version. See the Privacy Policy for the explicit list of what is and is not transmitted.

If the Portal is unreachable, the Hub continues operating for the grace period defined in the license. After the grace period, certain licensed functionality may be limited until validation succeeds again or a renewed license is uploaded.

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