Licensing

What you get when you buy, what happens when it ends, and how to activate a license.

How a license works

What do I get when I buy?

A license for a number of servers that works forever, with one year of updates. The Scale plan is a yearly subscription instead. See Pricing.

What happens when the updates year ends?

Your version keeps working forever. Renew only if you want newer versions.

What happens if a subscription ends?

You get 30 days to renew, with a reminder on the dashboard. After that the server falls back to the Free plan. Nothing is deleted: history and settings stay, and servers over the limit are shown but no longer checked until you renew.

What if I need more servers than my license allows?

Monitoring never stops for the servers you have. You just can't add new ones until you move to a bigger license.

How activation works

After you buy, Lemon Squeezy emails you a license key. What happens next depends on whether your dashboard server can reach the internet.

Server with internet

  1. Paste the key on the License page of your dashboard and press Activate.
  2. That's it. The server re-checks the license by itself once a week — you don't do anything else.

Server without internet

  1. On the License page, create an activation request file.
  2. On any computer with internet, upload it at vaultwitness.com/activate and download the activation file.
  3. Upload that file to your dashboard. The license is active for 75 days.
  4. After day 60 the dashboard asks you to confirm the license once: repeat steps 1–3. The new file is permanent.

The files go through your browser: the request file downloads to the computer you're using, and you upload the activation file from that same computer. Nothing has to be copied onto the server.

Is that computer offline too? Carry the .vwreq on a USB stick to any computer with internet and bring the .vwlic back the same way.

Only have a terminal? On the License page use Activate offline over SSH: run one command on any computer with internet and paste the line it prints into the dashboard.

Why the extra step for offline servers? A payment can be refunded for up to 60 days after purchase — by us within our 14-day guarantee, or by Lemon Squeezy, our reseller, which reserves the right to refund within 60 days. A server with internet learns about a refund by itself. A server without internet can't, so the first file is temporary and the permanent one is issued only when the refund period is over. If you miss the confirmation, the server moves to the Free plan — monitoring keeps running and nothing is deleted — and confirming later brings the license back.

Activate a license

For a dashboard server without internet. A server that can reach the internet does this by itself — just press Activate on its License page.

Get your activation file

Steps

  1. In your dashboard, open License → Activate offline, paste the key from your purchase email and press Download request file. You get a .vwreq file on the computer you're using (if it has no internet, copy the file to one that does).
  2. Upload that .vwreq here. You get a .vwlic activation file back.
  3. Open the dashboard's License page and upload the .vwlic from your computer (step 3) — nothing has to be copied onto the server.
  4. After day 60 the dashboard asks you to confirm the license once: do the same again. The new file is permanent. Why?
What is sent? Only what is in the request file: your license key and a random ID of your installation. We check the key with Lemon Squeezy, sign the activation file and send it back. Nothing is stored. The activation file works only on the server that made the request.