Managing your GitHub Enterprise license

About GitHub Enterprise licenses

When you purchase or renew GitHub Enterprise, you receive a license file to validate your application. A license file has an expiration date and controls the number of user licenses you can add to GitHub Enterprise. After you download and install GitHub Enterprise, uploading the license file unlocks the application for you to use. For more information about downloading GitHub Enterprise, see the GitHub Enterprise Releases website. For information about setting up your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, see "Setting up a GitHub Enterprise instance."

You can allocate the user licenses included in your GitHub Enterprise license to users in your GitHub Enterprise Server instance and a GitHub Enterprise Cloud enterprise account. When you add a user to either environment, they will consume a license. If a user has accounts in both environments, to consume only one license, their primary GitHub Enterprise email address must be the same as their verified GitHub Enterprise Cloud email address. You can sync license count and usage between the environments.

If your GitHub Enterprise Server license expires, you won't be able to access your GitHub Enterprise Server instance via a web browser or Git. If needed, you will be able to use command-line utilities to back up all your data. For more information, see "Configuring backups on your appliance." If you have any questions about renewing your license, contact GitHub's Sales team.

You can download your GitHub Enterprise Server license from your enterprise account. For more information, see "Managing your GitHub Enterprise license."

Uploading a new license to GitHub Enterprise Server

After you purchase a new license or upgrade an existing license from GitHub's Sales team, you must download your new license file, then upload the file to GitHub Enterprise Server to unlock your new user licenses.

If you'd like to renew or add user licenses to GitHub Enterprise, contact GitHub's Sales team. Your new license file will be available for download immediately after you complete your order.

1. Navigate to GitHub.com.

2. In the top-right corner of GitHub.com, click your profile photo, then click Your enterprises.

   

3. In the list of enterprises, click the enterprise you want to view.

   

4. In the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.

   

5. In the left sidebar, click Enterprise licensing.

   

6. Under "Enterprise Server Instances", click to download your license file.

   

7. Log into your GitHub Enterprise Server instance as a site administrator.

8. Navigate to your enterprise account by visiting https://HOSTNAME/enterprises/ENTERPRISE-NAME, replacing HOSTNAME with your instance's hostname and ENTERPRISE-NAME with your enterprise account's name.

9. In the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.

   

10. In the left sidebar, click License.

    

11. Under "Quick links", click Update license.

    

12. To select your license, click License file, or drag your license file onto License file.

    

13. Click Upload.

    

Viewing license usage

1. Navigate to GitHub.com.

2. In the top-right corner of GitHub.com, click your profile photo, then click Your enterprises.

   

3. In the list of enterprises, click the enterprise you want to view.

   

4. In the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.

   

5. In the left sidebar, click Enterprise licensing.

   

6. Review your current GitHub Enterprise license, as well as consumed and available user licenses.

Automatically syncing user license usage with GitHub Enterprise Cloud

You can use GitHub Connect to automatically sync user license count and usage between GitHub Enterprise Server and GitHub Enterprise Cloud. For more information, see "Enabling automatic user license sync between GitHub Enterprise Server and GitHub Enterprise Cloud."

Manually syncing user license usage between GitHub Enterprise Server and GitHub Enterprise Cloud

You can download a JSON file from GitHub Enterprise Server and upload the file to GitHub Enterprise Cloud to manually sync user license usage between the two deployments.

1. Navigate to your enterprise account by visiting https://HOSTNAME/enterprises/ENTERPRISE-NAME, replacing HOSTNAME with your instance's hostname and ENTERPRISE-NAME with your enterprise account's name.

2. In the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.

   

3. In the left sidebar, click License.

   

4. Under "Quick links", to download a file containing your current license usage on GitHub Enterprise Server, click Export license usage.

   

5. Navigate to GitHub.com.

6. In the top-right corner of GitHub.com, click your profile photo, then click Your enterprises.

   

7. In the list of enterprises, click the enterprise you want to view.

   

8. In the enterprise account sidebar, click Settings.

   

9. In the left sidebar, click Enterprise licensing.

   

10. In the left sidebar, click License.

    

11. Under "Enterprise Server Instances", click Add server usage.

    

12. Upload the JSON file you downloaded from GitHub Enterprise Server.

    

Troubleshooting

In some scenarios, the web UI for GitHub Enterprise Server may not immediately reflect your new license. You can force the system to detect the license by restarting two system services.

1. SSH into your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. For more information, see "Accessing the administrative shell (SSH)."

   $ ssh -p 122 admin@HOSTNAME

2. Restart the services for Git authentication and the HTTP server.

   Warning: Running the following command will result in a few minutes of user-facing downtime for GitHub Enterprise Server. Run the command with care.

   sudo systemctl restart github-gitauth github-unicorn
   

3. After GitHub Enterprise Server returns you to a prompt, try accessing GitHub Enterprise Server via the command line or web UI again.