Licensing
Contents
Moving WHMCS
When you move your WHMCS system, if the domain, IP or directory you use it in is changing then you will need to have your license updated. How this is done depends upon the license you have. There are 2 different scenarios as below.
1. You purchased your license directly from us
If this is the case then you are able to reissue your license from our client area @ http://whmcs.com/members without any manual intervention from us. Just login, go to Services > Licenses & Services, select your license key and click Reissue under the Management Actions tab - then visit your WHMCS installation in the new location and it will save the new valid access details for it
2. You got your license from your web host
If this is the case then you won't be able to reissue your license from our client area because the domain and IP are not allowed to change. We can perform directory updates for you by simply opening a ticket and including your license key and the new directory name but any domain name or IP changes have to be authorized by your host.
Moving WHMCS is straight forward:
- Take a backup of your database following these instructions,
- Transfer the files across to the new server,
- Restore the database via phpmyadmin on the new server and make any changes to the database settings in configuration.php.
- You'll then need to re-issue your license as described above.
- Login to your WHMCS admin and update the system URLS in Setup > General Settings.
- Check that your cron jobs, payment gateway callbacks and any email forwarders are modified accordingly.
- Finally, delete the WHMCS files and cron from the old location.
Changing the License Key WHMCS uses
To change the license key your WHMCS system uses, login to the admin area and go to Help > Change License Key. You can then enter your new license key there along with your admin login details to verify the change. If you are getting a license invalid error so that you are unable to login then there is also a link to the change license page from the license error page.
Is licensing dependant on whmcs.com being online?
No. WHMCS uses a local key licensing system with periodic remote verification checks. What this means is that once every 7 days, your WHMCS system will contact our server to ensure it is being run in the correct location and that the license is still valid. Your WHMCS system being online is not dependant on our server being online during the time the local key is valid.
Should our licensing server be down on the day your next verification check is due then the system will allow up to 3 days for a connection to be made. If after this time, the system is still unable to verify your license with our licensing server then your WHMCS Admin Area will become inactive until it can contact our server again.
Your WHMCS Client Area will always remains online even if you have an invalid or expired license to ensure your clients access is not interrupted.
Common Errors
No Connection Error
A No Connection error on the admin login page suggests there is a problem preventing your server from communicating with the WHMCS licensing server.This is commonly a CURL or DNS resolution problem, these are essential items in the use of WHMCS and is something your server admin will need to investigate and resolve.
- CURL - CURL is an extremely important part of WHMCS and is needed for a number of the operations performed such as server connections etc.
- DNS - DNS is a vital part of internet functionality in order to be able to resolve hostnames of servers, domain name lookups, and licensing. Ensure your DNS resolve whmcs.com to the correct IP address.
A test file can be downloaded from http://www.whmcs.com/members/dl.php?type=d&id=21 which should be uploaded to your whmcs admin folder and provided to your server admin to assist them in identifying the problem and correcting it.
License Invalid
A Licence Invalid error on the admin login page can be caused by one of the following changes:
- The license key has been entered incorrectly
Please ensure the full key is entered, this includes the prefix eg. "Leased-", "Owned-", "WebHost-" and "Dev-".
- The domain being used to access your install has changed
- The IP address your install is located on has changed
- The directory you are using has changed
Following any changes to the location of your WHMCS installation, the licence must be updated accordingly. Please refer to Moving WHMCS above for instructions on doing so.