Licence (Locking) Policy = IP Locking

[incubatec]

Is there an official document regarding licence locking?

After experiencing many hours of completely unnecessary downtime during the weekend due to a "licence locked" error during two cPanel migrations, I have searched the cPanel website to see if there is a document describing this policy.

But I was able to find only an article with vague language that is very unspecific and generic and completely useless.

Has nobody else had problems with the cPanel licensing server during server migrations?

 

[cPRex]

Hey hey! We are intentionally vague about what causes a license to be locked, in an effort to not help people using license circumvention tools. The most common way to get a license locked is frequent IP changes and frequent hostname changes. There isn't a specific rule, such as x number of hostname changes in x period, but we take several things into account, such as the license history.

 

[incubatec]

Hey hey! We are intentionally vague about what causes a license to be locked, in an effort to not help people using license circumvention tools. The most common way to get a license locked is frequent IP changes and frequent hostname changes. There isn't a specific rule, such as x number of hostname changes in x period, but we take several things into account, such as the license history.

well, for paying customers I do not think that it is OK to ever lock a license.

Especially during transfers/migrations it is absolutely normal to change IPs and hostname.

Therefore you either clarify your policy or have 24x7 customer care available to quickly solve any licensing issues as this causes significant downtime with no way to know before.

This makes cPanel look greedy and I hope that every enterprise customers reads this.

 

[cPRex]

Unfortunately due to the nature of a licensed product, these checks have to be in place. We do have 24x7 support and are always available to help with license issues.

 

[incubatec]

Unfortunately due to the nature of a licensed product, these checks have to be in place. We do have 24x7 support and are always available to help with license issues.

Could somebody then please resolve ticket no. 94453125?

The customer of our's with this server has suffered more than 25 hours of downtime due to the cPanel licence locking issues.

Nobody is answering our questions, nobody is able to get that licence to work (and it is a valid licence; I even bought a second licence!).

 

[cPRex]

I do see that Mae and Gillian are working on that ticket now, and because it is a license issue it is marked as an emergency in our system as well.

 

[incubatec]

After 28+ hours of downtime this was now finally fixed. How do I explain that much downtime in the year 2022? Speechless...

 

[cPRex]

It's important to note that websites continue to function when the license is locked, just the WHM and cPanel areas are not active.

I see that your original ticket was replied to in three hours according to the timestamps in our ticket system. The ticket has also been moved to management to address other concerns you mentioned.

 

[incubatec]

Please take a better to look at the ticket and the times again. And e-mail logons fail when the license does not work.

Let's for one moment assume that what you have written is true - which I am not saying, but let's for one moment pretend: are you happy with cPanel taking 3 hours to solve a licensing issue for a license that is fully paid etc., which should never ever have a problem in the first place?

 

[cPRex]

At this point you need to continue to work with the manager through the ticket. I'm not able to comment on our license policies besides what I've already mentioned.

 

[incubatec]

Sure, after waiting so long for the problem to be solved, I can wait some longer for the manager. Let's hope she gets back to me before the next price hike.

And email access does not work when the license is locked.. isn't that an important detail? You seem to suggest that "only" WHM and cPanel areas are not active, why leave out the e-mail part, which is the most important one? Damage control mode?

And you have not responded to my question.

 

[cPRex]

Email access does get locked as well. Which specific question were you looking for an answer to?

 

[JoseDieguez]

well, for paying customers I do not think that it is OK to ever lock a license.

Especially during transfers/migrations it is absolutely normal to change IPs and hostname.

Therefore you either clarify your policy or have 24x7 customer care available to quickly solve any licensing issues as this causes significant downtime with no way to know before.

This makes cPanel look greedy and I hope that every enterprise customers reads this.

as many web hosters opinion, they should even be more strict, to avoid these "shared licenses" providers.

and i have had many cases of locked licenses, doing migrations (or even new license on new server, but hostname changes have the same locking issue sometimes)
contacting CS has always been fast for us, i feel bad for you, 20 hours is not acceptable at all.

 

[cPRex]

The OP mentioned in the ticket that "after 4+ hours of downtime" the issue is resolved.

This thread has went off track a bit as there isn't much else to be said about the license system. I'm going to close this thread for now since you're already in touch with the Customer Service manager and she'll be in the office shortly to reply to your ticket.