How does my encoder acquire a licence?
Licence allocation is automatic and is performed when you add cameras to your encoder - as long as you have remaining licences, it will automatically be activated and immediately available for use.
More information: How do I allocate a licence to my encoder?.
When your encoder obtains a licence from CLS, a local copy is stored on your encoder that is valid for 10 days. This is to ensure your encoder checks in regularly to make sure your licence is still valid.
How does my encoder keep its licence up to date?
When your encoder is attached to a server that is connected to CLS, your encoder will ask the server daily to check with CLS that its licence is up to date and still valid (e.g. to check if the licence has been renewed with a new expiry date, or you've revoked your encoder's licence to use elsewhere).
If your encoder's licence check is successful, your encoder will save an updated local licence, extending its validity up to 10 days again.
What happens if the CLS licence check fails?
Because your encoder has stored a local copy of its licence, your encoder will continue to operate normally, without a successful licence check to CLS, for 10 days.
If your connection to CLS is re-established, your encoder's regular check-in process will allow it to obtain a valid licence again.
Should your encoder's checks continue to fail beyond 10 days, your encoder will continue to operate, but will move into a 30-day grace period, where your users will start to see warning messages, and you'll be unable to add new cameras.
After 40 days without a successful licence check-in (10 days licence validity + 30 days grace period), your encoder will then cease to operate.
What happens if my encoder's licence expires?
The above process is also used when your encoder's license approaches its contractual end date.
With the regular daily CLS check-in, the 10-day local validity period will be reduced and capped to the remaining time on the contractual end date of your encoder's licence.
That means, at midnight UTC on the end of the final day of your encoder licence's expiry date, your encoder will have no valid licence, and will move to its 30-day grace period.
The only way to resolve this is to purchase a licence extension for your licence.