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Licensed site count

A Hub runs no channels, so its license key's allocated channel count caps how many sites may be registered with it instead. Because of that, a Hub labels the value Client Limit rather than Channel Limit wherever licensing is shown under Help > About. The limit is the total across every valid installed license; a license with unlimited channels makes the site count unlimited too.

The Sites Dashboard is where you work while this limit is in force. What it does to the toolbar buttons and the warning banner is described below.

The count that matters is registered, not enabled or online. A registered site owns a subdomain, a signed client certificate and a place in the fleet whether or not it happens to be enabled or connected at this moment.

When the licensed site count changes

A check-in that returns a key with a different registered-site limit (in either direction, an increase or a decrease) raises an administrator alert and emails administrators. The alert and the email both list every license whose limit moved, with its old and new registered site limit, and the email subject is License Site Limit Alert: registered site limits changed!.

The alert expires 30 days out, on the reasoning that a limit change is news for a month and then simply the way things are. When the new limit lands below the number of sites already registered, the alert says so directly, so an administrator reads why the Hub is refusing actions rather than going looking for a broken Hub.

Registration is refused at the limit

Once the registered sites equal the licensed count, no further site may register. Add New Client stays enabled: the licensing check happens when you click it, the same way starting a channel is checked when you press Start. If there is no licensed slot left, a message box explains that and the dialog does not open, so you are never asked to fill in a form that cannot succeed. Unregister a site you no longer need, or contact Qvera to raise the count.

The check is repeated when the bundle is generated, which covers the case where the limit is reached while the dialog is open (another administrator registering a site, or a check-in lowering the count). The dialog reports it and keeps what you typed.

A bundle minted before a license shrank is refused at the last step instead: the Hub rejects the site's /register call, records a SITE_REGISTRATION_REJECTED audit event, and the registering QIE reports the reason.

Over the limit: everything but unregistering stops

A check-in can return a license key whose count is lower than the number of sites already registered: a downgrade, an expired key, or a key replaced with a smaller one. Every check-in re-evaluates the registered site count against the keys it just stored, so the Hub knows where it stands as soon as the new key lands, whether that check-in succeeded or failed.

No site is disabled and nothing is stopped automatically. Where an engine over its channel limit stops running channels, an over-registered Hub simply refuses actions until an administrator brings the count back down:

  • You cannot connect to any site. The proxy answers 403, so a bookmarked site URL is refused as well.
  • You cannot re-enable a disabled site. Disabling one, though, is always allowed: it only reduces load, so it is never part of the lockdown.
  • You cannot register a new site.
  • You can unregister sites. This is the way out. Delete still requires a site to be disabled first, with no exception for being over the licensed count. Disabling is never blocked, so disable the site with Disable, then delete it.

The buttons are not greyed out. As with Start on a channel, the licensing check runs when you click. Connect, Enable, and Add New Client stay clickable and pop a message box naming the licensed and registered counts and how many sites to unregister. Disable always succeeds.

A red Over licensed site count banner also appears on the toolbar. Unregister sites until the registered count is at or below the licensed count; the moment it is, connecting, re-enabling and registering all work again. Nothing has to be restarted.

Registered, enabled, and online site totals are reported to Qvera on every Hub check-in.

Warning

A Hub that has gone too many consecutive days without a successful check-in blocks every site connection: Connect and any bookmarked site URL are both refused, with a message naming how many consecutive days have been missed. Nothing is disabled and nothing has to be re-enabled: connections are allowed again the moment a check-in succeeds. Enrolling a site is still permitted while the block is in force.

A Hub running against a database that carries a developer license is different: that one disables all of its sites, raises an administrator alert and sends an email titled All Sites Disabled. Re-enable the sites manually once a real license is installed.