Reasons and Fixes for DirectAdmin License Expired Error

In this tutorial, we can check different reasons and solutions for DirectAdmin License Expired Error

DirectAdmin

DirectAdmin is a web-based hosting control panel designed to make administration easier. DirectAdmin is compatible with the constantly evolving web hosting environments. DirectAdmin is often called DA for short. DirectAdmin runs on any system with minimum configurations. DirectAdmin uses port 2222 by default.

License expired error

Most of the clients using DirectAdmin has reported about the error “License has expired”. This error is usually shown when you are trying to login to DirectAdmin control panel. Due to this issue, you are unable to use the DirectAdmin control panel. There are many factors that are responsible for this issue. It is important to remember that this error does not mean that your site or email are down. The normal operations of the server have not been interrupted and your visitors can still view web pages and your email still works.

Causes

1) Invalid time on your server

2) Mismatch in IP address

3) Port 2222 is blocked

4) License has expired or suspended due to non-payment

Invalid time on your server

The most common cause of this error is invalid time on your server. To set the time on your server, login to your server as ‘root’ and follow the below steps.

1) Enter ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/ and note the region where you reside.

2) Enter ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/<YOUR_REGION> (where <YOUR_REGION> is your local region) and note the time zone which corresponds to your location.

3) Enter ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/<YOUR_REGION>/<YOUR_TIMEZONE> /etc/localtime to create a symbolic link from the /etc/localtime file to the time zone of your choice.

4) Use the date command to set the time and date. The syntax is

`date MMDDhhmmYYYY`

If you need to change the date and time to 11th November 07:08 2016, then enter the below command

# date 111107082016

5) Run the command

/usr/local/directadmin/scripts/getLicense.sh <cid> <lic_id>

Where cid is your DirectAdmin client ID and lic_id is your license ID.

Then restart the DirectAdmin service.

Mismatch in IP address

The DirectAdmin license copy can only be installed in one server at a time. To verify the license, DirectAdmin attempts to contact the licensing server. If the IP of the server and IP on file with the licensing server mismatches, the DirectAdmin will suspend itself until this is corrected. You will be allowed to login to DirectAdmin only after fixing this issue. Until then access will be blocked, but this will not interrupt the operations of the server.

To regain access, you must contact DirectAdmin and notify them of the

1) New IP address

2) Old IP address

3) License ID

The request will be processed and you will receive a confirmation email. You should now be able to get new license file.

/usr/local/directadmin/scripts/getLicense.sh <cid> <lic_id>

Where cid is your DirectAdmin client ID and lic_id is your license ID.

After running the above command, restart DirectAdmin:

/etc/init.d/directadmin restart

Run the ipswap.sh script to replace the old server IP with the new server IP.

/usr/local/directadmin/scripts/ipswap.sh <old-IP> <new-IP>

Port 2222 is blocked

DirectAdmin contacts the license server periodically for the license verification. DirectAdmin fails to contact the license server if the port is closed or blocked by a firewall. The software will be suspended until it makes contact with the license server.

If you are using CSF, login to the server as ‘root’ and open the csf configuration file.

/etc/csf/csf.conf

Add the port 222 to the lines

# Allow incoming TCP ports

TCP_IN = “2222”

# Allow outgoing TCP ports

TCP_OUT = “2222”

CSF then needs to be restarted for the change to take effect.

csf -r

Run the command

/usr/local/directadmin/scripts/getLicense.sh <cid> <lic_id>

Where cid is your DirectAdmin client ID and lic_id is your license ID.

Restart DirectAdmin service.

/etc/init.d/directadmin restart

License has expired or suspended due to non-payment

Make sure you have checked all the above before confirming that this is the cause. Contact your license provider to verify that your license is up-to-date and paid. If your license is not up-to-date renew it as needed. You should now be able to login the DirectAdmin control panel.

Run the command