License

The License page is where you apply your Tagnet license file and review your active license details: licensed-to name, license type, maintenance window, and the device caps your license includes.

Overview

Tagnet is licensed as a perpetual license with annual maintenance. Once you apply a valid license file (.lic) issued by Stratum Global, Tagnet runs indefinitely on the version you have installed. Maintenance, included with the license for the first year and renewable annually, entitles you to support and software updates. Your license file always carries a maintenance-through date; when that date passes, Tagnet keeps running, and the License page shows a lapsed alert until you apply a renewed license.

Trial licenses behave differently: a trial expires on its end date and the system enters a fully locked state at that point. The API stops accepting requests, the UI redirects all pages to the License page, and background jobs stop running. The License page remains accessible so you can apply a paid license to resume normal operation. An expired trial cannot be re-applied; the validator rejects past-expiry trial tokens.

Unlicensed state

Before a license is applied, Tagnet enters the same locked state as an expired trial. The License page is accessible so you can apply a license; all other pages redirect there. The login page footer and the About page display Unlicensed. Apply your license through the first-run setup wizard, or open the License tab of the System page at any time.

The License page lets you:

• See the active license: licensed-to name, type (Trial or Perpetual), maintenance-through date, device usage against licensed caps
• Upload or paste a new .lic file to activate or replace your license

License changes (imports, replacements, rejected attempts) are recorded in the Security Events log. Open that page and filter to license event types to see who applied what and when.

Permissions

Permission	What it allows
View Settings	See the active license and history
Manage Settings	Apply a new license, replace an active license

How licensing works

Tagnet licenses are signed offline by Stratum Global and applied as a single .lic file. There is no online activation, no phone-home, and no license server contacted at runtime. Your installation validates the license signature locally against a trusted public key shipped inside Tagnet. Applying a license takes seconds and works on isolated networks.

Once you apply a license, Tagnet stores the file on the application server (under %ProgramData%\Stratum Global\TagNet\licenses on Windows, /var/lib/tagnet/licenses on Linux, or your configured Azure Files mount on hosted deployments) and reads it on every startup. Database backups, restores, or migrations do not affect licensing; the license travels with the application server, not with the database.

A license includes:

• Licensed To: the customer name, displayed as a watermark across Tagnet: the login page footer, the About page, and a footer row on every exported spreadsheet. It is the organization name Tagnet uses; there is no separate setting for it
• Customer ID: stable identifier used by Stratum Global for support
• Issued: the date the license was signed
• Maintenance through: the date your annual maintenance ends. For trial licenses this is a hard expiry; for perpetual licenses it marks the end of your support and update window
• Type: Trial or Perpetual, shown as a chip on the License page
• Device caps: the maximum count of each tracked device type your license permits. Currently enforced for RFID Readers; other device types (Tagnet Mobile, Tagnet Yard) are included in some license files but their registration flows are not yet available

Applying a license

1. Open the License tab of the System page.
2. Drop the .lic file Stratum Global sent you onto the upload area, or click the upload area to browse for the file. Alternatively, click Paste contents instead to reveal a text box and paste the license text directly.
3. A Preview panel appears as soon as the file is parsed, showing the customer name, expiry, and device caps from the file. Confirm the preview matches the license you expected to apply. The Apply license button is disabled until a valid preview is loaded.
4. Click Apply license.
5. On success, the license becomes active immediately and the file on disk is overwritten with the new contents. If you need a record of what was replaced and when, open the Security Events log and filter to license imported.
6. On failure, the page displays a message describing the problem, along with a short Code (for example, Code: KidUnknown). The previous license is left untouched. If you cannot resolve the failure from the message, share the code with Stratum Global support; it maps directly to the underlying validation condition and speeds up diagnosis.

License application is recorded in the Security Events log, both successful applications and rejected attempts. The actor (user who applied it), the customer name, and the resulting license id are captured for audit.

License lifecycle

State	Trigger	What happens
Active	License applied successfully	Normal operation. Device caps are enforced: creating or reactivating a reader beyond the cap is blocked.
Maintenance ending soon	Within 30 days of the maintenance-through date (perpetual only)	A persistent yellow banner appears at the top of every page, reminding administrators to renew maintenance before the window closes.
Maintenance lapsed	Maintenance-through date is in the past (perpetual only)	Tagnet continues to run normally. The License page shows a red lapsed alert and the Maintenance through date turns red. The global banner disappears; the License page is the only post-lapse indicator. Stratum Global support and new updates are unavailable until you renew and apply a refreshed license.
Trial expiring soon	Within 7 days of the trial end date	A persistent yellow banner appears at the top of every page with a day countdown and a View license link.
Trial expired	Trial end date passed	System enters a locked state. See Trial expiry: what happens below.

Pre-expiry banner

When your license is approaching a deadline, Tagnet shows a persistent yellow strip above the app bar, visible on every page of the application. The banner is only shown to authenticated users; unauthenticated visitors and the login page are unaffected.

What triggers the banner:

• Trial licenses: appears within 7 days of the trial end date. The text reads: "Your Tagnet trial expires in N days. Apply a paid license before then to avoid an interruption."
• Perpetual licenses: appears within 30 days of the maintenance-through date. The text reads: "Your Tagnet maintenance subscription expires in N days. Contact your account representative to renew."

When the banner disappears:

The banner clears as soon as the condition is resolved, either by applying a renewed license or when the window passes. For perpetual licenses, once maintenance lapses the global banner stops showing; the lapse is indicated only on the License page itself. For trials, expiry transitions the system to a locked state rather than clearing the banner.

The banner includes a View license link that navigates directly to the License tab of the System page.

Trial expiry: what happens

When a trial license's end date is reached, Tagnet enters a locked state. This is a complete stop, not a read-only mode that permits some activity.

What the locked state looks like:

• Every page in the Tagnet UI redirects to the License page. The navigation menu, search bar, scope filter, notifications, AI assistant, and help drawer are all hidden.
• The License page itself remains fully functional. You can read the expiry notice and apply a paid license without needing access to any other part of the system.
• The HTTP API returns 403 Forbidden for all requests except the license-import endpoint. Integrations and API clients will see 403 responses until a valid license is applied.
• Background jobs (data retention, rollups, notifications) do not run while the system is locked.
• RFID readers sending scan data receive 403 responses. Most enterprise-grade readers buffer tag reads locally and replay them automatically once the system accepts connections again.

What the locked state does not affect:

• The license-import endpoint: this stays open so you can apply a paid license without needing an administrator login to a functioning system.
• Your data: scan history, inventory, configuration, and audit logs are all preserved. Nothing is deleted.

Important: The locked state applies only to trial licenses. Perpetual licenses past their maintenance date continue to operate normally; the License page shows a lapsed alert, but no access is restricted.

The 7-day countdown banner before trial expiry gives you time to contact Stratum Global and obtain a perpetual license before the system locks.

Recovering from a locked state

Whether the locked state was triggered by trial expiry or by running without a license installed, the recovery path is the same:

1. Open the License tab of the System page (the UI redirects you there automatically when locked).
2. Apply a valid perpetual license file (.lic) issued by Stratum Global. See Applying a license for the step-by-step process.
3. On success, the system unlocks immediately. Tagnet resumes normal operation on the next request; no restart required.
4. RFID readers that buffered scan data during the locked period replay their events automatically once they receive successful responses from Tagnet.

Expired trial license files cannot be re-applied; the validator rejects them. You must apply a new perpetual license to exit the locked state. Contact your Stratum Global account representative if you need a license issued.

Device usage

Each license specifies a cap per device type. The Device usage section of the License page shows a table with one row per tracked device type. Each row displays the current active count, the licensed cap, and a color-coded progress bar:

• Green: well within the cap
• Amber: above 80% of the cap (approaching the limit)
• Red with "At cap" chip: the active count equals the cap; no additional devices of that type can be registered or reactivated until capacity is freed

The RFID Reader cap is hard-enforced: attempting to register a new reader or reactivate an inactive one while at cap is blocked immediately. The system shows a "License limit reached" message before you open the setup wizard, and the same check runs again at the service layer as a backstop. A LicenseCapExceeded security event is written for every blocked attempt so the audit trail captures who was turned away and why.

Inactive devices do not count toward your cap. To free a slot, deactivate a reader you no longer need active. See Devices for how to do that. To increase the cap, contact your Stratum Global account representative to obtain an updated license file.

A device type that is absent from a license's caps is treated as zero, not unlimited. If your license does not list RFID Readers, every create attempt will be blocked. Contact Stratum Global support if you need an updated license that adds new device types.

License history

Every license import, successful or rejected, is recorded in the Security Events log. Filter the Security Events page to license imported or license import rejected to see the full history of license applications, including who applied each one and when. Blocked device registration attempts (cap exceeded) are logged separately as license cap exceeded events in the same log.

While the system is locked, requests blocked by the license gate are also recorded as operation denied by license gate events, so you can see which actors and endpoints were affected. To keep the audit log readable over long lock periods, these denial events are deduplicated per lock session: each unique combination of actor and request path is logged at most once between the moment the gate locks and the moment it unlocks again. A reader that POSTs scans every few seconds for two months while waiting on a license renewal produces a single event per endpoint, not millions. The dedup set is held in memory and re-arms on process restart, so a server reboot during the lock will produce one fresh event per (actor, path) on the next denial.

Note: The License page does not include a history panel. The Security Events log is the complete record of license activity: see who applied which license, when, and from which actor.

Keep your .lic file in a safe place alongside your other system credentials. Stratum Global support can re-issue a license, but having the original file makes recovery faster.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to check
Trial expired / system locked	The trial period has ended. Open the License tab of the System page (the UI redirects you there automatically), apply a perpetual .lic file from Stratum Global, and the system unlocks immediately. See Recovering from a locked state.
Maintenance lapsed alert on the License page	Tagnet keeps running normally; no access restrictions apply. Renew annual maintenance with Stratum Global and apply the refreshed .lic file to clear the alert and restore eligibility for support and updates.
Code: KidUnknown, "…does not recognize…"	The license was signed under a key that this version of Tagnet does not recognize. Confirm with Stratum Global support that you have the correct license for your Tagnet release; the trusted key list is embedded in the application and updated with each release.
Code: SignatureInvalid, "…signature could not be verified…"	The file may have been altered or corrupted in transit. Re-download or have it re-issued, and ensure no manual edits were made to the .lic file.
Code: EnvelopeMalformed, "…doesn't look like a Tagnet license…"	Make sure you applied the entire file including the BEGIN/END lines, or upload the original .lic file rather than pasting an excerpt.
Code: HeaderMalformed, "…file is malformed and could not be parsed…"	The file appears truncated or its contents were altered. Re-download the original or have it re-issued.
Code: NotYetValid, "…is not yet valid…"	The license's start date is in the future, or the host clock is set in the past. Verify the system clock.
Code: Expired, "This license has expired"	Trial expiry, or a perpetual license used past its issuance window. Contact Stratum Global support to renew or obtain a replacement.
Code: IssuerInvalid / Code: AudienceInvalid	The file is signed by a different issuer or intended for a different product. Confirm with Stratum Global support that you have the correct .lic file.

Best practices

• Apply your license at install time. The first-run setup wizard requires it; completing setup without a valid license is no longer possible. Applying the license during setup ensures the system is fully operational from the first login.
• Keep the original .lic file. Stratum Global support can re-send it, but storing it with your other system credentials makes recovery faster.
• Back up the license file alongside your database. The license lives at %ProgramData%\Stratum Global\TagNet\licenses\license.lic on Windows or /var/lib/tagnet/licenses/license.lic on Linux. Including it in your routine backups means a server rebuild doesn't require contacting Stratum Global to re-issue.
• Review license events occasionally. The Security Events page captures every license change, including who applied it, which is useful evidence during a SOC 2 audit.
• Plan maintenance renewals before the 30-day window. The pre-lapse banner starts 30 days before lapse. Procurement and PO cycles often take longer than that, so initiate renewal with Stratum Global before the window opens to avoid any urgency.