Activate GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE)

Tier: Premium, Ultimate Offering: Self-managed

When you install a new GitLab instance without a license, only Free features are enabled. To enable more features in GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE), activate your instance with an activation code.

Activate GitLab EE

Prerequisites:

  • You must purchase a subscription.
  • You must be running GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE).
  • Your instance must be connected to the internet.

To activate your instance with an activation code:

  1. Copy the activation code, a 24-character alphanumeric string, from either:
    • Your subscription confirmation email.
    • The Customers Portal, on the Manage Purchases page.
  2. Sign in to your GitLab self-managed instance.
  3. On the left sidebar, at the bottom, select Admin.
  4. Select Subscription.
  5. Paste the activation code in Activation code.
  6. Read and accept the terms of service.
  7. Select Activate.

The subscription is activated.

Using one activation code for multiple instances

You can use a single activation code or license key for multiple self-managed instances if the users are:

  • Identical to your licensed production instance.
  • A subset of your licensed production instance.

The activation code is valid for these instances, regardless of how users are configured in groups and projects.

For scaled architectures

To activate your instance in a scaled architecture:

  • Upload the license file to one application instance only.

The license is stored in the database and is replicated to all instances.

For GitLab Geo

To activate your instance when using GitLab Geo:

  • Upload the license to your primary Geo instance.

The license is stored in the database and is replicated to all instances.

For offline environments

To activate your instance for an offline environment:

If you have questions or need assistance activating your instance, contact GitLab Support.

When the license expires, some functionality is locked.

Verify your GitLab edition

To verify the edition, sign in to GitLab and select Help () > Help. The GitLab edition and version are listed at the top of the page.

If you are running GitLab Community Edition (CE), you can upgrade your installation to GitLab EE. For more details, see Upgrading between editions.

If you have questions or need assistance, contact GitLab Support.

Troubleshooting

When activating your paid subscription features on self-managed instances, you might encounter the following issues.

Error: An error occurred while adding your subscription

This issue might occur after you enter your activation code.

To find more details about the error, you can use your browser’s developer tools:

  1. To open developer tools, right-click on a page and select Inspect.
  2. Select the Network tab.
  3. In GitLab, retry the activation code.
  4. In the Network tab, select the graphql entry.

  5. Select the Response tab, and check for an error similar to: 

       [{"data":{"gitlabSubscriptionActivate":{"errors":["<error> returned=1 errno=0 state=error: <error>"],"license":null,"__typename":"GitlabSubscriptionActivatePayload"}}}]

To resolve the issue:

  • If the GraphQL response includes only get, head, options, and trace methods are allowed in silent mode, disable silent mode for your instance.

If you are unable to determine the issue, contact GitLab Support and provide the GraphQL response in your description of the issue.

Cannot activate instance due to connectivity error

When activating your instance, you may encounter connectivity issues preventing connection to GitLab servers. This can be caused by:

  • Firewall settings:

    • To confirm that your GitLab instance can establish an encrypted connection to https://customers.gitlab.com on port 443, use the following curl command: 

      curl --verbose "https://customers.gitlab.com/"
    • If the curl command returns an error, either:
      • Check your firewall or proxy. The domain https://customers.gitlab.com is fronted by Cloudflare. Ensure your firewall or proxy allows traffic to the Cloudflare IPv4 and IPv6 ranges for activation to work.
      • Configure a proxy in gitlab.rb to point to your server.

      Contact your network administrator to make changes to an existing proxy or firewall.

    • If an SSL inspection appliance is used, you must add the appliance’s root CA certificate to /etc/gitlab/trusted-certs on your instance, then run gitlab-ctl reconfigure.
  • Customers Portal is not operational:
    • Check for any active disruptions to the Customers Portal on status.
  • An offline environment:

    • If you are unable to configure your setup to allow connection to GitLab servers, contact your Sales Representative to request an Offline license.

      For assistance finding your sales representative you can contact GitLab support.