Fix: ImpulseVPS license validation fails

What you're seeing

• In ImpulseVPS, Diagnostics → License shows the Tier as Standard and the Key state as No valid key — paste an IVPS- key in ImpulseCore → Licenses (existing servers keep running).
• The license pill at the right of the ImpulseVPS tab strip reads Free · Activate → instead of ✓ Licensed.
• In ImpulseCore → Modules & Licensing → Licenses, the Cloud VPS entry (slug impulsevps) shows In grace, Expired, Invalid or No key, or clicking Save (Replace when a key is already stored) returns The replacement key was not accepted.
• New orders fail at the WHMCS Create step with the ImpulseVPS license is not active.

During a grace period, Diagnostics → License still reads Active, while ImpulseCore's Licenses page shows In grace and when it ends. Fix the cause and click Re-check now before then, and nothing stops.

Why it happens

ImpulseCore checks the key with the licensing server when you save it, daily after that, and when you click Re-check now. The first time a key validates, the licensing server records the domain from your WHMCS System URL. From then on, it accepts the key only from that install.

A check fails if the key was pasted wrong, belongs to another install or isn't active (suspended, expired or cancelled). It also fails if the WHMCS server can't reach the licensing server over HTTPS.

What ImpulseVPS does meanwhile

A key that was already working gets a grace period: 48 hours if the licensing server says the key isn't active, or 7 days if the server can't be reached. ImpulseVPS works normally during grace. ImpulseCore emails your WHMCS administrators when grace starts, once it is about half over, and at the first check after it ends. A key that never validated gets none.

Once the license is inactive:

• Running servers keep running: the lapse itself powers nothing off and deletes nothing. WHMCS Suspend, Unsuspend and Terminate still work, and the scheduled purge at the end of a suspension or termination grace period still runs.
• New orders are refused at Create, before anything is created at Vultr, Hetzner Cloud, DigitalOcean or Linode.
• Server actions such as power, reinstall, resize, snapshots, backups, firewall, reverse DNS and additional storage are refused for you and your customers. Customers see Server management is temporarily unavailable — the operator licence is inactive. Your server is unaffected.

Fix

Open ImpulseCore → Modules & Licensing → Licenses and expand Cloud VPS. The message after Save, Replace or Re-check now points to the cause. For a key that was working, the Grace field also reads invalid (48h) or unreachable (7d).

1. "does not match this module's registered key prefix": the key isn't an ImpulseVPS key. Paste your IVPS- key, not another module's key.
2. "contains unsupported characters or exceeds 255 characters": the key has a tab or another hidden control character inside it, or the paste is longer than 255 characters. ImpulseCore ignores spaces, tabs and line breaks at either end, but the key field hides what you paste, so check it in a plain-text editor first. Copy it from the License key box on the license's page at www.impulsesoftware.com.
3. "licensing server returned suspended" or "expired", or License invalid for a key that was working: sign in at www.impulsesoftware.com, open the license under Licenses and check its Status. If it isn't Active, settle it under Billing & Invoices, then click Re-check now (or, if ImpulseCore never accepted the key, paste it and click Save again). If it is Active, go to the next step.
4. "licensing server returned invalid": the licensing server doesn't accept the key from this install. The usual causes are a typo, a cancelled license, or a key already tied to another install: a different domain or WHMCS server IP address. A domain mismatch usually follows a move to a new domain, or a staging copy of WHMCS that validated the key first.
   1. On the license's page in the portal, compare Valid domains with the host name in your WHMCS System URL.
   2. Under Change domain, enter the current host name and click Update domain.
   3. Back in ImpulseCore, click Re-check now. If ImpulseCore never accepted the key, click Save again instead.

   Reissue license doesn't change the domain. It generates a new key and the old one stops validating, so if you reissue, paste the new key and click Replace right away. If you moved servers and Valid IPs shows the old address, contact support; the portal can't change it.

5. "verification failed" followed by an HTTP error, or a grace reason saying the last re-check could not reach the licensing server: the WHMCS server can't make the outbound call. Check that:
   • your firewall and hosting provider allow outbound HTTPS (port 443) from the WHMCS server.
   • PHP has the cURL extension. If it doesn't, the error says so.
   • the CA certificates are current and no proxy intercepts TLS. ImpulseCore always verifies the licensing server's certificate.

   For the exact error, open ImpulseCore → Operations → Audit, set Module to impulsevps and Event contains to license, and read the license.check.failed entries.

How to confirm it worked

• The Cloud VPS entry shows Active.
• Diagnostics → License shows Licensed and Active — features enabled, and the pill reads ✓ Licensed.
• Diagnostics → Health Checks → Provisioning preflight no longer lists the license.
• Orders refused while the license was inactive stay Pending in WHMCS. Run Module Create on each of them again.

Still stuck?

Open a ticket from the portal at www.impulsesoftware.com, or use the support contacts under Diagnostics → Help, and attach the support snapshot from there (it masks secrets). Include the exact message from ImpulseCore, the last four characters of the key (never the full key), your WHMCS System URL host name and the WHMCS server's public IP address.

Related

• Understanding ImpulseVPS licensing
• Installing ImpulseVPS — step-by-step
• Fix: ImpulseVPS activation stops with an ImpulseCore message