Solution: "Not available in free version" despite valid license

After successfully connecting to an Apache Kafka cluster, KaDeck Web checks the number of brokers & if a license is available.

There are two reasons why you get this error even though your license information is correct (please check for copy-paste errors) & valid.

• KaDeck Web could not automatically retrieve the license from our license server when started in your environment.
• KaDeck Web could connect to the license server, but the license is already assigned.

(Note: In all cases the connection to the Apache Kafka cluster was successful: the number of brokers could be retrieved).

Problem

The problem is caused by the fact that KaDeck Web could not communicate with our server (no internet connection, firewall, etc.) or a license was already assigned. A license is only valid for one database. If you have not configured an external database yet and restart KaDeck Web (e.g. in a container), KaDeck Web will create a new database internally each time. 

Solution

Perform the offline activation as described in this article.
By doing this, you confirm that you are no longer running the previous KaDeck Web instance & the licenses are transferred to the new instance. Also, no internet connection from KaDeck Web is required for this (offline environment / air-gapped environments). However, since this is a challenge-response process, a connection to the Internet is required for the person performing the offline activation. Please log out and log in again after you have performed the offline activation for the changes to take effect!