About license files for GitHub Enterprise
When you purchase or renew GitHub Enterprise, GitHub provides a license file for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. A license file has an expiration date and controls the number of people who can use your GitHub Enterprise Server instance. After you download and install GitHub Enterprise Server, you must upload the license file to unlock the application for you to use.
For more information about downloading your license file, see "Downloading your license for GitHub Enterprise." For more information about uploading your license file, see "Uploading a new license to GitHub Enterprise Server."
If your license expires, you won't be able to access GitHub Enterprise Server via a web browser or Git. If needed, you will be able to use command-line utilities to back up all your data. For more information, see "Configuring backups on your appliance." If you have any questions about renewing your license, contact GitHub's Sales team.
About synchronization of license usage for GitHub Enterprise
GitHub Enterprise offers two deployment options. In addition to GitHub Enterprise Server, you can use GitHub Enterprise Cloud to host development work for your enterprise on GitHub.com. For more information, see "GitHub's products."
You can allocate the user count for your GitHub Enterprise license to members of both your GitHub Enterprise Server instance and an enterprise account on GitHub Enterprise Cloud. When you add a user to either environment, the user will consume one license. If a user has accounts in both environments, to consume only one license, the user's primary email address on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance must be the same as the user's verified email address on GitHub.com. You can sync license count and usage between the environments. For more information, see "Syncing license usage between GitHub Enterprise Server and GitHub Enterprise Cloud."