Your Skans account

Your account at the portal holds your licenses, the appliances using them, and your team. Each page is controls and data; the explanations live here.

Agreements #

Quotes sent to your organization. Enterprise is not sold in the shop — contact sales from the page.

An agreement page is read-only: term in years, effective dates, status, totals and lines. Accepting a sent revision is the only action.

Appliances #

Every appliance running under one of your licenses. Appliances appear automatically when they check in — there is nothing to register by hand.

Online means a check-in within the last 30 minutes. Offline means no check-in for more than 30 minutes; it does not confirm the appliance is powered off. License validity is shown separately on the license page.

Changing a row’s site moves the license and every appliance using it.

Billing #

Card purchases and subscriptions on this account. Change the card, see invoices, switch monthly or yearly, or cancel a subscription in the card provider’s billing portal.

An Offsite Vault subscription set up by Skans, or paid by another account, is not in your card billing portal — ask support to change or end it.

Downloads #

The builds your licenses entitle you to, and how to give one your key. Anything above your edition is listed but not offered.

Treat every installer as a privileged binary. Download only from this page. The figure next to the file lives on the same host as the download, so it cannot prove the file — check the SHA-256 on the trust page, not next to the button. On Windows, Authenticode must show CN=La Costa Services LLC, the company that publishes Skans.

A matching installer may not be published yet for a newer appliance version. Keep your current installation; do not downgrade. Older appliance downloads are hidden to prevent a downgrade.

Until builds are published here, yours comes from us directly — reply to the email that carried your license, or write to [email protected] saying which edition and platform you need. Your license key and its expiration are on the Licenses page.

Before installing #

Choose the platform and architecture shown for your computer. Administrator access is required for Windows installers; Linux package installation requires root or sudo access. Allow enough free disk space for the download and installation.

Appliance requirements: Windows Server 2025 with a Windows Server license; 16 GB RAM and 4 x86-64 CPU cores minimum (32 GB RAM and 8 or more cores recommended). Use SSD storage sized for your retention window and at least one network interface. See hardware and supported OS requirements and storage sizing. For agents, follow the Windows installation guide or Linux installation guide.

The Skans Key app is not published in this catalog yet. Its installer will appear here when released. For access in the meantime, ask Skans support for the app; you do not need to buy a support ticket.

Recovery kit #

Lost an appliance that sent Offsite backups? The Skans recovery kit decrypts the copies you download from Offsite backups on any machine, with the site’s key from its printed recovery sheet. It is free and needs no license.

Registering an appliance #

Every install carries a license, Community included — it is how the appliance knows what it is entitled to, and how it appears on your Appliances page. Open the appliance console and enter your key on the License page. The appliance stores the key and checks in immediately, then reports the edition it was granted. You can also paste the key at first run.

Field keys #

A field key is a hardware security key (a YubiKey 5 FIPS) that lets a technician sign in at a customer’s Skans appliance.

1. Install the Skans Key app on the technician’s computer (support supplies it — request the free app).
2. Get a setup code on this page and type it into the app, with the key plugged in. It works once and is not shown again.
3. The key becomes active after two approvals: an owner or admin here, and the customer for their own site (or a second admin).

Home #

What you hold, what is running, and what needs doing. Community is free and issues immediately — get a license from the Shop to start.

Every install of Skans carries a license, Community included. It is how the appliance proves what it is entitled to, and how you find your appliances on this page.

License status describes entitlement, not whether an appliance is online — open Site monitoring for connection health.

Licenses #

Licenses, their assigned sites, and the appliances using them. Sanitizer seats are not site-based.

Paid editions are handled by our team — write to [email protected] and we will set one up for you.

Card purchases are billed monthly or annually by our payment provider. Change the card, download invoices or cancel there — nothing here needs a person.

To add capacity, choose the license in My sites to see prices and the resulting device allowance before adding expansion blocks.

A key issued before you had an account — or over the phone — can be added on the page; its appliances then appear with your others.

License detail #

Type the key into the appliance console when setup asks for a license — this is the only place it needs typing. For Sanitizer, enter it in the app on each Windows machine; each machine uses one seat.

Each enrolled device counts toward the allowance. Need more? Add devices to the license in the Shop rather than buying a second one. A Sanitizer seat is one Windows machine; add seats in the Shop.

For an air-gapped appliance: enter the appliance ID from its License page and download the file. Use Import license file on that appliance. The file reserves the key for that appliance until it expires, even if you mark the appliance replaced. It lasts up to 13 months — download a new one before it expires. If the hardware fails, contact [email protected].

If the site was moved onto an appliance you do not hold, name the appliance that should serve it to recover it. This is audited, and we email you. Then download a license file for that appliance.

A disaster-recovery license is a separate license for the warm standby of the site — not a second copy. Every edition includes it, including Community. We email every owner. Promoting moves the primary license here and retires the previous appliance and temporary license; shut down the old primary before completing the move.

A server upgrade moves the license onto a new server with one time-limited license for the new appliance (30 or 90 days, one upgrade at a time, at most 90 days total). When the new server takes the license, the old appliance is retired. We email every owner.

Appliances appear after their first check-in with the key. Assigning the license to a site assigns every appliance using it to that site. If you replace hardware, mark the old appliance replaced on the page and shut it down — one license covers one site. To move to a new server, give the new appliance the same key (it is entitled as soon as it checks in), then mark the old one replaced.

Offsite backups are encrypted copies of the site’s backups, held by Skans. A grace-period or revoked license keeps downloads available until the wipe date; renew before then.

If a renewal is waiting on a purchase order or an approval, tell us — we are glad to give more time, and asking is free. Use Request more time on the license page.

A connected appliance picks up an extension at its next check-in. For one that never connects, download the extension file and import it on the appliance like a license file; it works for that appliance only.

Security #

Authenticator setup: scan the QR code with your authenticator app, or enter the setup key by hand. Your current authenticator keeps working until you verify a code from the new app. A setup that already expired must be started again from Security.