Managing Collector Activations

An activation represents a single registered security collector. Each activation corresponds to one Docker container running on the host. The Activations page at /activations is the central hub for registering, monitoring, and operating your collector agents.

What Is an Activation Key?

An activation key is a credential issued by the FortifyData platform that authorises this manager instance to run a specific collector type. It encodes the company identifier, integration type, data source (collector type), and a unique activation UUID.

Keep activation keys secure

Activation keys are stored in the local database inside /etc/fortify-data/. Do not share them or commit them to version control.

Registering a Collector

1. Navigate to the Activations page (/activations).
2. Click the Register button on the empty activation card. The card flips to reveal an activation code input.
3. Paste your activation key into the Activation Code field.
4. Click Activate.
5. The manager validates the key against the FortifyData API, pulls the appropriate collector Docker image, creates and starts the container, and registers recurring background jobs.
6. A green toast notification confirms success. The new activation card appears in the list.

If activation fails

A red toast notification describes the error. Common causes:

• Invalid or expired activation key
• No outbound HTTPS access to the FortifyData API
• Duplicate registration (this key is already active on another manager)

Activation Card Status

Each activation card shows a colour-coded health indicator:

Status	Colour	Meaning
Healthy	Green	Collector is running and the license is valid
Degraded / Outdated	Amber	Collector is running but a newer version is available
Unhealthy / Expired	Red	Collector is unreachable or the license has expired
Unknown	Grey	Status has not yet been retrieved

Activation Detail View

Click Open on an activation card to navigate to /activations/{id}. The detail view shows:

• Status — current container state with a colour-coded icon
• Uptime — human-readable time since the container last started
• Running Version — the image version currently in use
• Target Version — the version the FortifyData API expects; an amber badge appears when the two differ
• Hostname / IP — network address of the collector container
• Container ID — first 12 characters of the Docker container ID

Container States

State	Colour	Description
Running	Green	Container is operating normally
Creating / Starting	Grey	Container is being created or started
Created	Grey	Container exists but has not been started
Restarting	Amber	Container is restarting
Removing / Stopping	Amber	Transient removal or stop in progress
Paused	Blue	Container is paused
Exited	Grey	Container has stopped
Not Found	Red	No container found for this activation
Error / Dead	Red	Container is in an unrecoverable state
Unknown	Grey	Container state could not be determined

Actions

The Actions dropdown in the detail view provides the following operations:

Scan

• Request Manual Scan — triggers an immediate data pull on the running collector (only available when the container is in the Running state).

Utilities

• Download Logs — downloads the full container log as a .log file named {activation-id}-{timestamp}.log.
• Open Logs / Close Logs — opens or closes an in-page terminal showing live streaming container logs with colour-coded log levels.

When the log viewer is open, additional controls are available:

Control	Description
Line count selector	Choose 100, 500, 1000, or All lines
Timestamps	Toggle display of log timestamps
Search	Press Enter for the next match, Shift+Enter for the previous
Pause / Resume	Buffer incoming lines while paused
Clear	Clear the terminal display

Service

• Stop Service — stops the collector container gracefully. Only visible when the container is Running.
• Start Service — starts a stopped container. Only visible when the container is not Running.
• Reinstall Service — stops, removes, and recreates the container using the currently running image version. Use this to reset container state without changing the version.
• Upgrade Service — stops, removes, pulls the latest target version image, and recreates the container. Only visible when a newer version is available.

Administration

• Delete Activation — permanently removes the activation record from the database, deregisters from the FortifyData API, and removes the collector container. This action is irreversible; the activation key would need to be re-entered to re-register.

Destructive actions

Stop, Reinstall, Upgrade, and Delete all display a confirmation dialog before proceeding. Upgrade and Delete cannot be undone without re-registering the activation.

Upgrading a Collector

When a newer image version is available, the detail view shows an amber Update available badge next to the running version.

1. Click Upgrade Service from the Actions menu (or the upgrade button in the header).
2. Confirm the dialog.
3. The manager stops the running container, pulls the new image from Docker Hub, and starts a new container with the updated version.
4. The detail view updates to reflect the new running version once the container is healthy.

 

 

Auto Upgrade

If you have many collectors, you can enable Auto Upgrade from the FortifyData platform. With Auto Upgrade enabled, the manager performs the upgrade process automatically whenever a new version is released, without requiring manual intervention. This ensures your collectors are always up to date with the latest features and security patches.

If Auto Upgrade is enabled on the activation, the background upgrade-check job performs this automatically every 15 minutes without manual intervention.

Deleting an Activation

1. Open the activation detail view.
2. Select Delete Activation from the Actions menu.
3. Confirm the dialog.

The activation record is removed from the database, the collector container is stopped and removed, and the FortifyData API is notified. You are redirected to /activations after deletion.