${service} authentication will require a Premium plan starti

Error message

${service} authentication will require a Premium plan starting on version 9.0.0. This workspace has no license covering it, so ${service} logins will stop working after the upgrade.

What it means

Announced deprecation: starting with Rocket.Chat 9.0.0, LDAP and SAML authentication require a Premium license module. On each LDAP/SAML login (checked at login time, not startup, so licensed workspaces never see it), if the workspace license lacks the module this warning is logged once per module per process. Nothing breaks on 8.x, but after upgrading to 9.x those logins stop working.

Source

Thrown at apps/meteor/server/lib/premiumAuthDeprecation.ts:17

import type { LicenseModule } from '@rocket.chat/core-typings';
import { License } from '@rocket.chat/license';

import { SystemLogger } from './logger/system';

const warned = new Set<LicenseModule>();

// Checked on login instead of on startup so the license is already loaded and
// workspaces that do have the module never see the warning.
export function warnUnlicensedAuthService(service: 'LDAP' | 'SAML', module: LicenseModule): void {
	if (warned.has(module) || License.hasModule(module)) {
		return;
	}

	warned.add(module);

	SystemLogger.warn({
		msg: `${service} authentication will require a Premium plan starting on version 9.0.0. This workspace has no license covering it, so ${service} logins will stop working after the upgrade.`,
		module,
	});
}

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)

Solutions

Before upgrading to 9.0.0, purchase and apply a license that includes the LDAP/SAML modules
If Premium is not an option, plan migration to another auth method (OAuth providers, built-in accounts) well before the upgrade
Inventory exposure: count users whose loginService is LDAP/SAML and their last login dates
On 8.x the warning is safe to acknowledge — it is a heads-up, not a failure; it fires once per server start per module

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import { License } from '@rocket.chat/license';

const module: LicenseModule = 'saml-service'; // or the LDAP module
if (!License.hasModule(module)) {
  // surface to admins now: logins via this method stop working on 9.0.0
  Notifications.notifyAdmins({ msg: `${service} login requires a Premium license as of 9.0.0 — plan migration` });
}

Prevention

Audit license modules before any major-version upgrade
Track how many users authenticate via LDAP/SAML and plan a fallback auth method
Treat this warning as an upgrade blocker, not log noise

When it happens

Trigger: A user logs in via LDAP or SAML on a workspace whose license does not include the corresponding module (community edition / no license) — warnUnlicensedAuthService fires on the first login attempt per module after server start.

Common situations: Community-edition workspaces relying on LDAP or SAML for SSO ahead of a 9.0 upgrade; licenses downgraded or expired; evaluation installs deciding whether to upgrade.

Understand the failure class

Authentication and authorization failures — expired tokens, bad credentials, and missing scopes.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1c992118fc05511e. Report an issue: GitHub.