Originally Posted by PBucksJohn

Valid License not found is not an issue requiring a restart. This means there is NO license found and 99% of the time is due to someone modifying or upgrading the PHP or Zend install, or changing hardware as the license is hardware locked. License expired is the error where a restart would be required if a newer license is on the server.

The apache restart is due to Zend issues where Zend will not recognize a new license without apache being fully restarted. This isn't something caused by NATS. This restart doesn't apply to ioncube encoded installs.