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Overview
To obtain an activation key(s) to license your product(s) - web-activated licensing starts with a sales order. As a part of the sales order, the user will provide a licensing contact, who will receive the Activation Keys by email once the order is complete. Multiple emails may be received as different activation keys are generated for each product/version/level. These emails should be saved as they contain your activation keys which are required to license your product. The email also contains instructions to download and install the License Manager, Sentinel RMS Utilities and the product, along with activating the licenses.
NOTE: Internet access is required for the activation, deactivation and renewal of the licenses on the server.
More specifically the user runs the license activation tool (NetKey.exe) on the server which is installed with the Sentinel RMS Utilities. When prompted, copy/paste in the activation key(s), one at a time. During activation or renewal, the activation tool determines the locking code of the server, retrieves a license through the internet and automatically saves the license file on the server.
The locking code for web-activated licenses is based on multiple hardware criteria. These licenses are no longer locked to the USB key (Computer Key) and therefore the USB key is no longer required to license web-activated products.
Important
The license is now locked to multiple locking criteria including Ethernet Address, CPU Info String and UUID. Any server changes affecting any of these locking criteria, including maintenance, repair or reformatting the server, will cause the license to no longer work and also prevent the license from being deactivated. Please deactivate the license(s) before making any changes to the license server.
Installation
In order to serve web-activated network licenses, you will need to install Sentinel RMS License Manager and Sentinel RMS 8.5 Utilities. Both these tools can be installed either using the CSI Installation Wizard or the their installation files can be downloaded from the following direct links:
- License Manager: http://www.csiamerica.com/go/software/license-manager
- Sentinel RMS Utilities: http://www.csiamerica.com/go/software/license-manager-utilities
The License Manager (+ Sentinel RMS Utilities) can be installed on a physical machine as well as a virtual machine. For virtual machines, clustered environments do not support web-activated licenses, therefore please notify our sales associates when placing an order that web-activated licensing cannot be used.
License activation, deactivation, reactivation and renewal
Web-activated network licenses use NetKey.exe to activate, deactivate, reactivate, and renew the licenses on the license server. This tool can be found in the Sentinel RMS 8.5 Utilities installation folder, and a shortcut is provided on the Windows Start menu. The activation key is required to activate or reactivate a license. Users should always deactivate their licenses before uninstalling the License Manager and/or Sentinel RMS Utilities. Step by step instructions can be found in the file below:
Important
The license activation server ports are 80 and 443. If either of these ports is blocked, they need to be opened, otherwise license activation will not be possible. Please refer to the Error 'Port 80 (or 443) is not responding' when running activation tool for web-activated licenses article for additional information.
For products released prior to 2/4/2014, ports 8080 and 8443 were used instead of ports 80 and 443. If you are using products released prior to 2/4/2014, please upgrade to the latest version as ports 80 and 443 are typically opened on most systems by default.
Troubleshooting network license problems
Please refer to the Licensing errors and their resolution article for troubleshooting instructions specific to each error code.
The methods for diagnosing and solving licensing problems for web-activated licensing remain the same as for conventional licensing.
