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How to activate your license

Documentation Team
  • Updated

How to activate your license

After installing Dashboard Server you will be prompted to login and enter a license activation key. You will have been emailed an activation key (often called a license key or activation key), which is then activated against a Dashboard Server installation.

If you have been asked to reactivate your existing license key, because it has been modified or extended, then you will need to reactivate your existing license (see How to reactivate your license).

If your web server cannot connect to the internet to activate then you can do an offline activation (see How to activate your license offline (manual activation)).

Use this article if you have been sent a new license activation key.

Where do I find my activation key?

Free trial

When you apply for a free trial you receive an unrestricted 30 day evaluation to try out all features in your own SCOM environment: Request a free trial activation key. If you've previously had a trial, or your trial has expired please contact SquaredUp Support.

Purchased Dashboard Server

When you buy Dashboard Server you will be emailed your license keys. If you do not have a license activation key please contact SquaredUp Support.

Types of license keys

Trial license This license allows for unlimited users and all features for a 30 day evaluation in your own environment and is available from here
Primary Production licenseThis license should be used if you only have one SquaredUp production server, or on your first SquaredUp production server if you are configuring a multi-server / high availability environment (see Enabling High Availability).
Secondary license

This license should only be used for any subsequent servers in a multi-server / high availability / load balanced environment (see Enabling High Availability).

Test & Development license

This license is for your test environment so that you can experiment with configuration changes and new versions without affecting production.

It is included free of charge with a purchase of the Teams, Connect and EAM editions.

Dashboard Server v3 customers upgrading to v4

If you are upgrading from v3 to v4 you should request a v4 evaluation license before starting your v4 installation. This will allow you to perform any upgrade testing and user acceptance testing, prior to going live and switching your production use to v4. Without this license you will be able to install v4 and perform an upgrade assessment, but unable to then activate the product and start testing.

Take a moment to read How to migrate from Dashboard Server SCOM Edition v3 to v4 for important considerations regarding how to upgrade from v3 to v4.

Once you are ready to move to v4 in production, enter your Primary license key into the Switchover portal to convert all your existing v3 licenses to v4 licenses which can be used to activate v4. From that point you will have 3 months to run v3 and v4 side-by-side in production, before the v3 instance is no longer supported and you will be in violation of the SquaredUp EULA.

How to Activate Dashboard Server

  1. After installing, the set up wizard prompts you to log in as a user who is a SCOM Admin (see Types of users in Dashboard Server), and ideally SQL sysadmin user (see How to make a user a SQL sysadmin), then runs you through first-time use: Login, Activation, Data Warehouse, Open Access, EAM, and Dashboard Packs. See How to install Dashboard Server SCOM Edition.

    Or you may need to browse to http://SquaredUpServer/SquaredUpv5/Activate
    or for v4
    http://SquaredUpServer/SquaredUpv4/Activate
    (where SquaredUpServer is the name of the server where Dashboard Server is installed).

  2. Paste your license key into the Activation screen.

    Take care to use the correct license key, as many licenses only allow one activation.

    For example, the Primary key for the first server, or the Secondary key for subsequent servers in a multi-server / high availability environment (see Enabling High Availability). The Primary key can be activated only once, while the Secondary key can be activated on up to 3 servers.

  3. Click the Activate button.

  4. Complete the Dashboard Server setup wizard.

For more information on the setup wizard stages see How to install Dashboard Server SCOM Edition - Logon to Dashboard Server for the first time.

How to check which license key is being used

Each Dashboard Server instance should have only oneDashboard Server license key installed. This is usually either a trial license, or - after purchasing Dashboard Server - the Primary or Secondary license. You may have both a Primary and a trial license installed, for example, if you are trialing new features while considering a license upgrade.

To check which license is being used by an instance of Dashboard Server, open Dashboard Server on a particular server by using the localhost address on the server itself or using the server name in the URL, for example https://SquaredUpServer/SquaredUpv5/

  1. In Dashboard Server click on the right-hand menu ☰ and then on system.
  2. Click on licensing .

Here you can remove a license, but if you accidentally remove the active license you may not be able to access Dashboard Server again without contacting SquaredUp Support.

Types of licenses

Trial license This license allows for unlimited users and all features for a 30 day evaluation in your own environment and is available from here
Primary Production licenseThis license should be used if you only have one SquaredUp production server, or on your first SquaredUp production server if you are configuring a multi-server / high availability environment (see Enabling High Availability).
Secondary license

This license should only be used for any subsequent servers in a multi-server / high availability / load balanced environment (see Enabling High Availability).

Test & Development license

This license is for your test environment so that you can experiment with configuration changes and new versions without affecting production.

It is included free of charge with a purchase of the Teams, Connect and EAM editions.

If you are having problems activating

Activation keys are normally valid for a limited number of activations.

Your Primary license key can only be activated once. Your Primary license should be used on the first server in your production environment.

If you are adding further SquaredUp servers to a multi-server / high availability environment you should use the Secondary license key for each subsequent server (see Enabling High Availability) . The Primary license should only be used for the first server in the deployment.

If you are using your v3 activation key on v4, please see How to migrate from Dashboard Server SCOM Edition v3 to v4 for how to proceed.

If you uninstall and reinstall on the same server and you originally carried out an offline activation (as described in How to activate your license offline (manual activation))then you can reuse the same .bin file by browsing to http://SquaredUpServer/SquaredUpv5/InstallLicense (where SquaredUpServer is the name of the server where Dashboard Server is installed). The .bin file cannot be used on a different server.

For more information see How to activate your license.

If you need any help please contact SquaredUp Support with the activation key.

You need a license activation key to install Dashboard Server SCOM Edition. You will have received this by email following your purchase or free trial. If you do not have an activation key please contact SquaredUp Support.

There are two kinds of license key format. The old and the new license key format.

New format:

Dashboard Server license keys have a text prefix followed by 5 groups of letters and numbers:

type-prefix-aaaaa-bbbbb-ccccc-ddddd-eeeee

For example:

SQUP-PRIMARY-abc12-def34-ghi56-78jkl-90mno

 

Old format:

Dashboard Server license keys contain of 5 groups of 5 letters/numbers:

aaaaa-bbbbb-ccccc-ddddd-eeeee

 

Dashboard Server v4.1 and above accepts both the new prefixed license key and the old style without the prefix.

Dashboard Server v4.0 and below only accepts the old style license key. Remove the prefix from the license key to leave just 5 groups.

For example, remove SQUP-PRIMARY- to leave just aaaaa-bbbbb-ccccc-ddddd-eeeee.

That's fine, you can perform a manual or offline activation on another computer that has got internet access and then copy the .bin activation file onto the server. See How to activate your license offline (manual activation).

The activation key being used is not valid for the version of Dashboard Server. For example, this error occurs when using a Community Edition (CE) activation key on Dashboard Server v4. CE licenses can only be used on Dashboard Server v3.

Some license activation keys (such as for technical preview releases and evaluation licenses) are only valid for a limited time period. Contact SquaredUp Support to obtain an up-to-date activation key.

For other renewable licenses you will normally be able to renew your license before it expires. As part of this renewal process, Dashboard Server will update your existing license with the new subscription term, so you can simply reactivate your license for the changes to take effect.

See  How to reactivate your license.

If your license expires before you are able to renew then you may be sent a new license activation key, which you should paste into the activation screen to activate the new key, when prompted when you open Dashboard Server.

See How to activate your license

Anything else we can help with

Please contact SquaredUp Support if you need any help.

Following activation

Browse to your Dashboard Server instance.

By default, the URL to your Dashboard Server instance is: http://SquaredUpServer/SquaredUpInstance

SquaredUpServer is the name of the server where Dashboard Server is installed.

By default, SquaredUpInstance for version 5 is SquaredUpv5 and for version 4 is SquaredUpv4. If you gave your Dashboard Server instance a different name when you installed it, use the name you chose for your instance.