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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?

You need a specific Community Edition license activation key to install Dashboard Server Community Edition. This will be a different key to any other you might have received from Dashboard Server for other products. You will have received this by email with your free trial or purchase.

How to Activate Dashboard Server

  1. After installing, the set up wizard prompts you to log in as a user who is an administrator on the SquaredUp server, then runs you through first-time use: Login, Activation, and Dashboard Packs. See How to install Dashboard Server Community Edition using the installer.
    Or you may need to browse to http://SquaredUpServer/SquaredUpv5/Activate
    (where SquaredUpServer is the name of the server where Dashboard Serveris 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.

  3. Click the Activate button.

  4. Complete the Dashboard Server setup wizard.

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.

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 . The Primary license should only be used for the first server in the deployment.

You need a specific Community Edition license activation key to install Dashboard Server Community Edition. This will be a different key to any other you might have received from Dashboard Server for other products. You will have received this by email with your free trial or purchase.

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

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).

You need a specific Community Edition license activation key to install Dashboard Server Community Edition. This will be a different key to any other you might have received from Dashboard Server for other products. You will have received this by email with your free trial or purchase.

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. If you gave your Dashboard Server instance a different name when you installed it, use the name you chose for your instance.

If you deployed Dashboard Server from the Azure Marketplace:

The URL is https://DNSName of the virtual machine (VM) deployed.