Enabling licenses

If you are installing an IBM® software product for the first time or want to extend a license to continue using the product, you have options on how to enable licensing for your product.

Licenses are enabled in two ways:

Note: Trial licenses that came with the 7.0 and later versions of some Rational products expire 30 or 60 days after installation. You need to activate your product in order to use it after the expiration date. See this support article on product activation for a flow chart of the activation process.

Activation Kits

Product activation kits contain the permanent license key for your trial IBM product. You purchase, download, and then import the activation kit to enable the license for your product.

If you later uninstall a product, for example, to move it to another workstation, then you have considerations for how to handle any permanent license keys that are installed.

For more information on buying products, visit the IBM Web page on How to buy software.

Floating license enforcement

Optionally, you can obtain floating license keys, install IBM Rational® License Server, and enable Floating license enforcement for your product. Floating license enforcement provides the following benefits:

Note: Some 7.0 and later versions of Rational products require an upgraded version of the Rational License Server. See this support article for license upgrade information.

For more information on buying products, visit the IBM Web page on How to buy software.

About product and license uninstallation

If you uninstall a package, for example, in order to move the installation to another workstation, any permanent license key for the package that you imported will also be removed. In cases where you will be reinstalling the product on the same workstation or installing the product on another workstation, you will need the activation kit to import the license key and agreement to the new installation location.

If you have uninstalled a product, reinstalled the product, and do not have the original activation kit, download the product activation kit from Passport Advantage and import the license key.


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