Control License Activation

You can control activations of a license by any of the following mechanisms:

• Setting a Max Allowed Device limit when issuing a license
• Disabling License at any stage
• Limiting activations of the license to a single machine/device
• Limiting activations based on a machine's environment using Custom Tags

You can utilize any of these mechanisms manually via the Software Potential web portal or programmatically using the LicenseManagementWS web service API.

Max  Allowed Devices Limit

When issuing a license you can limit the number of devices on which a license may be activated by setting the Max Allowed Devices limit on the license. Each time a license is initially activated on a device the Software Potential Activation Service will allow the activation if the Max Allowed Devices limit for the license has not been exceeded i.e. the total Active Devices count does not exceeded Max Allowed Devices. Each successful initial activation of the license, whether on one device or several devices, is included in total Activation count by the Activation Service.

When issuing a license set Max Allowed Device value in the Issue panel at the bottom of the Issue page.The default value is 1.

If the Max Allowed Devices limit is reached then you can either or both of the following to allow further activations:

• Deactivate a device on which the license has already been activated
• Increase the Max Allowed Devices limit.

Deactivate A Device

If the Max Activation count has been reached you can "recover" previous activations by deactivating a device on which the license has already been activated.  Typically this occurs when a user device has failed and the user wishes to activate the license on a replacement machine. When a license is deactivated on a device all activations of the license on the device are excluded when calculating the total activations of the license i.e. as if the device never existed. To deactivate a device see Deactivate a License. 

Increase Allowed Devices Limit

You can increase this limit at any time without having to reissue the license. To do this:

1. Search for the license using its Activation Key
2. Select the license in the search results and click View Details button
3. In the License Activations panel set the number of devices allowed for the license and click Save button

Disable Activation

You can at any stage disable any further activation of a given license. To do this:

1. Search for the license using its Activation Key
2. Select the license in the search results and click View Details button
3. Click the Disable button at the top of the license details page. 

Limit Activations to a Single Device

You can also limit activations of a license to a single device using activation locking mechanism. The result is that the license can only ever be reactivated on the machine on which it was first activated, even though multiple activations may be allowed by the Max Activations limit set on the license. This is a good option if you wish to allow multiple activations of a license on a device but do NOT want the customer to activate the license on more than one device. To do this when issuing a license:

1. In the Environment and Locking panel, select Node Locked Standalone option
2. Check the Single Machine checkbox

Limit Activations Using Custom Tags

You can limit activations of a license based on the values of specially prefixed Custom Tags passed in the activation request.  These tags are referred to as Activation Custom Tags and the Tag Names are prefixed with "A:". For example, an Activation Custom Tag named "A:Domain" that contains the value of the machine's domain (e.g. "InishTech.com") can be added to each activation reqeuest.

You use the AddActivationTags method in the SpAgent.Product.Customization.cs file to pass one or Custom Tag in an activation request:

	static void AddActivationTags( IActivationTaggingContext context )
	{
		context.AddTag("Domain","inishtech.com");
	} 

On receipt of the activation request the Activation Service will:

• Extract the Activation Custom Tags if any
• Check whether any of the request's Activation Tags are already recorded in the license.
• Compare recorded tag value with the received tag value.

The activation will be allowed if the values are the same; it will be refused if they're not and an appropriate activation error is returned.

On the first activation, if no Activation Custom Tags are set on the license, then the Activation tags included in the activation request are recorded on the license;  these recorded tag values will be compared with the Activation tags received in all subsequent activation requests.

Set Activation Custom Tags On License Issue

When issuing a license it is possible to set an Activation Custom Tag on a license to restrict subsequent activations. For example if you wish to restrict a license to a specific domain (e.g. to inishtech.com) you could add a Custom Tag with TagName "A:Domain" and TagValue "inishtech.com" to the license; you can do this manually using either the Software Potential web portal or programmatically using the LicenseManagementWS web service.

Each activation request must contain an Activation Tag with the TagName "A:Domain" and with the machine's domain name as TagValue. The activation service will allow the activation only if the domain contained in request's "A:Domain" tag matches the value set in the license's "A:Domain" Custom Tag.