Managing the Licenses

Using the ActivID Console Licenses page, you can view the status of licenses in your system and import new licenses if necessary.

Starting with ActivID Appliance 8.5 Hot Fix FIXS2103005 for new deployments (that is, an appliance that is not yet initialized or configured with a license), the subscription license mode has replaced the perpetual license mode.

  • For new ActivID Appliance deployments, if you have a perpetual license, you must import it before installing the hot fix.
  • For existing ActivID Appliance deployments with perpetual licenses, you can continue to purchase and import new perpetual licenses after applying the hot fix.
Note: You cannot switch between the perpetual and subscription license modes.

Recommendation: Purchase as many licenses as the number of users who will be using the production system.

In perpetual mode, ActivID Appliance licensing enforces the control of the number of users per domain having at least one authenticator:

  • At authenticator creation, by checking the number of users having at least one authenticator against imported user licenses.
  • At software update, by checking the number of users having at least one authenticator against imported maintenance licenses.
Note: 25 trial User and Maintenance licenses are free. You can create up to 25 users with authenticators for testing purposes before buying a license. The 25 trial licenses will be added to the number of purchased licenses.

User licenses enforce the maximum number of registered users. A registered user is a user with at least one authentication record.

User licenses are additive so you can progressively buy more licenses to meet your deployment requirements.

The feature name for a User license is 4T-USER.

For User licenses, warnings are displayed in the ActivID Management Console and ActivID Console when the number of users with at least one authenticator reaches 90% of the User License user limit (that is, when fewer than 10% of the number of user licenses purchased are left).

There is a 20% tolerance when the number of users with at least one authenticator reaches the User License limit. After this threshold, authenticator creation is blocked (for user licenses) and software update is blocked (for maintenance licenses).

Maintenance licenses enable you to install software updates if the number of registered users corresponds to the number of valid maintenance licenses.

Maintenance licenses are exclusive so each license import overwrites the previous one.

The feature name for Maintenance license is 4T-MAINTENANCE.

For Maintenance licenses only, warnings are displayed when the license is about to expire (30 days before the expiry date).

For both User and Maintenance licenses, the number of registered users is the total number of users that have at least one authenticator (including system users), regardless of the domain.

To enforce user license, it is checked at each user authenticator creation. The following is a list of examples for authenticator creation:

  • User authenticator created for local database user using the API or the ActivID Management Console
  • User authenticator created for LDAP user using the API or the ActivID Management Console
  • LDAP fallback authentication as the authenticator is created automatically
  • AAA fallback authentication as the authenticator is created automatically

To enforce maintenance license, it is checked each time a hot fix/service pack is uploaded.

For further information, see Manage Perpetual Licenses.

In subscription mode, ActivID Appliance licensing enforces the control of the number of users (seats), including users without an authenticator.

To enforce control, the license status is checked at each user creation.

ActivID Appliance also enforces the license validity (end date) and authentications will fail if the license is not renewed before it expires.

Warnings are displayed in the ActivID Management Console and ActivID Console when the number of seats reaches 90% of the user limit (that is, when fewer than 10% of the number of seats are left).

Note: A one year trial license is available for free with 25 seats. You can create up to 25 users with authenticators for testing purposes before buying a full subscription license. The 25 trial seats will be absorbed into the number of purchased seats.

For further information, see Managing Subscription Licenses.

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