Step 3: Generating A License

A license contains the information required to activate one or more TIBCO products. A license is valid for the duration of your subscription to the TIBCO products identified in the license.

Note:

  • If you run TIBCO applications in a development environment, you need to activate them with a license. You can perform local testing of TIBCO applications within TIBCO Business Studio without generating a license.

  • A license generated for TIBCO Activation Service must be deployed to a specific instance of TIBCO Activation Service for which they are defined. However, a single license for In-Product activation can be copied to all operating environments where you run TIBCO products.

  • A license generated for a TIBCO Activation Service instance cannot be used for In-Product Activation and vice-versa. Ensure the license you generate is used for the activation option for which it is defined.

  • The license you generate can include all TIBCO products to which you are entitled, even if the product releases you run don’t currently require activation. You will not need to generate a new license as you upgrade to releases that do require activation. However, if you purchase a new entitlement to an additional TIBCO product in the future, you will need to generate a new license that includes entitlement to that product in order to activate it.

  • TIBCO products activated via licenses will cease to operate at the end date of your entitlement as defined in your license. It is therefore critical that you understand when your entitlement ends so that you can renew and generate new licenses well in advance of this date to avoid TIBCO product shut down.

  • If you have an active maintenance contract with TIBCO, the entitlement end date in your license is set to the expiration date of that contract. If you renew this contract, you will need to generate a new license. See Step 5: Upgrading Your TIBCO Products and Renewing Your Subscriptions.

Licenses are generated using the license portal in the TIBCO Software Downloads site. Navigate to the portal by clicking your initials in the upper right corner and select My Account > TIBCO Licenses.

To generate a license using the license portal: 

  1. Create a device for the activation option you have chosen. A device is specific to that option and is used to generate current and future licenses. You will create a device for each instance of TIBCO Activation software you are running, or a single device for In-Product activation used across all the operating environments in your IT infrastructure that run TIBCO products.

    1. Click Devices > Create Device.

    2. Specify the following details:

      Field Description
      Name

      Specify a name for the device you are creating. This name must be unique across all devices you create, and contain no spaces. It must also be in the format <your-company-name>.<unique-identifier>, where <unique-identifier> is a value that differentiates this device from others you create, such as a project name, domain name, site name, team name, and so on for which this device enables activation. Both <your-company-name> and <unique-identifier> must contain only alphanumeric characters as well as the period (.), dash (-), and underscore (-) characters.

      For example, if your company name is “ACME Shoe Products” and your device will support your engineering team, you would enter acmeshoeproducts.engineering in this field.

      Runs License Server?
      • If you are defining this device for a TIBCO Activation Service instance, ensure this box is selected.
      • If you are defining this device for In-Product Activation, ensure this box is not selected.
      ID Type
      • If you are defining this device for a TIBCO Activation Service instance, set this field to “ETHERNET”.
      • If you are defining this device for In-Product Activation, set this field to “STRING” .
      ID
      • If you are defining this device for a TIBCO Activation Service instance, set this field to the host identifier determined using the tib-activate CLI.
      • If you are defining this device for In-Product Activation, set this field to the same value as the Name field where you defined the device name above.
      Site name Leave this field blank.

    3. Click Save. The View Server dialog provides details of the device created.
  2. Generate a license for the TIBCO products to be activated on the device you just created.
    1. On the View Server dialog, click Action > Map Entitlements. A list of your TIBCO products is displayed.

    2. For each row (each TIBCO product to be activated on the device), enter a value of 1 in the Qty to add column/field. Do NOT enter any other value except 1.

      Note:

      • Do not enter any value other than the number 1 in the Qty to add column/field for each row (each TIBCO product to be activated on the device).

      • It is recommended that you select all TIBCO products to which you are entitled to include in your license.

      • The information displayed in the Total Quantities and Available Quantities columns/fields can be ignored and currently does not reflect your actual quantities licensed or available.

      • Activation does not impact the terms of your agreement, including the actual quantities that you are licensed to use. For example, if your license model is not bound by quantities, then that is still true regardless of the quantity shown in the Total Quantities column/field.

      • Activation also does not currently enforce the quantity limits of your license rights. TIBCO reserves the right to change that in the future.

    3. When you finish making your selections, click Save.
  3. Download the license file for the device by clicking Action > Download Capability Response. This generates a license file with a .bin extension and downloads it onto your computer.
    Note: It is recommended that you maintain the same naming convention for each license file you download for a device.

You can perform the following additional functions in the license portal:

  • To view a list of devices you have created, click Devices > Devices. Click any device name to see detailed device information any license generated for that device.

  • To remove a license from a device, click Action > Remove licenses.

    Note: This function is only necessary if you move an existing instance of TIBCO Activation Service to a different system or virtual machine.

  • To view a list of TIBCO products to which you are entitled, and the dates at which your entitlement to those products end, click Activations & Entitlements > List Entitlements.

  • Note:

    • The information displayed in the Total Quantities and Available Quantities columns/fields can be ignored and currently does not reflect your actual quantities licensed or available.

    • Activation does not impact the terms of your agreement, including the actual quantities that you are licensed to use. For example, if your license model is not bound by quantities, then that is still true regardless of the quantity shown in the Total Quantities column/field.

    • Activation also does not currently enforce the quantity limits of your license rights. TIBCO reserves the right to change that in the future.

The remaining functions in the license portal are not supported.

What to do next