If you are installing a Rational® 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 for Rational Software Delivery Platform offerings are enabled
in two ways:
- Importing a product activation kit
- Enabling Rational Common
Licensing to obtain access to floating license keys
Note: Trial licenses that came with the 8.0 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 support article
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21250404 on product activation for a flow chart of the activation process.
Activation kits
Product activation kits contain
the permanent license key for your trial Rational product. You purchase the
activation kit, download the activation kit .zip file to your local machine,
and then import the activation kit .jar file to enable the license for your
product. You use IBM® Installation Manager to import the activation kit
to your product.
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:
- License compliance enforcement across the organization
- Fewer license purchases
- Serve license keys for IBM Rational Team Unifying and Rational desktop products
from the same license server
For more information on obtaining activation kits and Floating licenses,
see Purchasing licenses.