Documentation forHybrid Cloud Observability

Activate your SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability license

Activating your Hybrid Cloud Observability license is easy and the process works just like activating other SolarWinds Platform products with one beneficial difference: Hybrid Cloud Observability licenses can take advantage of flexible licensing (more information below) to activate multiple Hybrid Cloud Observability installations with a single Hybrid Cloud Observability license - you no longer need a separate license for each server.

Online activation

To activate your license on a server, follow these steps after installing Hybrid Cloud Observability or upgrading to Hybrid Cloud Observability from a previous Orion Platform installation:

  1. In the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, click Settings > All Settings.

  2. Click License Manager in the Details section.

  3. Select Hybrid Cloud Observability and click Activate.

  4. Enter the activation key.

  5. Enter the number of nodes you want to activate for this installation. If you want to use all the nodes in the license key, select All available.

  6. Fill in your information and click Activate.

  7. When you return to the license manager, you will see the activated license key with the appropriate number of nodes.

You can find your license activation key for SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability by logging into the SolarWinds Customer Portal and clicking Licenses > Manage Licenses. If you do not know your SolarWinds Customer ID and password or individual profile details, contact Customer Support and submit a ticket.

Offline activation

  1. In the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, click Settings > All Settings.

  2. Click License Manager in the Details section.

  3. Select Hybrid Cloud Observability and click Activate.

  4. Click Copy to Clipboard to copy the unique machine key.

If the last 16 characters of the machine ID are zeros, you have not selected the product to activate the license for. Cancel the wizard and try again.

  1. Use the copied machine ID to obtain a .lic file.

    If you are evaluating Hybrid Cloud Observability, give the machine ID to a SolarWinds representative to obtain a .lic file and continue with step 6.

    1. Log in to the Customer Portal, and click Licenses > Manage Licenses.

    2. On the Customer Portal License Management page, expand the product license to activate, and click Activate License Manually.

    3. In the Generate license file section, fill in your information.

    4. Paste the unique machine id from the clipboard.

    5. Enter the number of nodes you want to activate.

    6. Click Generate License File. Save the .lic file locally and transfer it to the offline computer.

  2. Back in the License Manager on the offline computer, choose the .lic file, and click Activate.

  3. Your license is now activated, and the license details are displayed in the License Manager.

For more information about activating licenses for SolarWinds Platform products, see Activate licenses for SolarWinds Platform products.

Flexible licensing for Hybrid Cloud Observability

With Hybrid Cloud Observability 2022.3, Flexible licensing is a new feature available only for Hybrid Cloud Observability licenses. With flexible licensing, you can think of your Hybrid Cloud Observability license as a pool of nodes that you can activate wholly on one server or partially on multiple servers, all with a single Hybrid Cloud Observability license.

Learn more about the Hybrid Cloud Observability licensing model.

Activate nodes for any number of servers

Each time you install Hybrid Cloud Observability and activate your Hybrid Cloud Observability license, you can enter the number of nodes you want to activate for the server. If your license still has any unused nodes, you can then use the same license key to activate more nodes for a different server. Reallocate nodes at any time by deactivating the license for an installation and reactivating those nodes on the same or a different server.

Viewing all your activations

You can see a list of all activations and deactivations for your Hybrid Cloud Observability license, including the server name and the user who performed the action, at any time:

  1. Log into the Customer Portal and click Licenses > Manage Licenses.

  2. Find your license and click View install history.