Activate your SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted license

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

Online activation

To activate your license on a server which is connected to the Internet, follow these steps after installing SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted or upgrading to SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted 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 SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted 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 Observability Self-Hosted 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

If your deployment is not connected to the Internet, complete the following steps:

1. In the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, copy the machine ID.

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

   2. Click License Manager in the Details section.

   3. In License Manager, select a SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted license and click Activate. This starts the Activate License wizard.

   4. Copy the Machine ID and click Next.

      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.

        See this video: Troubleshoot incorrect Machine ID. /archive/sw-videos.htm?uuid=rdgum4yw5n&title=Troubleshoot incorrect Machine ID

      

2. Get the .LIC file.

   If you are evaluating SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, give the machine ID to a SolarWinds representative to obtain a .LIC file and upload the file in the License Manager.

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

   2. Find your Observability license.

   3. Click Activate License Manually.

   4. Enter the required information, including the Machine ID from you clipboard.

   5. Click Generate License File.

   6. Download the .LIC file.

3. Return to the License Manager and upload the .LIC file.

4. On Upload License Key, click Choose File, select the .LIC file, and click Open.

5. Click Action to complete activation.

   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.

Upgrade a module license to SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted

  See this video: Deactivate On Prem Upgrade and Activate Hybrid Cloud Observability. /archive/sw-videos.htm?uuid=9nrgkc7uy6&title=Deactivate On Prem Upgrade and Activate Hybrid Cloud Observability

Follow these steps to deactivate your module license, upgrade to Observability, and activate the new license.

If you switch to SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted licensing, your current module licenses are saved in the background, and you can easily switch back to them. See Evaluate SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted

Activating and using more features may increase the system requirements for your SolarWinds Platform installation.

Deactivate the On-Premises License offline

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

   If your server is offline, append offline to the end of your instance URL.

2. In License Manager, select the product you want to deactivate.

3. Click Deactivate. This downloads the Deactivation Receipt file.

4. Go to the Customer Portal.

5. Locate the product you want to deactivate manually.

6. Click Deactivate License Manually.

7. Click Browse, select the deactivation receipt, and click Upload.

Deactivate the On-Premises License online

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

2. In License Manager, find the license you want to deactivate.

   Consider backing up the license key so that you can reuse it later. The license key is the chain of 32 characters in groups of 4, displayed next to your license.

3. Click Deactivate.

   The license is deactivated and ready for reuse.

Evaluate Observability

If you haven't evaluated SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted yet, start a free trial. The 30-day trial period cannot be paused or interrupted and will expire at the given date. For more details, see Evaluate SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted.

Activate the Observability License

• Online activation

• Offline activation

Flexible licensing for SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted

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

Learn more about the SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted licensing model.

Activate nodes for any number of servers

Each time you install SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted and activate your SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted 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 SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted 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.