Activating a License Key

Activating a License Key

InterSystems IRIS uses license keys to ensure proper operation of its registered sites, to define capacity available and to control access to InterSystems IRIS features. (License keys are not required for evaluation installations.) A license key is provided in the form of a license key file, typically named iris.key.

After installing InterSystems IRIS, use the following procedure to activate your license key. You can always use the same procedure to activate a new license key (that is, upgrade the key) for any installed instance. You can activate a license key placed in any location accessible to the Management Portal; as part of activation, the license key is copied to the instance’s install-dir/mgr directory as iris.key, if it is not named that already.

This section also discusses license troubleshooting and upgrading a license from the operating system command line when all license units are in use.

To activate a license key, use the following procedure:

1. Navigate to the License Key page (System Administration > Licensing > License Key). Information about the current active license key is displayed. If no license has yet been activated, this is indicated, for example by the notation Customer Name: License missing or unreadable. This page includes a Print button to let you easily print the displayed information.

2. Click Activate License Key and browse for the license key file you want to activate. When you select a file, information about it is displayed so you can verify that you have the right license key before activating it; for example, that it provides the desired capacity, and has the right expiration date. If the key is not valid, this is indicated in an error message. If a license is currently active, information about the current and selected licenses is displayed side by side. If a restart of the instance after activation is required for the license key to take effect, this is noted and the reason for it is provided. This dialog includes a Print button to let you easily print information about both the current active license and the new license key you have selected.

3. Click Activate to activate the new license key; it is copied to the instance’s install-dir/mgr directory as iris.key, overwriting the previous license key (if any). A confirmation dialog reminds you to restart the instance if required, and warns you if the new license enables fewer features than the current license.

Instances can be configured to request a license key from the license server by using the LicenseID property of Config.StartupOpens in a new tab. At instance startup, if there is no iris.key file present and the LicenseID has been defined, then the instance requests and activates the license key from the license server.

In general there is no need to restart the instance, but there are constraints when upgrading a license key. Automatic activation of the new key does not occur if you change license types from Power Unit to any other type; this should be a rare event.

Another constraint is the amount of memory the license upgrade consumes from the shared memory heap (gmheap) space. If gmheap space is not available, the number of license table entries cannot be expanded. If insufficient gmheap space is available for a license upgrade, a message is written to the messages log. You can increase the size of the gmheap setting from the Advanced Memory Settings page (System Administration > Configuration > Advanced Memory Settings).

If the new license key consumes at least 1000 64 KB pages more gmheap space than the existing key, the InterSystems IRIS instance must be restarted to fully activate the new license key. This situation is rarely encountered, since each page represents at least 227 licenses.