Free Offline Fixed User License

Notice

This page is related to the new SmartBear ID-based licenses that we've introduced in ReadyAPI 3.8.1.

In this version, we included support for SmartBear-hosted ID-based (online) licenses. Furthermore, from version 3.40.0, we added support for on-premise hosted and offline ID-based licenses.

Why you may want to free a license

When you activate an Offline Fixed User License, the SmartBear License Servers bind the license to your computer. This means the license cannot run on any other machine. To move your ReadyAPI instance to another computer, you must release the license on your current machine first.

Requirements

Freeing a license requires assistance from your license administrator. The administrator performs actions in the SmartBear Licensing Portal.

1. User actions

  1. Start ReadyAPI.

  2. From the main menu, select Help, and then click License Manager.

    Screenshot of ReadyAPI showing how to open the License Manager from the Help menu.

  3. If you have multiple licenses (for example, one for one ReadyAPI module and another for a different module), select the license you want to uninstall, then click Uninstall Offline License.

    Screenshot of ReadyAPI showing an active Fixed User license in the License Manager with the option to uninstall the license.
    Screenshot of ReadyAPI showing a confirmation dialog asking if you want to uninstall the offline license, with options Yes or No.

    The uninstall process does two things:

    • Removes the license data from your computer.

    • Generates fingerprint data with information about your computer and license.

  4. Click Copy Text to Clipboard to copy the fingerprint data.

    Important

    License Fingerprint File

    ReadyAPI also saves the deactivation key to disk when uninstalling an offline license. Share this file with your license administrator if the license needs to be restored for online use or updating.

    File location: <ReadyAPI home directory>/offline-license-deactivation-<license_number>-<timestamp-in-form-of-DD-MM-YY_HH-MM-SSS>.dat

    Screenshot of ReadyAPI showing the Uninstall Offline License dialog with generated data to send back to the license administrator.

  5. Send the fingerprint data to your license administrator using your internal communication method (for example, email or Slack). The administrator must upload this data to the SmartBear Licensing Portal to complete the license removal.

  6. After you send the fingerprint, close the dialog box and ReadyAPI. You may then uninstall ReadyAPI if needed.

2. License administrator actions

Requirements

You will work with the SmartBear Licensing Portal available on the web. If your network is private, use a computer that has internet access to the portal.

Steps to follow

  1. Log in to the SmartBear Licensing Portal as a license administrator.

  2. Locate your Offline Fixed User license, then click Free Offline License.

    slm License Portal

  3. In the dialog that opens:

    1. Click Insert Its Content to upload the fingerprint data received from the licensed user.

    2. Click Upload the file and free the seat to update the license database.

      Note

      The Upload the File and Free the Seat button remains disabled until you provide valid fingerprint data.

    Screenshot of the SmartBear Licensing Portal showing the Free Offline License dialog with the option to insert license content or upload a license file to release a seat.
    Screenshot of the SmartBear Licensing Portal showing the Free Offline License dialog, where the administrator uploads license data to release a license seat.
    Screenshot of the SmartBear Licensing Portal showing confirmation that the offline license seat has been freed successfully.

    The license is now freed, and you can activate it on another computer.

Convert Offline Fixed User license to Online

To convert an Offline Fixed User license to an online license, perform the steps described above for each license seat.

Screenshot of the SmartBear Licensing Portal showing subscription licenses for ReadyAPI Test, Performance, and Virtualization with details on license numbers, expiration dates, seats, and options to assign or convert licenses.
Screenshot of the SmartBear Licensing Portal showing the Convert License dialog with the option to convert an existing license to an online license.

See Also

ReadyAPI – Licenses in Private Networks

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