Online activation

This is the most convenient and recommended way to activate our products. Activating via this method ensures your license is automatically kept up-to-date and won't require reconfiguration when licenses are upgraded or renewed. There are various ways to sign into our products using this method.

Using our user interfaces

Once our products have been installed and started for the first time, most will automatically open a welcome menu and prompt end users to sign in using their Redgate ID. Upon signing in, our products will automatically detect if any associated licenses have been assigned to the user and activate the product.

Using our CLI tools

Our CLI tools can be activated using the relevant commands. When these commands are executed on a machine connected to the internet with an accessible browser, our products will launch a web browser prompting the user to log in with their Redgate ID. Upon signing in, our products will automatically detect any associated licenses assigned to the user and activate the product.

Some of our tools also support non-interactive login flows via Personal Access Tokens (PATs), which are particularly useful for customers looking to leverage CI/CD pipelines.

See our how to guide for instructions on licensing via our CLI tools.

Offline activation

Not all devices running our products will have unrestricted access to the internet. Therefore, we offer several methods for customers to activate our products on offnet devices. However, we recommend customers use our online methods whenever possible. When activating our software via offline methods, customers will need to perform infrequent re-activations on their devices to maintain their licenses.

Using offline permits

If our products are installed on a device with restricted internet access, our software will automatically detect this and offer users the option to license via an offline permit. The offline permit is generated by the user on a separate device without network restrictions. The permit is then transferred and applied to the relevant device, which will activate our software. Once the permit has expired on the offnet machine, a new one will need to be regenerated and applied to continue using our software.

Offline permits are supported on both our user interface and our CLI tools.

Refer to our user guide for detailed steps on activating via offline permits.

Legacy keys

Some of our older products support the use of serial keys, which customers can enter when our software starts in an inactive state. These keys can be found through our Customer Portal and, when used, are registered against devices, even if the license type is user-based. This means that if a user wishes to install our software on multiple devices, they will consume multiple allocations against the license.

When activating using our legacy keys, our software can become unlicensed again during major version upgrades or when licenses are renewed. Therefore, we do not recommend this method of activation if other methods are available, as it could result in temporary downtime when using our products.