Licensing and license codes: a complete overview

In this article, we provide a compendium, sort of a min-FAQ, regarding the most common questions and pieces of knowledge that every Syncplify Server! user should know about Syncplify Server!'s licenses and licensing system. So here we go:

What’s the license code format?

License codes look kind-of like this: S6UF-R3EP-9XDJ-BJJ7-U33Z-PKGA (not a real license, just meant as an example)

The first two characters (here above highlighted in green) are always the letter S followed by the major version the license is applicable to. So you know what version of the software can accept the license you're looking at.

Will my old (v4, v3, v5…) license code work with the most recent version of the software?

No. As you can guess by the different license code formats, you need a license code that was issued for the exact version of the software you are trying to activate. The good news is, though, that if you are covered by a maintenance/support plan, you can request one for free to Syncplify.

I have an active maintenance/support subscription for an older version, and I wish to convert it to a maintenance/support plan for the most recent version. How do I do that?

Simply open a support ticket with Syncplify, and our team will provide a dedicated link and proper instructions on how to do so.

I run Syncplify Server! on dynamic hardware, and every so often my v3/v4/v5 license reverted back to “free” because hardware changes were detected. Will this still happen with v6+ licenses?

No. We’ve done a lot of work to change this behavior, and we are confident that deactivations “by mistake” should not occur anymore. Our software can now tell the difference between, say, resizing an existing VM, and moving to an entirely different VM. Your v6 license will remain active as long as you make changes to the hardware of your existing VM, and will self-deactivate only if you try to use it also on a different VM. This provides us with a decent level of protection against abuse, but – more importantly – provides our customers with the level of flexibility they need to run our software in virtualized/cloud/elastic environments.

Will my license expire? Do I have to renew it?

No. Licenses never expire, if you never alter, move, or update/upgrade the software. But licenses can automatically self-deactivate if you do something you're not entitled to, like updating/upgrading the software while not covered by a maintenance/support plan. That's why we strongly encourage all customers to keep their maintenance/support plan current, and to renew it every year: that way all updates/upgrades within the same major version will be totally free of charge, and between different major versions they will come with significant discounts. Not to mention that you need an active maintenance/support plan in order to request support if you need it.