Licensing and license codes

This page is a compendium, a small FAQ, of the most common questions and facts that every Syncplify Server! user should know about its licenses and licensing system.

Is the license perpetual? Is the maintenance and support plan mandatory?

Once a license has been activated, it is perpetual on the machine or VM it was activated on, and a maintenance and support plan is not required to keep it active, as long as you never update the software.

Given that very specific statement, it is of paramount importance to understand the following:

• an active maintenance and support plan is required to activate the license for the first time, and to activate the same license again on a new machine or VM when you migrate the software
• an active maintenance and support plan is required to install any update or upgrade: major, minor and hot fixes

What the plan covers, and how to renew it, is explained in Maintenance and support plans explained and Buying or extending a maintenance and support plan.

What is the license code format?

License codes look like this: S8UF-R3EP-9XDJ-BJJ7-U33Z-PKGA (not a real license, just an example).

INFO

The first two characters are always the letter S followed by the major version the license applies to, so you know which version of the software accepts the license you are looking at.

Does my old (v4, v5, v6...) license code work with the most recent version?

No. As the different code formats suggest, you need a license code issued for the exact major version you are trying to activate. The good news is that, if you are covered by a maintenance and support plan, you can request one for free with a support request from the Syncplify Customer Center, as explained in How to get support from Syncplify.

I have an active plan for an older version and want to convert it to the most recent version. How?

Open a support request from the Syncplify Customer Center, and our team will send you a dedicated link with the instructions.

I run the server on dynamic hardware. Will my license revert to "free" when hardware changes are detected, as v3, v4 and v5 licenses did?

No. We have done a lot of work to change that behavior, and deactivations "by mistake" should not occur any more. The software can now tell the difference between, say, resizing an existing VM and moving to an entirely different VM. Your v6, v7 or v8 license stays active as long as you change the hardware of your existing VM, and deactivates itself only if you try to use it on a different VM as well. This gives us a decent level of protection against abuse and, more importantly, gives our customers the flexibility they need to run our software in virtualized, cloud and elastic environments.

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

No. Licenses never expire if you never alter, move, update or upgrade the software. But a license can deactivate itself if you do something you are not entitled to, such as updating or upgrading the software while not covered by a maintenance and support plan. That is why we strongly encourage every customer to keep the plan current and renew it every year: every update and upgrade within the same major version is then free of charge, upgrades between major versions come with significant discounts, and you can request support when you need it.