Understanding licensing and what to move in BarTender 2019 and later

Administering licenses has changed from previous versions. Here are some key things you need to know before moving your license:

• All licensing administration has moved to the Administration Console. There is no longer a separate application that manages this.
• Only one computer can host the license. This is called the License Owner
• Activating and deactivating a license counts as a significant activation. Using the Move License function does not. You are allotted 4 significant activations.
• The BarTender License Server can host multiple licenses at the same time.
• You can move a license to a new License Server or one that is already actively hosting another license.
• You cannot move a provisionally activated license.

If you are uncertain if the current computer is a license owner, please refer to How to find the BarTender License Server on your network in BarTender 2019 and later.

There are two methods to move your license owner to a new computer, handing a license to the new host through the Administration Console or activating and deactivating the license owner.

Handing a license to a new computer

Version 2019 introduced a new means to hand over a license to a new computer without the need of activation and deactivation. You can simply migrate a license to a new license owner using the "Move License" feature. This feature is available in later versions as well.

What you need

• A license owner that has the license you wish to move
• A second computer that has BarTender already installed that will become the new license owner. This computer
  • does not need to have the full suite installed
  • needs to have the licensing service and the administration console installed at the bare minimum
  • can already be hosting another license

Preparing the second computer for the transfer

1. On the target computer, open up the Administration Console
2. Select Licensing from the left-hand menu. When the licenses populate the list, open the section labeled "This License Server" at the bottom of the window, if it's not open already. Here you will see a list of rules of who and what can access this computer's licensing information.
3. By default, only the license owner administrators can modify the license as shown below:

4. Click "add a new rule" or modify the current rule by clicking the pencil icon or right clicking and choose to edit the rule.
5. Add in a user and computer who has permissions to move the license from the current license owner.
   1. If you choose Allow, Everyone, and Everywhere as your options, anyone will be able to modify licensing information on this computer.
   2. This can be changed after you move the host.

How to hand off a license

1. Open the Administration console
2. Select Licensing from the left-hand menu. Your current license will be listed as the Current License at the top.
3. Right click on the current license and select Move License

4. The Move License dialog will open. 

This dialog will tell you about the current license on your host, including the last four digits of your product key code, your licensed edition, printer usage, and printer count.

At the bottom of the dialog will be the destination where you want to move the license to. In this example, NNPC has a hosted license already with pools set up. If the target computer doesn't have any pools set up or isn't hosting a license, you won't be able to add your printer count to any of the target computer's pools.

5. Select the server's name from the drop down menu. If no servers are listed, please refer to the "Preparing the second computer for the transfer" section for how to set transfer permissions.
6. Choose your settings for the printer pool.
7. Click next to move the license to the new host.
8. The Administration Console will take a moment to refresh itself. Once it does, you'll see the updated information about the license owner, the license itself, and the license server.

Handling the clients

If you use the Move License functionality, the clients do not need to be updated with the new license owner information. Once the move is complete, the clients will follow the license owner to the new location.

If you deactivate and reactivate, you will need to run the activation wizard on the clients in order to reconnect them.

Deactivate and reactivate the license owner

If you plan on completely moving the location when two computers are not up at the same time, the original method of deactivating and reactivating still works relatively the same way as before. Please follow these guides to move your license to a new computer

• How to Deactivate BarTender
• Activating the BarTender Suite

Understanding which application to deactivate and move in BarTender 2016 and earlier

The application that triggers a significant activation is different based on edition.

Basic and Professional editions

Activating BarTender is the significant activation for Basic and Professional editions. If you need to move BarTender to a new computer, then you must deactivate the currently activated computer, and then you may activate BarTender on the new computer using the Product Key Code supplied with the software.

Automation editions

Activating Seagull License Server (SLS) is the significant activation for Automation editions.  If you need to move SLS to a new computer, then you must deactivate the currently activated computer, and then you may activate SLS on the new computer using the Product Key Code supplied with the software.  Since automation editions allow unlimited users as long as they can connect to your SLS, you don't need to deactivate BarTender in order to activate BarTender on another computer.

Steps to move a license

Moving a license to a new computer is a two step process:

First you'll need to deactivate BarTender or Seagull License Server (SLS) on the currently activated computer. Please follow the steps here on how to do this: How to deactivate BarTender

Activate BarTender or Seagull License Server (SLS) on the new computer. Please follow one of the two guides that best describes your install:

• Activating the BarTender Suite
• Installing and activating the Seagull License Server