Activating SQL Backup

When you download and install SQL Backup, you have a 14 day trial period in which you can evaluate the product. When your trial period expires, you are invited to purchase the product. If you need more time to evaluate the product, contact sales@red-gate.com

When you purchase SQL Backup, you are sent an invoice that contains your serial number. You use the serial number to activate the product. If you cannot find your invoice, you can review your serial numbers at http://www.red-gate.com/myserialnumbers

SQL Backup is licensed per physical server. If you have a number of SQL Server instances registered with SQL Backup that are all on the same physical server, you need to activate only one of the instances. The status of SQL Backup on the server for a registered SQL Server instance is displayed in the Registered SQL Servers pane in the graphical user interface. You can activate SQL Backup on a server if one of the following icons is displayed to the right of the name of the SQL Server instance:

When you activate SQL Backup, the licensing and activation program sends an activation request to the Red Gate activation server, using checksums of attributes from your computer. The checksums that are sent to the activation server do not contain any details that might pose a security risk. The activation server returns an activation response and an encrypted key to unlock the software. The licensing and activation program should activate SQL Backup within a few seconds.

If you experience problems, you can try manual activation. You can use manual activation if:

• your computer is not connected to the Internet
• your network uses a proxy server that interrupts contact between the product and the Red Gate activation server
• activation is unsuccessful (see Troubleshooting licensing and activation errors)

Note that you cannot automate activation using the command line. However, if you are not able to activate a server using the graphical user interface, you can use the program ProductActivation.exe which is provided with SQL Backup. For example, you may wish to use this program to activate cluster nodes. ProductActivation.exe is located in the folder in which you installed SQL Backup: for example, C:\Program Files\Red Gate\SQL Backup 7. You can also start the program from the SQL Backup GUI by selecting Tools > Utilities > Product Activation from the menu.

For general questions about licensing, see Licensing and activation FAQs.

To activate SQL Backup on a server

1. To activate SQL Backup on a server:
   • click the or icon next to the server you want to activate
   • or, right-click the name of the SQL Server instance and click Activate License

   The activation dialog box is displayed:

   

2. Enter your serial number and click Activate.

   Your activation request is sent to the Red Gate activation server.

   When your activation has been confirmed, the Activation successful page is displayed:

   

   If there is a problem with your activation request, an error dialog box is displayed. For information about activation errors and what you can do to resolve them, see Troubleshooting licensing and activation errors. Depending on the error, you may want to try manual activation.

3. Click Close.

   You can now continue to use your product.

Activating multiple servers

If you have purchased a SQL Backup license for multiple servers, you can activate these servers at the same time using the Multi-Server Activation utility (select Multi Server Activation from the Tools > Utilities menu).

Deactivating SQL Backup

You may wish to deactivate SQL Backup on a server so that you can reuse the serial number on another server. You can do this using the SQL Backup GUI, or the Red Gate deactivation tool.

To deactivate a serial number, the server on which the SQL Backup server components are installed must have a connection to the internet.

Deactivating SQL Backup using the GUI

In the Registered SQL Servers pane, right-click the SQL Server instance and click Deactivate License. If you have more than one SQL Server instance on the same computer, all the instances on that computer will be deactivated.

Note that you can deactivate a SQL Server using the GUI only if the latest server components are installed.

Deactivating SQL Backup using the deactivation tool

If you are unable to deactivate SQL Backup using the GUI (perhaps because the SQL Server is using old SQL Backup server components), you can use the Red Gate deactivation tool on the server instead.

You will need to download and run the deactivation tool on the computer where the SQL Server instance is installed. See Deactivating your products for more information.

Re-activating SQL Servers

If you need to re-install SQL Backup server components on the same computer, for example following installation of a new operating system, you can re-activate using the same serial number. If you need to change the computer on which the server components are installed and your current serial number does not work, contact licensing@red-gate.com

Manual activation

Manual activation enables you to activate products when your computer does not have an Internet connection or your Internet connection does not allow SOAP requests. You will need access to another computer that has an Internet connection.

You can use manual activation whenever the Activation Error dialog box is displayed and the Activate Manually button is available, for example:

To activate manually:

1. On the error dialog box, click Activate Manually.

   The Activate using the Red Gate Web site dialog box is displayed:

   

2. Copy all of the activation request.

   Alternatively you can save the activation request, for example to a location on your network or to a USB device.

3. Leaving the activation dialog box open, on a computer that has an Internet connection, go to the Manual Activation page of the Red Gate Web site at http://www.red-gate.com/activate and paste the activation request into the box under Step 1.

   

4. Click Get Activation Response.
5. When the activation response is displayed under Step 2, copy all of it.

   Alternatively you can save the activation response.

6. On the computer where the licensing and activation program is running, paste the activation response or if you saved it, load it from the file.

   

7. Click Finish.

   The Activation successful page is displayed.

8. Click Close.

   You can now continue to use SQL Backup on this computer.