License enablement

If you are installing a Rational software product for the first time or want to extend a license to continue using the product, you have options on how to enable licensing for your product.

Licenses for Rational Software Delivery Platform offerings are enabled in two ways:

• Import a product activation kit

• Enable Rational Common Licensing to obtain access to floating license keys

Trial licenses that came with the 8.0 and later versions of some Rational products expire 30 or 60 days after installation. You need to activate your product in order to use it after the expiration date. See support article http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21250404 on product activation for a flow chart of the activation process.

Activation kits

Product activation kits contain the permanent license key for your trial Rational product. You purchase the activation kit, download the activation kit .zip file to your local machine, and then import the activation kit .jar file to enable the license for your product. You use IBM Installation Manager to import the activation kit to your product.

Floating license enforcement

Optionally, you can obtain floating license keys, install IBM Rational License Server, and enable Floating license enforcement for your product. Floating license enforcement provides the following benefits:

• License compliance enforcement across the organization

• Fewer license purchases

• Serve license keys for IBM Rational Team Unifying and Rational desktop products from the same license server

For more information on obtaining activation kits and Floating licenses, see Purchasing licenses.