License activation and renewal

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You need a valid license to install Instana. You can obtain a permanent license and activate the license on Instana. If your license expires or you obtain a new sales key, renew the license.

For more information about how to purchase the license, see How to buy.

After you purchase the Instana license, you get an email with the license, sales key, and agent key. This official agent key is also the valid download key for your license. You can use the agent key in all subsequent steps to download Instana artifacts and deploy an instance.

Obtain permanent license

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To request a license for entitlement, email to one of the following addresses as applicable.

CP4I customers: To request a license for 6 months entitlement, email to instanaCP4Iactivation@ibm.com.
Passport Advantage customers: The downloaded ZIP package includes a temporary license.json file for the Instana backend. This temporary rotating license allows you to begin the installation. However, you must obtain your permanent license and sales key promptly. To request your entitled permanent agent license and sales key, complete the Instana License Activation form. After the validation, the activation team provisions your permanent license based on your purchased entitlements and sends it to you by email. For additional assistance, open a case with IBM Support.

After you receive the license from the activation team, complete the following steps.

License configuration

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When you install the Self-Hosted Standard Edition, your license is automatically downloaded and configured. The installation creates a license.json file with your license information at the $HOME/.stanctl folder.

To view your license information, use the following command:

stanctl license info

To view the license usage summary, including status, remaining days, and expiry date, run the following command:

stanctl license info --usage

Note: You must install stanctl 1.13.0 or later to use the --usage flag.

License renewal

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You need to update the license information in the following scenarios:

You renewed the current Standard Edition license because it was expiring.
You have a new sales key for your Standard Edition deployment. For example, you might want to start to use a sales key instead of using part numbers from IBM Passport Advantage.
You purchased an add-on license for logs in context.

Current license renewal

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If you renewed your current Standard Edition license, you must update the license expiration date in the $HOME/.stanctl/license.json file.

In an online environment, run the following command:
```
stanctl license update --sales-key <sales-key>
 
```
In an air-gapped environment, run the following commands:
1. Download your Standard Edition license on the bastion host:
```
stanctl license download --sales-key=<new-sales-key> --output-dir=</path/to/create/license.json>
 
```
2. Transfer the generated license.json file from the bastion host to the Instana host that is in your air-gapped environment. Ensure that you transfer the license.json file in any directory other than the .stanctl directory on the air-gapped Instana host.
3. Update the license expiration date by running the following command on the air-gapped Instana host:
```
stanctl license update -f /path/to/license.json --sales-key <sales-key>
 
```

New sales key

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Note: When you obtain a new sales key, you also receive a new download key with it.

If you have a new sales key, run the following commands to update the license information.

Update your deployment to use the new keys:

stanctl backend apply --sales-key=<new-sales-key> --download-key=<new-download-key>

Update the license number and expiration date in the $HOME/.stanctl/license.json file:
```
stanctl license update --sales-key <new-sales-key>
 
```