APE Temp/Eval Key Activation Fails When Commercial APE License Exists in SolarWinds Platform / Observability Self-Hosted 2025.1.1, 2025.4.1, 2025.4.2 and above

2/4/2026 7:59 PM

2/4/2026 7:59 PM

This error 'This product already has an active license key of the same type. Deactivate the existing license key and try again.' occurs in SolarWinds Platform / Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO) / Observability Self-Hosted environments that use the central licensing service when you try to add an unexpired temporary or evaluation key for a product that already has an unexpired commercial license of the same type (for example, Additional Polling Engine (APE) or AWS pollers). It has been observed in customer environments running 2025.1.1, 2025.4.1, and 2025.4.2 and later.

Observed symptoms

• In License Manager, activation of the unexpired temp/eval key fails with an error and the key is not added.

• License service logs show license detail requests for the key but do not clearly indicate that a safety check blocked activation.

• Once the environment is on an affected build and these conditions are met, the failure is consistent.

Orion Platform

A licensing code change introduced a safety check to prevent accidental replacement of active commercial licenses with temporary or evaluation keys.

When you try to activate an unexpired temp/eval key for a product that already has an unexpired commercial license of the same type, the safety check blocks the activation, shows an error, and the temp/eval key is not applied.

This behavior is controlled by the advanced admin setting BlockActivationIfAlreadyLicensed. When it is enabled, temp/eval keys are blocked if a matching unexpired commercial license already exists. This safety check is intentional and discussions are in place to refine it in a future release so customers can safely use temporary capacity (such as APE/AWS temp keys) without running into this block. 

Use one of the following supported options when you need additional capacity and encounter this issue. The options are listed in recommended order.

Option 1 – Use Observability Self-Hosted Enterprise evaluation (Instant Eval)

Preferred path when the customer can evaluate Observability Self-Hosted (OSH) Enterprise and needs flexible, short‑term scaling.

1. From the SolarWinds web console, navigate to the licensing / evaluation area for Observability Self-Hosted Enterprise.

2. Use Instant Eval to start an OSH Enterprise evaluation:

   • Enables Enterprise scale for 30 days.

   • During the evaluation, customers can use as many pollers as needed (for example, instead of separate APE temp keys).

3. Configure the required additional capacity (additional pollers, etc.) under the OSH Enterprise evaluation, rather than through individual product-specific temp keys.

Additional details

• Available for online and offline customers (offline environments use the corresponding offline evaluation/activation flow).

• Starting with 2025.4, customers receive a new OSH evaluation license with every major–minor release (not service releases), allowing repeated evaluation and temporary scaling aligned with upgrades.

• This is the recommended workaround because it:

  • Avoids conflict between temp and commercial keys for specific modules.

  • Provides flexible, environment-wide scaling without disabling safety checks.

Option 2 – Use a short-term commercial subscription key

Use this when:

• OSH Enterprise evaluation (Option 1) is not appropriate, but

• The customer still needs short‑term capacity (for example, during migration, project cutover, or PO approval).

1. Work with the account/licensing team to generate a commercial subscription key for the needed product (for example, APE, AWS, or another module), with an expiration date that covers the required window.

2. Activate this commercial key in License Manager as usual.

3. After the permanent purchase or once the extra capacity is no longer needed:

   • Deactivate the short‑term subscription key, or

   • Allow it to expire, depending on the commercial arrangement.

Because this key is treated as a commercial license, it is not blocked by the safety check that prevents temp/eval keys from being added alongside an active commercial license.

 

Option 3 – Temporarily disable BlockActivationIfAlreadyLicensed

1. Sign in as an administrator to the Observability Self-Hosted / Orion Platform web console.

2. Locate the advanced/admin setting named BlockActivationIfAlreadyLicensed in the licensing-related configuration.

3. Temporarily disable this setting (for example, set to False or clear the checkbox) to turn off the safety check that blocks temp/eval key activation when a matching commercial license exists.

4. In License Manager, activate the required temp/eval key for the desired product (such as APE, AWS, or another affected module).

5. Verify that:

   • The existing commercial license remains present and active.

   • The new temp/eval license is active with the expected expiration date.

6. Once the migration or temporary usage scenario is complete, re‑enable BlockActivationIfAlreadyLicensed to restore the standard safety behavior.