Licensing changes when you upgrade DPA product SKUs

7/13/2021 5:00 AM

8/23/2021 9:17 PM

When customers purchase a DPA SKU, they are issued one or more license activation keys, which they can retrieve from the Customer Portal. Each license activation key can be used to activate multiple product licenses. The license activation keys are associated with the purchased SKU. 

In some cases, an existing DPA SKU is upgraded to a different SKU. For example, when DPA customers upgrade to Database Insights for SQL Server (DIS), they receive a different SKU. Also, in July of 2021, the separate SKUs for DPA VM Option licenses and for DPA licenses were replaced with a combined DPA + VM Option SKU. 

When a product SKU is upgraded, customers are issued new license activation keys that correspond to the new SKU. These new keys replace their existing license activation keys, and the old keys are disabled. To enable future upgrades and license allocations, customers who have been issued new license activation keys must replace all of their existing DPA licenses. 

This article provides instructions for replacing your licenses if you have been issued new license activation keys, as well as information about what you can expect to receive if you upgrade from DPA to DIS. For information about what you should expect to receive if your individual DPA VM Option SKUs were replaced with DPA+VM SKUs, see Upgrade from individual DPA VM Option SKUs.

Database Performance Analyzer

If you have been issued new license activation keys, see the following sections for information about what to do and, if you upgraded from DPA to DIS, how many new activation keys you can expect to receive:

• New license activation keys have been issued to me. What do I need to do?
• What if I do not replace my existing licenses?
• I upgraded from DPA to DIS. What should I expect to receive?

New license activation keys have been issued to me. What do I need to do?

If you have been issued replacement license activation keys, they are available to you in the Customer Portal. The old license activation keys that are being replaced have been disabled. The disabled keys cannot be used to perform any actions.

1. Retrieve your new activation keys from the Customer Portal.
2. Note the replaced license keys currently activated on your DPA server.
3. On your DPA server, activate the licenses that are included in the new activation keys.
   Note: Activating the new licenses before de-activating the old licenses avoids gaps in monitoring.
4. If activating the new licenses did not automatically remove the old licenses, then manually deactivate the old licenses on all DPA servers.

Note: It is possible to use the same activation key to activate licenses on multiple DPA servers. For example, if an activation key includes 10 licenses, you can enter the activation key on two DPA servers and allocate 5 licenses on one server and the remaining 5 licenses on the other server. If you entered any of the old activation keys on multiple DPA servers, make sure the associated licenses are deactivated on all servers.

What if I do not replace my existing licenses?

If you have been issued replacement license keys, your original licenses are no longer in maintenance. If you do not replace the original licenses with the new, in-maintenance licenses:

• You cannot upgrade to new releases.
  Note: In some cases, minor upgrades (such as service releases) can be performed, but any major upgrade will fail.
• You cannot deallocate an out-of-maintenance license from one database instance and allocate it to a different database instance.
• Attempting to activate any remaining licenses in the original license key will fail.

If you have questions or need help with this process, please contact Customer Support.

I upgraded from DPA to DIS. What should I expect to receive?

DPA customers who purchased a DIS SKU will receive activation keys for the following types of licenses:

• DPA Category 2 (DPA for SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle SE, or PostgreSQL)
• DPA VM Option
• SQL Sentry

If you upgraded all of your DPA SKUs to DIS SKUs, you will receive one of each license type for each of your previous DPA licenses.

Example 1: You had 50 DPA licenses, and you upgraded all 50 DPA licenses to 50 DIS SKUs. You receive the following license activation keys:

• An activation key for 50 DPA Category 2 licenses.
  These replace your existing DPA licenses, which are now out of maintenance.
• An activation for 50 DPA VM Option licenses.
• An activation for 50 SQL Sentry licenses.

If you did not upgrade all of your existing DPA licenses to DIS SKUs, you will receive a SQL Sentry license for each DIS SKU. However, all of the licenses in the original activation keys are now out of maintenance. For partial upgrades, you will receive two new activation keys for DPA licenses: one key for the new DIS purchase, and another to replace the remaining original licenses that were not upgraded.

Example 2: You originally had a license activation key for 50 DPA licenses without any VM Option licenses, and you upgraded 30 of the DPA licenses to DIS SKUs. You receive the following license activation keys:

• An activation key for 30 DPA Category 2 licenses.
  These replace the 30 DPA licenses that you upgraded.
• An activation key for 20 more DPA licenses.
  These replace the additional 20 DPA licenses that you did not upgrade. (All licenses from the original activation key are now out of maintenance and must be replaced.)
• An activation key for 30 DPA VM Option licenses.
• An activation key for 30 SQL Sentry licenses.

Example 3: You originally had a license activation key for 50 DPA licenses and a license activation key for 50 VM Option licenses, and you upgraded 30 DPA licenses to DIS SKUs. You receive the following license keys:

• An activation key for 30 DPA Category 2 licenses.
  These replace the 30 DPA licenses that you upgraded.
• An activation key for 20 more DPA licenses.
  These replace the additional 20 DPA licenses that you did not upgrade. (All licenses from the original activation key are now out of maintenance and must be replaced.)
• An activation key for 30 DPA VM Option licenses.
  These replace the 30 VM Option licenses associated with the upgraded DPA licenses.
• An activation key for 20 more DPA VM Option licenses.
  These replace the additional 20 DPA VM Option licenses associated with DPA licenses that you did not upgrade. (All licenses from the original activation key are now out of maintenance and must be replaced.)
• An activation key for 30 SQL Sentry licenses.