How to Move a Rockwell Automation Software Activation – Part II

Rehosting Rockwell Automation Software with no Internet Access on the Current Host Device

Moving or Transferring, aka rehosting, a Rockwell Automation License from one computer to another can get tricky. In our rehosting blog series, we guide you through the different software activation reset processes based on your internet access. In this post we provide step by step instructions on how to move an activation/license from a host device with no internet access, to a new device with an internet connection. If you have internet access on both devices or on neither of the devices, check out our other blog posts:

• Part I – How to Rehost with Internet Access
• Part III – How to Rehost without Internet Access on either of your Devices
• Part IV – How to Rehost a CodeMeter-based Activation

Before you begin:

• For this Part, have a removable storage device ready (for example, a USB) to move the Activation file.
• If you are moving the activation from a computer without a connection to the Internet, you must use another Internet-connected computer to connect to the Rockwell Automation Licensing website, to complete the process.
• If rehosting a dongle-based activation, insert the dongle into the USB drive of the Internet connected computer.
• Make sure you have the “Activation Manager” software utility installed. The Activation Manager comes with all Rockwell Automation software, or it can be downloaded from the Software Activation Site here: https://activate.rockwellautomation.com/

To rehost an activation from a computer without an Internet connection:

On the computer without an Internet connection attach the storage device and start FactoryTalk Activation Manager. Select the activations to rehost using the following steps:

1. Click Manage Activations > Rehost Activations.
   
2. On the Choose Phase page, select I need to select the activations I want to bind to a different computer or dongle and click Select Data File.
3. On the Select Data File page, create the data file to use for rehosting. Use the default file name (FTAManagerData.xml) and location or specify a different file name and location in the File location box by clicking Browse to navigate to and select the file or by typing the name and path of the file directly in the space provided.
4. Click Select Activations. In the activations table, select the Product check box for each activation that you want to rehost and then click Next Steps. A confirmation window lists the selected activations. Click Continue to proceed.
5. On the Next Steps page, click Go to Data File Location to open the file folder in Windows Explorer. Copy the data file to a removable storage device.

Go to a computer with an Internet connection. Transfer the activations to the pool of activations using the following steps:

1. Click Manage Activations > Rehost Activations.
2. Click Import From Data File. By default the data file you copied to the removable storage device is selected. Click Open. Select the check box next to the activations to rehost.
   
3. Click Continue Rehosting. The Confirm Activation Removal dialog box opens. Click Continue or click Cancel to return to the Select Activations page. The Activation Deletion Progress bar is displayed while the activations are being processed.

This will remove the software activation from the old device, making it available to activate on a new device via the removable storage device. Now you can launch the FactoryTalk Activation Manager on your new device to activate the Rockwell Automation license.