Activating and deactivating Redgate tools

Activation for most of Redgate's desktop tools requires users to log in with their Redgate ID for each installation.

Activating a desktop tool 

Download and install the product.  On the first run after installation, you are prompted to log in with your Redgate ID to activate the license.  If you don't have a Redgate ID you can follow the links in the client dialogue to create one.

You are only required to log in with your Redgate ID once on each computer, either through installing a product for the first time or updating an existing product.  As other products are upgraded or installed on that computer, they'll be activated using the same Redgate ID.

Logging in with the same Redgate ID each time will only consume one entitlement.  If an additional Redgate ID is used, this will consume another entitlement.

If you are getting the message that you have run out of entitlements, you might not have logged in. On the toolbar of the tool, click on Help > Manage my license and you'll see here if you're logged in:

Activating with a Redgate ID requires an internet connection. If you don't have one, see offline activation below.

Activating a command line tool

Each tool's CLI shares the same license as its corresponding GUI version, if it has one. If you're logged in and licensed via the GUI, the corresponding CLI is authenticated automatically. Logging out of the GUI also logs you out of the CLI, and vice versa.

Before you can use a CLI, it must be authenticated. If you try to run it without being authenticated, you'll see:

You must be authenticated before you can continue.
Please run the 'auth' command, or configure personal access tokens (PAT).

To activate the tool directly from the CLI, run:

--auth --IAgreeToTheEula

Online activation

If the computer can connect to our licensing servers, a browser window opens automatically for you to log in with your Redgate credentials. Once activated, the CLI displays a message similar to:

Tool Name (edition)
License ID: <license id>
Expiry: <license expiry date>

If the CLI is already authenticated, you'll just see the success message without being asked to log in.

To log out of the CLI, run:

--auth --logout

Offline activation

If the computer can't connect to our licensing servers, you'll see a message similar to:

It looks like you're offline. Please connect to the internet and retry.
Alternatively, you can create an offline permit:
1. Go to 'portal.red-gate.com/offline'
2. Enter the code 'XXXXXX'
3. Paste the contents of the permit below:

From a device with internet access, visit portal.red-gate.com/offline and enter the code shown. Paste the resulting permit into the terminal and press enter. If the permit is valid, you'll see the success message confirming activation. Otherwise, an error message is displayed.

This applies to GUI tools too. If you don't have an internet connection, see offline activation for more detail.

Unattended mode using personal access tokens (PATs)

You can also run the CLI in unattended mode using a personal access token (PAT). Once you've obtained a PAT from the customer portal, include it alongside any other CLI commands:

--email="your@email.com" --token="Your PAT token"

Alternatively, set the REDGATE_LICENSING_PAT_EMAIL and REDGATE_LICENSING_PAT_TOKEN environment variables with your email and token. This removes the need to pass --email or --token with every invocation.

For CI/CD pipelines, see running CLIs from CI/CD pipelines.