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Affected Roles: Administrators
Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps: DW Spectrum® IPVMS
Complexity: Medium
Last Edit: August 25, 2020
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DW Spectrum® IPVMS is free to use for monitoring and managing devices that are connected to your DW Spectrum Server(s). However, to record and archive video footage through DW Spectrum®, a recording license must be activated for each camera on the DW Spectrum® server to enable the recording function.
This article will outline how to activate recording licenses in DW Spectrum® IPVMS.
Note: For more information on the variety of DW Spectrum® recording licenses, please read DW Spectrum License Types.
If you are removing a recording license, check out Deactivating License Keys.
Note: Use of the term “system” is used to refer to individual DW Spectrum® servers, as well as DW Spectrum® servers that have been merged into a single array.
Use of the term “server” is used to refer to the computer on which the server portion of the DW Spectrum® IPVMS program is installed on.
Each recording license pack has an activation key that must be entered into DW Spectrum® to register it to the server. If the Server has Internet access, the Internet Activation function can be used to easily apply licenses.
To activate a license using Internet Activation:
Log in as the system Owner or as an Administrator.
Next, click on the Licensestab.
The licenses will remain tied to the DW Spectrum® Server that they were activated on and cannot be registered to any other servers. To register a license pack on a different server, the license key must first be deactivated.
Servers that are merged with the system may also use the recording licenses, but will lose access if the server that the licenses are registered to becomes unavailable to the DW Spectrum® system.
If your DW Spectrum® server does not have Internet access, you can manually apply license keys through the Manual Activation function. To do so, a request will need to be submitted in exchange for an activation file.
Note: Use of another device with Internet and email access is required to obtain an Activation Key File. A USB stick will then be required to transfer the Activation Key File to the offline server.
To activate licenses for a Server that does not have Internet access:
Log in as the system Owner or as an Administrator.
Next, click on the Licensestab.
Each Server has a unique Hardware ID that is determined by the computer’s BIOS, motherboard, RAM, and network card (NIC). This information is used to maintain license registry for servers.
The email should include:
Download the file from the email and copy it to a USB stick so that it can be transferred to the offline Server.
Under the Manual Activation section, click on the Browse button.
Locate and select the Activation Key File, then click on the Activate License button.
The licenses will remain tied to the DW Spectrum® Server that they were activated on and cannot be registered to any other servers. To register a license pack on a different server, the license key must first be deactivated.
Servers that are merged with the system may also use the recording licenses, but will lose access if the server that the licenses are registered to becomes unavailable to the DW Spectrum® system.