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An online license is a type of license for ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 that is designed specifically for virtual and cloud environments, but can also be used with on-premises installations. If your license is stored locally and is tied to the software of the computer on which the license was activated, you may experience the following issues when working with cloud services:
  • Two or more licenses are required to implement a failover switch.
  • If a virtual machine stops working, the administrator has to manually restore all relevant licenses.
  • If the software of a virtual machine is upgraded or if the virtual machine is moved to a different host, the license has to be reactivated.
If required, you can use an online license for ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 without tying it to a specific computer, which gives you more flexibility when optimizing your hardware for large numbers of tasks. All online license parameter data is stored in the cloud on ABBYY servers.
The parameters of an online license can also be viewed in the License Manager. However, this can only be done for the license that is currently in use on that particular computer.
The ABBYY FlexiCapture Licensing Service is hosted in Microsoft Azure data centers, which operate in fail-safe mode. The service also has backup servers, ensuring continuous access to it. The ABBYY Licensing Service’s high availability, together with the ability to use online licenses offline for a set period, ensures reliable online licensing in ABBYY FlexiCapture.

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How an online license works

An online license lets you process a set number of pages throughout a set period of time (for example, a month or a year). Online licenses can be accessed from different computers. Periodically, the Licensing Server and the ABBYY Licensing Service connect to the Internet to synchronize information about the number of processed pages. As such, the licensing service keeps track of all pages that have been processed using a single serial number on all computers tied to that serial number.

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Licensing service synchronization

For online licensing to work as intended, the following licensing services require synchronization:
  • Licensing Server on the computer or local network where ABBYY FlexiCapture is installed
  • ABBYY FlexiCapture Licensing Service
For the licensing services to synchronize automatically, make sure that you have an uninterrupted Internet connection and that connections to *.abbyy.com are allowed on port 443.
The Licensing Server is installed on your machine automatically together with ABBYY FlexiCapture. The Licensing Server then begins exchanging data with the ABBYY Licensing Service at intervals specified in the license parameters.

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Synchronization parameters

Licensing service synchronization is set up using the following parameters:
  • Synchronization period — Determines the frequency with which data about the number of pages processed on all computers for a particular online license is exchanged. This information is collected by the ABBYY Licensing Service, while the frequency with which it is updated is set by this parameter. The duration of the period is determined by the license type.
  • Offline functionality period — Determines the period of time during which product functionality will be available even if no synchronization occurs between the licensing services. Throughout the whole of this period, the Licensing Server will keep attempting to establish a connection to the ABBYY Licensing Service. The duration of the period is determined by the license type.

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Transfer of data between the licensing services

The Licensing Server only sends license identification and page counter data to the ABBYY Licensing Service. Data exchanged between the licensing services is encrypted independently of your hardware and cannot be decrypted. Information received by ABBYY about the environment in which the online license is used is completely anonymized.

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Activate an online license

Online licenses should be activated using the Activation Wizard (ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 License Manager → Activate License…). For more information, see Activate a license.
The Licensing Server requires an Internet connection to activate an online license as well as to use the program itself.
Once activated, your license will appear in the list of available licenses.
Screenshot of the Licenses list in the ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 License Manager showing an activated online license with its serial number, an Online license protection type, and a Network installation type.
An online license can be activated only once and cannot be deactivated.

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Use a single online license on several computers

You can access an online license using different computers. This may be required for deploying a cluster, migrating to a new environment, or restoring your system after a failure. To get access to an online license on a different computer, use the token that was generated for that particular license when it was activated. Such tokens are encrypted for storage. The number of computers that can be used to access the license is not limited. To access a license on a different computer:
  1. Save the license token on the computer on which the license was activated. To do so, select Service → Save Online Token… in ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 License Manager.
  2. Upload the token to the computer on which you require access. To do so, select Service → Load Online Token… in ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 License Manager.
Once the corresponding license appears in the list of available licenses, you will be able to select it.
A token is tied to all online licenses activated on that computer. As such, if you activate several licenses and save the token file, uploading the token to a different computer will give you access to all of them.
If the computer on which you usually use the license is no longer operable, the only way to continue using that license is by loading its token to the License Manager on a different computer. Store your license token files in a secure location, otherwise you risk losing access to your licenses.

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Manage an online license using the command line

You can manage your online license using the command line. This is done via the LicenseManager.Console.exe utility, which is provided with both ABBYY FlexiCapture Distributed and Standalone. You can use the command line to activate an online license, upload license tokens, and save license tokens as files. For more information, see Manage your licenses using the command-line console.