FactoryTalk Activation Manager works within the system requirements of all Rockwell Automation® software products. For the latest compatibility information, refer to the Product Compatibility and Download Center.

FactoryTalk Activation Manager does not have any specific hardware requirements. It runs on any hardware platform that supports the required software, either locally or on a virtual machine.

Rockwell Automation recommends at least 80 MB of available drive space for FactoryTalk Activation Manager.

• Operating systems:

• Windows 10
• Windows 11
• Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC
• Windows 10 Enterprise 2021 LTSC
• Windows Server® 2019
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2022

• Additional software:

• FactoryTalk Diagnostics version 6.30.00
• .NET Framework 4.8
• Wibu CodeMeter runtime version 7.51
• Flexera version 11.18.3.0

• Rockwell Windows Firewall Configuration Utility 1.00.14

FactoryTalk Activation Manager version 5.00 has these new and enhanced features:

• WebSocket communication support

• New command-line utility commands

• Configwsport. Configures the port number that will be listened on by the Websocket Service.
• Configwscert. Configures the certificate file and password that secure the connection between clients and the Websocket Service.
• ListAvailable. Lists information on available activations.
• Version. Displays the versions of the relevant activation binaries.

• Added functionality for command-line utility commands

• Manual rehost. Added the -m option to the rehost command to allow manual rehost of Flexera activations.
• Non-administrator error. An error now appears when a user who is not an administrator tries to execute a command-line utility command.

• Disable checkout of specific feature names. In this release, you can disable checkout for specific feature names based on users or user groups.
• Configure feature groups with parental precedence. You can now configure groups of features for which the parent of the group has precedence over the children in the group.
• Borrow By File using intermediate client. You can now carry out a Borrow by file operation using an intermediate client.

• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2012 R2

• Chinese
• Japanese
• Portuguese
• German
• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• Korean

CodeMeter error messages display only in English for Korean and Portuguese installations [CLM 152723]

Some CodeMeter error messages are displayed only in English for Korean and Portuguese installations of the FactoryTalk Activation Manager.

Incorrect quantity of FlexNet Publisher (FNP) concurrent activations appears [1046664]

If you get multiple FlexNet Publisher (FNP) Concurrent and Node-Locked activations of the same feature name, the Total column in the Find Available Activations page might display incorrect values. First identified in FactoryTalk Activation Manager version 4.06.

To avoid this issue, get only either Concurrent activations or Node-Locked activations of a given feature name, not both.

• Activate the license as a Flexera license type
• Activate a CodeMeter license type using a Windows user that does not have special characters in their username.

None in this release.

The following are the application notes for FactoryTalk Activation Manager.

Your antivirus software might detect the AutoGetFTA.exe file as a threat and cause an error when you activate a license.

To avoid this issue, exclude the AutoGetFTA.exe file from the virus scan.

For more information, see Knowledgebase Document ID: BF26715 - FactoryTalk Activation: Error creating process.

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When you run the Common Installer to install the FactoryTalk Activation Manager application on a computer running Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2, this error appears:

Follow these steps to work around this issue:

1. Browse to the DigiCert download website: DigiCert Root Certificates - Download & Test | DigiCert.com
2. Download the DigiCert Trusted Root G4 certificate.
3. Open Windows PowerShell as an administrator and enter this command:

If you get multiple FlexNet Publisher (FNP) Concurrent and Node-Locked activations of the same feature name, the Total column in the Find Available Activations page might display incorrect values. To avoid this issue, get only either Concurrent activations or Node-Locked activations of a given feature name, not both.

In FactoryTalk Activation Manager versions 4.04 and later, renewals of activations can include an activation type change from FlexNet to CodeMeter in addition to the expiration date change.

This type change is supported only when the original FlexNet activation is bound to the computer and replaced with a CodeMeter activation bound to the computer.

For dongles, perform a rehost of the original activation and a get of the renewed activation for the activation type. For example, a rehost is necessary when:

• Changing from a FlexNet dongle to a CodeMeter dongle
• Changing from a CodeMeter dongle to a FlexNet dongle
• Activation is bound to a FlexNet dongle, a CodeMeter dongle, or a CodeMeter computer

In FactoryTalk Activation Manager versions 4.02 and later, renewals of activations bound to dongles or computers are supported in which the technology is not changing.

FactoryTalk Activation Manager versions 4.03 and earlier do not renew activations that have changed type from FlexNet to CodeMeter. Rockwell Automation recommends installing version 4.06, which supports renewing activations that have changed type from FlexNet to CodeMeter. If upgrading to version 4.06 is not possible, perform a rehost of the original activation and a get of the renewed activation for the activation type.

A security setting or some other obstacle might prevent a renewed activation from being delivered. When this occurs, the Rockwell Automation activation database sometimes flags the activation as renewed, even though you never received it. The activation could be marked mistakenly as non-renewable.

To correct this problem, contact Rockwell Automation technical support and request a reset of the activation status.

If upgrading either activation servers or clients from FactoryTalk Activation Manager 4.00 or earlier, upgrade both the servers and clients to FactoryTalk Activation Manager 4.06 or later.

Expired FlexNet activations do not appear on FactoryTalk Activation Manager running on client machines. This behavior is by design, because expired activations cannot be acted upon from a client machine. On FactoryTalk Activation Manager running on a server, activations that are not available, because they have either expired or not yet reached their start date, are displayed as disabled and show a red icon. Hovering over the icon displays a tooltip that explains why the row is disabled.

Rehost expired activations to remove them from the Find Available display.

After a CM activation is borrowed, removing the CodeMeter server address from the search path on the Update Activation Search Path dialog box on the client PC causes these errors:

• The return of the activation fails and this error appears: Borr.010: Server License not found.
• In the Borrow date box in the Return Activations table, this text appears: Start time is not available. The source of the borrowed license may not be available.

To borrow CodeMeter activations correctly, the date and time settings of the client and server computers must match within one minute. If the date and time settings do not match, unexpected behavior occurs, such as the failure to activate valid licenses.

Borrowing or returning CodeMeter activations generates only a client diagnostic message. However, borrowing or returning FlexNet Publisher (FNP) activations generates both server and client diagnostic messages.

This is intended behavior.

Rockwell Automation recommends using FactoryTalk Activation Manager exclusively to make updates to the server search list. If using CodeMeter Web Admin to update the server search list, the updates may not reflect accurately in the FactoryTalk Activation Manager search list.

When using a remote desktop connection to a client computer running a Windows Server operating system, borrowed CodeMeter activations are not displayed, borrowed activations cannot be returned manually (they are automatically returned when they expire), and products relying on the borrowed activation cannot be activated. To work around these limitations, log into the client computer directly. Rockwell Automation recommends not using a Windows Server operating system on a computer that uses borrowed activations or points to a FactoryTalk Activation server.

For FactoryTalk Activation Manager to operate correctly, Top Server 6 software must be uninstalled, and the FLEXID_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable must be removed.

For more information on this issue, see Knowledgebase Document ID: BF14522 FactoryTalk Activation Manager: FTAManager has stopped working.

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If the VeriSign Universal Root Certification Authority certificate does not exist on the local computer, the certificate is installed while installing Rockwell Automation software. Use Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to view the certificate in Console Root > Certificates (Local Computer) > Trusted Root Certification Authorities > Certificates.

Use command-line parameters to perform an unattended or silent installation of the software.

The following table identifies the installation command-line parameters. Command-line parameters are case-insensitive. However, if a specified value includes a space, be sure to enclose the value in quotation marks (for example, "value with spaces").

The following examples show how to use the installation commands.

• For a silent install with default parameters:

• For an unattended install with customized parameter:

• For launching an install with the /Record parameter to enter record mode:

• For launching an install with the /Playback parameter to enter playback mode:

The following table identifies the error codes that can be returned by an installation.

CIS Benchmarks test results

FactoryTalk Activation Manager has been tested on CIS Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise (Release 21H2) Benchmark v1.12.0 (L1).

Exceptions settings for FactoryTalk Activation Manager are listed.

• 9.3.5 (L1) Ensure 'Windows Firewall: Public: Settings: Apply local firewall rules' is set to 'No.' Required so the FTA client can display licenses hosted on a remote server on the Find Available Activations page.