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Transitioning from a legacy license to user-based (email activation) licensing

  • Updated

This guide is intended to guide the Geneious Prime License Admin and IT team through the transition from a legacy license (Floating or Group) to our new user-based licensing system, including adding administrators, setting up SSO and SCIM, inviting users, and verifying that activation works.

User-based licenses activate with each user's email address or SSO, and each seat is intended for use by only the named individual. There is no longer a need for a license key or to maintain a license server. The end user’s local data will not be affected by the change in licensing systems. 

Once your users are active, you can manage users, add additional cloud admins, and configure workspace settings for your Geneious Cloud Workspace. See, Managing Geneious Cloud Sharing and Settings for details.

Before you begin

For yourself (admin):

  • You have access to a Team or Enterprise user-based license.
  • You can sign in to My Account with the administrator email to which the license was issued.
  • Users have access to Geneious Prime 2024.0 or later.
  • Decide whether you'll use Single Sign-On (SSO) and Directory Sync (SCIM) for activation and provisioning. These are Enterprise only. If you don't set up SSO, users activate with their email address and a password.
  • Note where your users run Geneious Prime. If they use a virtual Windows environment (VDI) or other virtual desktop, read step 3 before the transition, as activation can behave differently.

For each Geneious Prime user (see Invite test users for further instructions on these steps):

  • Users have Geneious Prime 2024.0 or later installed.
  • Any floating license configuration has been removed from the Geneious Prime properties file on each user's machine before you begin. See How to remove floating license configuration.
  • Users' machines can reach https://isul.geneious.com/ and https://isulapi.geneious.com/ over HTTPS (port 443). These connections are required for license activation and validation.
  • Note: If users run Geneious Prime in a virtual Windows environment (VDI) or other virtual desktop, read step 3 before proceeding, as the activation can behave differently in these environments.

1. Add Alternative Admins

Adding Alternative Admins lets colleagues and your IT team help you set up and manage the license.

  1. Sign in to My Account with your administrator email.
  2. Open Settings → Admins.
  3. Click Add and enter the email address of each person you want to make an admin. They then appear under Settings → Admins and can sign in to My Account.

Note: Primary Admins are allocated a Geneious Prime Seat; this can be revoked if the Primary Admin does not intend to use the Geneious Prime software. Alternative Admins do not consume a license Seat. License Administration can be done without using a license seat.

For the full set of administration tasks, see Administration of Team and Enterprise subscriptions.

2. Set up SSO and SCIM (Enterprise only)

If you want users to sign in with your identity provider and/or have licenses provisioned automatically, set this up before inviting users.

  • SSO (SAML 2.0/OIDC) lets users activate through your identity provider instead of an email-and-password login.
  • SCIM provisions and de-provisions users from your directory (for example, Active Directory) automatically, instead of manually in My Account.
  • Setting up SSO requires verifying your domain first and requires help from your IT team.

For full guides on setting up SSO, see Single Sign On (SSO) & User provisioning (SCIM) set up Guides.

Note: If you don't set up SSO, you can skip this step entirely, and users will activate Geneious Prime with their email address and a password. SSO and SCIM can be set up at a later date, and users can be transitioned from email-and-password login to SSO. If you are on a Team license and require SSO & SCIM, reach out to our sales team to upgrade to an Enterprise License.

3. Invite test users

Start with a small group rather than the whole organization. 

  1. Ensure users are on Geneious Prime 2024.0 or beyond. For instructions on updating Geneious Prime, see How do I update to the latest version of Geneious Prime?
  2. Make sure end users have an active internet connection.
    Geneious Prime needs to connect to https://isul.geneious.com/ and https://isulapi.geneious.com/ (using the standard https port 443) for license verification. If this connection is blocked by a firewall, the user will be unable to activate their license.
  3. Some organizations pre-configured the floating license information into the Geneious Prime installation properties file. If this is left unchanged, Geneious Prime will default to the floating license and cannot be switched to the new license. The properties are stored in the geneious.properties file in the user’s Geneious Prime installation directory. See How to remove floating license configuration for more details.
  4. In My Account, open the Seats tab.
  5. Click Add and enter the email addresses of a few test users (or let SCIM provision them, if configured). Each invited user receives an activation email and is then added to the Seats list.
    Users will receive a “You’re invited to use Geneious Prime” email from Geneious with instructions on setting up their account and activating Geneious Prime.
    For full user instructions on activating the license, see How to activate a Geneious Prime license.
  6. When a user is invited but has not yet activated Geneious Prime, their status will show as PENDING. Once they activate for the first time, their status will change to ACTIVE. 

Note: Each user can activate Geneious Prime on up to two devices.

Warning: In a Virtual Desktop system, a non-persistent machine can present a different hardware fingerprint each time it launches. Geneious Prime may then read this as the user repeatedly switching computers, which can exhaust their machine activations. If you encounter this, see the Troubleshooting section below before rolling it out further.

4. Roll out to your users and retire the old configuration

  1. If the floating license details were pre-configured in the Geneious Prime properties file, reconfigure the geneious.properties file for all users’ Geneious Prime installations before proceeding.
  2. Invite your remaining users via the Seats tab (or via SCIM provisioning).
  3. Reassign or reclaim seats as needed from the Seats tab.
  4. Once users are completely switched to the new license, you can retire any servers hosting the Floating License Manager.

5. Verify it worked

You should now be able to confirm:

  • Invited users can sign in and open the full version of Geneious Prime.
  • The Seats tab in My Account shows invited users as ACTIVE.
  • For Enterprise: SSO sign-ins succeed, and SCIM-provisioned users appear automatically.
  • Upon activation, there is no mention of the Floating License server.

Troubleshooting

Users in a virtual environment appear to "switch computers" at every launch. A non-persistent virtual desktop changes the machine fingerprint on each boot, so Geneious Prime treats each launch as a new device and uses up the user's activations. Depending on how your environment is configured, this may work out of the box or may need adjustments. If you encounter an issue, please submit a Support Request, and we can work through your configuration with you.

Users get the error, "You're offline. Please connect to the Internet to enable all activation options." Users need internet access and connections allowed to https://isul.geneious.com/ and https://isulapi.geneious.com/ (using the standard https port 443) for license verification. For information on proxy settings, see Connecting to the internet from within Geneious Prime.

User’s Activation Screen does not load. Geneious Prime uses an embedded browser for activation, and some security systems block non-standard browsers. See, I cannot activate Geneious through email sign on (activation screen does not load) for help.

Could Not Obtain License: Cannot connect to the floating license server: Can’t connect to the license server (-115,3002) (Connection Refused): The Geneious Prime preferences file was not modified, so the floating license is taking precedence. See How to remove floating license configuration for details.
Geneious Prime Cloud Not Obtain License error message

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