The Issuetrak License Update Utility is exactly what it sounds like: A utility to update your Issuetrak license. Its purpose is to allow for license changes on legacy (Pre-16.0) Issuetrak sites without the need to distribute, enter, or track license keys. This is useful to customers that are currently unable to upgrade their sites due to environmental or organizational constraints.
Getting the Utility
You can get the utility here.
You'll need to transfer the utility to the web server that runs your Issuetrak site in order to use it.
Using the Utility
Run the executable.
From the start, you are given the option to either click here for instructions (these instructions that you're currently reading) or Copy URL to put the URL to the instructions on the clipboard.
Further below, you're presented with two fields, which you will need to populate with valid information before proceeding:
- Path to website - This is the path to the web folder for the legacy Issuetrak site that needs an updated license. Once you've populated a valid legacy site in this field, the "Current License" section in the bottom right area will populate with your site's current license information.
- Site ID - The Site ID for your legacy Issuetrak site, as provided by Issuetrak Sales or Support. You won't need to enter this value if it's already been populated from the site you've selected.
Activation Methods
There are two usage methods for the license utility: Online and Manual.
The steps for each method occur under their respective Online and Manual tabs within the utility.
Online Method
Steps:
- Click on the Get New License button.
- The "New License" section on the left will populate with the license details. Verify its accuracy according to your records.
- Click on Apply License.
The following confirmation will appear: "License successfully applied to site. Please recycle the site's application pools in IIS."
You can choose either Open IIS to follow the instructions or Close. It's a good idea to recycle the application pool(s) for your Issuetrak site in order for the changes to be completed.
Manual Method
This method may be necessary on servers that don't have internet access, or otherwise have safeguards in place that could prevent your web server from reaching Issuetrak's license service.
- Click on the Manual tab.
- Click on the Create License Request button.
- You'll be prompted to select a location to save the license request file, which will be saved with the filename issuetrak-license-request-Your-SiteID.json. Take note of where this file is saved.
- Contact Issuetrak Support so that you can provide the license request file. Support will gather some additional information, and once validated, you will get a license activation file back.
- Place the license activation file on the web server hosting your legacy Issuetrak site.
- In the License Update Utility, click on Upload License Activation then select the activation file you received back.
- Click Apply License.
The following confirmation will appear: "License successfully applied to site. Please recycle the site's application pools in IIS."
You can choose either Open IIS to follow the instructions or Close. It's a good idea to recycle the application pool(s) for your Issuetrak site in order for the changes to be completed.
Recycling Application Pools
Recycling application pools is essentially a soft form of rebooting a website. When an application pool is recycled, all sites that are in that application pool will go offline and become inaccessible until the app pool completes its startup process. The recycling process is normally completed in just a few seconds. This section assumes that you will make the correct judgement call for your company or organization as to whether and when you can safely recycle an application pool.
As you might surmise, if you recycle an application pool for one or more sites that are currently in use, then you will effectively cause a service disruption! If you are not the authority for your company or organization to determine whether a site should be taken offline for maintenance (even for just a few seconds) then you should give serious consideration to consulting the authority that can make that determination before you complete these steps.
Steps:
- From the web server, open IIS.
- On the lefthand menu:
- Expand the section that is labeled with the server hostname.
- Expand Sites.
- Find and click on the site that is going through the activation process.
- Choose View Applications.
- Take note of the entries that appear in the Application Pool column.
- On the lefthand menu, click on Application Pools.
- Find each application pool that corresponds with the names you noted in step 3, then:
- Right-click the application pool name and click View Applications.
- Look at the Site column and determine if more than one is listed.
- If just the site you noted is listed, and no others are present, then you may proceed to step 6 below.
- If multiple unique sites are listed for this application pool, and you do not typically administer those sites, then now might be a good time to find out what those sites are, and if they can be safely reset at this time. If you get clearance to proceed, then go ahead to step 6.
- Return to Application Pools on the lefthand menu.
- Right-click each name you noted in step 3 and click on Recycle...
- Wait for about 15 seconds, then verify you can get back into your Issuetrak site via your browser.
Air-Gapped Systems
There are additional considerations for customer systems that have air-gapped servers. When we refer to air-gapped systems, we are referring to web servers that don't have internet access and / or have non-exportable remote file systems. This is a complication, but we've thought of your scenario, too!
If this applies to you, then go ahead and begin with the Manual steps, and then stop at step 3.
Afterwards, from your web server:
Obtaining and Providing Info to Support
Steps:
- Open the license request file in a text editor.
- Take note of the following values from the license request file. Please double-check the information as you transcribe it, as this is necessary in order to ensure a successful activation.
- oldVersion
- requestId
- requestedAt
- token
- Provide this information to Issuetrak Support.
Support will process and validate this information and provide you with a license activation file, which will need to be applied to your server.
Applying the License Activation File
Steps:
- Transfer the activation file provided by Support to your air-gapped web server.
- Open the License Activation Utility.
- Click on the Manual tab.
- Click on Upload License Activation then select the activation file you received back.
- Click Apply License.
- The following confirmation will appear: "License successfully applied to site. Please recycle the site's application pools in IIS."
You can choose either Open IIS to follow the instructions or Close. It's a good idea to recycle the application pool(s) for your Issuetrak site in order for the changes to be completed.
