Step-by-Step Walkthrough: Licensing Altair Software with an Auth Code

One of the most common questions we field at TrueInsight through our Support Team is simply "why can't my machine see its license?" More often than not, the fix is an auth code. An auth code is a short, single-use alphanumeric token generated from Altair One that authorizes a specific machine to pull from your Altair Units pool. It is the fastest way to get a fresh installation running, and it is usually the first thing to try when a previously working machine starts throwing licensing errors.

The generation half of the process is identical no matter what you have installed. Where things diverge is the redemption half. Most Altair tools use the Altair License Utility (commonly called ALMutil) to accept the code, but RapidMiner Monarch ships with its own licensing tool and does not necessarily install ALMutil alongside it. In today's blog I am going to walk you through generating the code in Altair One, then cover both redemption paths so you can jump to whichever one applies to you.

Generating your Auth Code in Altair One

First, you will need to log into your Altair One account, and click on the person-shaped icon, your name, or the "nine-dot" menu in the upper-right corner.

Then select Profile under Manage Account.

From here, you should already be on the User Profile menu; if not, select it on the left side of your screen. Next, swap over to the Authorized Machines tab to view any machines that currently have access to your license.

You are now ready to click the Generate Auth Code button. A box will pop up at the top of the screen that says "Your Auth Code is:" followed by an alphanumeric code. You can copy the code by clicking the icon to the right of the final character.

Keep an eye on the countdown next to the code, it expires in a matter of minutes, so it is best to have your licensing tool already open before you generate it. If it lapses, no harm done: just generate another one.

That is the entire Altair One side of the process. From here, pick the path that matches what you have installed.

Standard Authorization (Altair License Utility)

If you have installed RapidMiner Monarch, skip ahead to the Monarch Authorization section below. For any other Altair tool, open the Altair License Utility on your computer.

If you are unable to locate the utility on your machine, it can often be found in the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Altair\20XX\security\bin\win64\gui\almutil_gui.exe

Replace 20XX with your installed software version.

Once it opens, select Managed Licensing and then use the Authorize with an Auth Code field. Paste the code you just copied into the box and click Authorize.

Note the reminder at the bottom of that tab: Managed Licensing is for Altair's cloud-managed Units licensing, not for configuring an on-premises license server. If you are pointing a machine at an on-prem server instead, that is a different workflow entirely. Otherwise, this should be all it takes to authorize your machine and get you back to work.

Monarch Authorization

If you are using Monarch and you do not have access to ALMutil, you generate the auth code exactly the same way as above, you just paste it into Monarch's built-in licensing tool, the Altair Monarch License Manager, instead.

If you are unable to locate the Altair Monarch License Manager on your machine, it can often be found here:

C:\Program Files\Altair Monarch 20XX\LicenseManager\Datawatch.Licensing.Manager.exe

Replace 20XX with your installed Monarch version.

Occasionally you will open the License Manager and see that your machine is already licensed, as shown below. On a new installation, or if you are facing any licensing errors at all, it is good practice to proceed and re-authorize anyway. Click Configure License to continue.

When prompted to choose a license method, select Connect to Altair Licensing and click Next.

Under the Managed Licensing tab, select the Configure button.

This is where you will enter the auth code you generated in Altair One. You may need to tick Unblock authorization before pasting your code, this is the step people miss most often, and it is what the warning about an existing authorization being overwritten is referring to. Paste the code into the Authorization Token field, then click Authorize.

Once you have authorized and returned to the previous screen, you just need to select Connect.

You will see that your product is successfully licensed, and then you can click Finish.

At this point, you should be able to access your RapidMiner Monarch license on this machine.

A few things worth keeping in mind

• Auth codes are short-lived. Generate the code only after you have the licensing tool open and ready to accept it.
• Re-authorizing is cheap. If a machine that used to work suddenly throws a licensing error, running through this process again is a reasonable first troubleshooting step.
• Leave the Authorized Machines list alone. Removing entries without knowing what they map to is a fast way to break someone else's day. Investigate first.
• Administrators have a shortcut. As the note in Altair One points out, auth codes can be used with ALMutil by administrators to quickly authorize license access for multiple users on a single machine and/or across multiple machines, handy when you are standing up a whole team at once.

None of this is complicated once you have done it a couple of times, but the split between ALMutil and Monarch's own License Manager is enough of a gotcha that it accounts for a healthy share of the licensing tickets we see. Bookmark this one for the next time you stand up a new machine.

If you run into a licensing error this walkthrough doesn't resolve, or you want to talk through how to manage Altair Units across your team, please contact us here at TrueInsight!