Educational licensing activation

[Anonymous]

I am attempting to deploy AutoCAD to 30 seats in our academic computing lab. I'm downloading from the //../education/free-software/autocad page and selecting "School: Deploy without network server". This generates an email with a S/N and Key for a Education Multi-seat Stand-alone license.

Installation is successful but when I try to activate with that S/N and choose an account I get "Thanks for initiating your product activation. The system encountered a problem registering or activating your product. Please submit your registration information to us in a Customer Service request and an Autodesk representative will contact you." Clicking on the Customer Service request link throws a Script Error and does not proceed.

I have seen this behavior on multiple machines with multiple S/Ns. Please advise.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

May I ask why you didn't get a network license version?  If would've made your life much easier. 

Use this link New: Get an Activation Code on each machine.

[Anonymous]

Hello Mark,

The KB article for generating a Network License File indicates this is done on the Account Management page but the option does not exist for any of the products listed on my page.

Thank you for the link to the Virtual Agent but I end up in the same place. I go to register dot autodesk dot com, enter my O/S and S/N, attempt to choose my account, same error. Tried multiple S/Ns.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

I'm confused now..  Do you have a network license for your product?  Or are these stand-alone?  You are sending mix-messages.

[Anonymous]

I think you inferred from the fact that I'm trying to deploy to multiple stations that I have a network license. To be clear, I'm trying to activate whatever license is available to me under the terms of Autodesk's free licensing for educational institutions (hence the title of my post). When I try to download AutoCAD from the Software for Institutions page it generates a S/N of the License Type I mentioned. This happens every time I go to the download page, so I've got 5 or 6 S/Ns at this point. Installation works fine, but activation fails.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

At this point I have no clue what you are doing.   Your school should've been issued a single serial # for your 30 seats and not numerous serial #s.  I will tag @natasha.l or contact the Educational Support Team to have this resolved.

[natasha.l · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous,

The institution has access for both Network Licensing & Multi-Seat licensing with the Free Educational Software package with an Educational Community Account. If you do not see the products & credentials properly for who ever created the account please contact the Education Community Support you may have created a Student rather than an Institutional account. 

As mentioned, you should have received a single serial number for multi-seat activation for your institution. Please review this article: Download and Install for Educational Institutions. 

Educational Institutional Licensing Options

Option 1 - A multi-seat stand-alone license supports a specific number of devices, allowing you to install, register, and activate one or more Autodesk products on several computers using a single serial number. Network connectivity is not required to run the software. 

Option 2 - Network licenses are ideal for large organizations that require many individuals to access and use Autodesk software from multiple locations. They require a server and network connectivity to distribute licenses.
See: Choosing a Network License Server Model.

Please "Accept As Solution" if a reply has helped resolved the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

[dgorsman]

I'll second the thought this sounds like a Student version is being used rather than institutional.  Rather than download and install as a single step you should be downloading an installer - period.  Once you have that you can use it to build a deployment or install for creating a base image using your provided serial number.  Be sure to back up the installer along with service packs, etc. so you don't need to download them at a later date.

I'll also second the earlier post about switching to network licensing.  Managing MSSA licenses is a PITA compared to network licensing.  You don't need to have a dedicated server to do the licensing either; you can use a spare computer sitting idle in a corner to run the license manager, as long as it's "visible" to all the other computers.

[Anonymous]

@natashal84

I think we've found the problem. The account was created before my time and I wasn't aware it was of the wrong type (or even that there were multiple types). I'll contact Education Support to adjust accordingly.

I'd like to leave this thread open for the time being until I can confirm a successful activation. Thanks to all for your prompt and helpful responses.

[Anonymous]

I was having the same issue as you. as I chose network license and not a single workstation. the instruction in the email is incorrect. Despite all the documentation I finally muddled through what you are suppose to do. 

go here https://registeronce.autodesk.com register your serial make sure you have disabled any adblock plugins or apps you may be running or you can not complete the registration. once you complete the registration if will give you your license file to setup your license server. Then when installing on the client machine choose the network license and put in the server details or create a deployment package. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Success! Education Support informed me that my account was created as an Educator but I should still have access to the Network License Manager tools. However, attempts to register both "with" and "without network server" S/Ns failed with the "system encountered a problem registering or activating your product" error.

I ultimately created a new IT Admin account and was able to register "with network server" S/Ns. Once I had a network license file, setup of the license server and test deployments of AutoCAD and Revit went smoothly.

Thanks again to everyone for their insight.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to sign in as @Anonymous before posting. You guys get the idea... 🙂

[natasha.l]

Hello @Anonymous, @Anonymous,

Thank you for returning to the community, contributing, and letting us know how you resolved the issue by setting up the account with the correct creditials.