Deactivation

If you want to move the License Server from one server to another you would use the migrate parameter as explained in the related article. Normally there never is a need to deactivate License Server: If you do not want to use it you can simply shut it down and if you want to use it on different hardware you would use migrate.

Even worse: If you deactivate a License Server without uninstalling it's Cartridges beforehand there is no way to restore them. It is still possible to deactivate but you should be carful with that and only do so if you know why.

Once again: Before a license server is deactivated, all cartridges installed on this License Server must be uninstalled first.

Therefore, there are some preconditions if you really need to deactivate: If License Server is used in failover mode (with more than one instance as described here: Using License Server in failover mode) and still holds Cartridges you can't deactivate it at all. Instead a message will be displayed:
"This License Server activation is part of a failover mode and deactivating a License Server in failover-mode is not supported. Please use --migrate instead."

When you have uninstalled all Cartridges you may deactivate License Server using the force option in the deactivate mode:

licenseServer --deactivate --force [--cachefolder=cachefolder] <activation code>

Example:

./licenseServer --deactivate --force 55XXXXXXXXXXHEU9R7DUTDAYYYYYYYPA
Click to copy

If a single License Server instance is used (not in failover mode) you may deactivate it without these mechanisms, which means that you should use even more caution.