NVIDIA Advanced Rendering

Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide

27 April 2017
Document version 1.0
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ii NVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide © 2017 NVIDIA Corporation
Contents
1 Local / Professional GPU licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Buy your license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Activate your license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Install your license . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Frequently asked questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Professional GPU licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

© 2017 NVIDIA CorporationNVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide iii
iv NVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide © 2017 NVIDIA Corporation
1 Local / Professional GPU licensing
This guide provides the steps for installing a Local license. A Professional GPU license is a
special form of Local license, however all the steps are the same. If you have installed a Fermi
Class (or better) Quadro or Tesla, you are eligible for a Professional GPU license at a reduced
price.

1.1 Buy your license

1. Open the NVIDIA Professional Application Center (NVPAC) in one of the following
ways:
• Click on the Professional Application Center desktop shortcut, or

• From the start menu, click on [ (All) Programs I NVIDIA Corporation I Professional Appli-
cation Center I Professional Application Center ].

Fig. 1.1 – NVPAC

© 2017 NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide 1
1 Local / Professional GPU licensing 1.1 Buy your license

If this is your first time using NVPAC please press ACCEPT & CONTINUE and you’ll be
taken to the following User Interface.

Fig. 1.2 – NVPAC product for Professional GPU Fig. 1.3 – NVPAC product for Local license
license

Fig. 1.4 – NVPAC products with full names

2 NVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide © 2017 NVIDIA Corporation
1.2 Activate your license 1 Local / Professional GPU licensing

2. Expand the product rollout that you are licensing, eg, mentalray 3.14 for Maya 2017
Professional GPU, where there are three steps:
• BUY LICENSE
• ACTIVATE NOW with the MAC Address of your system to the right
• TEXT BOX to upload your license file, enter the text of your license file, or point
your machine to a license server

Fig. 1.5 – NVPAC product options for Fig. 1.6 – NVPAC product options for Local
Professional GPU license license

3. Press the BUY LICENSE button to take you to the NVIDIA Advanced Rendering Software
Store1 page, where you can buy licenses. Here you will find:
• Pricing information

• Purchase options:

• Buy directly from NVIDIA

• Buy outside the United States and Canada, or

• Buy from a reseller for large volume discounts

1.2 Activate your license

After buying your license(s) you will receive an email with a Product Activation Key. To
redeem your key:
1. Click the ACTIVATE NOW button in the NVIDIA Professional Application Center (NVPAC)
1 http://store.nvidia.com/store/nvidiamr/en_US/Content/pbPage.products

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1 Local / Professional GPU licensing 1.2 Activate your license

Fig. 1.7 – Activate Now in NVPAC

2. This will take you to the NVIDIA Enterprise log-in page. Log in to your existing account,
or register to create a new NVIDIA Enterprise account.
3. Click NVIDIA Licensing Portal to proceed.

Fig. 1.8 – NVIDIA’s Enterprise Customer Portal for Licensing

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1.2 Activate your license 1 Local / Professional GPU licensing

4. Click Redeem Product Activation Keys in the side menu.

Fig. 1.9 – Redeem Product Activation Keys

5. Paste your Product Activation Key in the top field, and press Redeem.

Fig. 1.10 – Paste key in top field

6. Click License History in the side menu and hover over the icon in the Manage Licenses
column next to the PAK you are licensing:

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1 Local / Professional GPU licensing 1.2 Activate your license

Fig. 1.11 – License History

7. Click License(s) to be taken to the License Information page where you will click Generate
to begin generating your license.

Fig. 1.12 – Click on Generate

8. You will be taken to the following Generate Licenses page where you will need to input
your Host Name and MAC Address.

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1.2 Activate your license 1 Local / Professional GPU licensing

Fig. 1.13 – Generate Licenses page

9. You can find your MAC Address in NVPAC, next to the Activate Now button. You can
find your Host Name by typing ’hostname’ in a teminal window.
Note: Licensing requires the MAC Address and Host Name of the computer
where it will be activated.

Fig. 1.14 – Copy the MAC Address

© 2017 NVIDIA CorporationNVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide 7
1 Local / Professional GPU licensing 1.2 Activate your license

10. Enter your computer’s MAC Address and Host Name for this license and press Gener-
ate.

Fig. 1.15 – Enter host MAC Address and Name to generate license

11. Save the license file (.lic) with the Save All button.

Fig. 1.16 – Save the license file

8 NVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide © 2017 NVIDIA Corporation
1.3 Install your license 1 Local / Professional GPU licensing

Note: The NVIDIA Software Licensing Center names your license file with your MAC
Address and appending .lic, you may want to rename this file.

1.3 Install your license

1. Choose SELECT FILE in the NVIDIA Professional Application Center (NVPAC), and
browse to load the saved license (.lic) file.
2. Press ADD LICENSE to complete the license installation.
Your Mental Ray plug-in is now licensed and will render production sequences and batch.

Fig. 1.17 – NVPAC valid Maya Professional GPU Fig. 1.18 – NVPAC valid Iray Server Local License
license

Note: Insert a Local license into the product box without the "NVIDIA Professional
GPU" in the name, eg, the "mentalray 3.14 for Maya 2017" box

Please restart your product to confirm that the license is operating correctly. For example,

Fig. 1.19 – Restart Iray Server notification

© 2017 NVIDIA CorporationNVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide 9
1 Local / Professional GPU licensing 1.3 Install your license

10 NVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide © 2017 NVIDIA Corporation
2 Frequently asked questions
2.1 Professional GPU licensing
Q: Do all GPUs in a machine need to be NVIDIA Professional GPUs?
A: No, only one GPU needs to be Professional for a machine to use a Professional GPU
license.

Q: Does the Professional GPU need to be used for rendering? (e.g., can it be a small Profes-
sional GPU?)
A: No, the Professional GPU does not need to be used for rendering - it only needs to be
recognized by the system.

Q: What happens if I change the Professional GPU in the system?

A: The license is tied to the machine and not the GPU, so you are free to exchange GPUs as
you’d like as long as there’s at least one Professional GPU in the system when the Professional
GPU license is used.

Q: What happens if there is no longer a Professional GPU in the system that’s using a
Professional GPU license?
A: If a Professional GPU isn’t in the system, your rendering software will look for a standard
license (Local or Network).

Q: Which NVIDIA product lines qualify as NVIDIA Professional GPUs?

A: NVIDIA Quadro or Tesla series only

2.2 Troubleshooting
Q: I see the following error screen when trying to generate my license

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2 Frequently asked questions 2.2 Troubleshooting

Fig. 2.1 – Error message when generating license

A: This is a glitch in the portal system. Sometimes it happens when there is significant
lag between when you land on the page and when you press Generate. Try entering the
information again and eliminating the lag. But it may also be a browser issue. Try to generate
your license using a different browser.

Q: When I enter my Product Activation Key (PAK) in the Redeem Activation Key box and
press Redeem, the screen just resets.
A: This is a glitch in the portal system. Try to redeem your PAK using a different browser.

12 NVIDIA Advanced Rendering — Local / Professional GPU Licensing Guide © 2017 NVIDIA Corporation