How to activate BI Connector License offline?

Modified on Wed, 19 Jun at 1:11 AM

If you are having trouble activating your BI Connector (either Desktop or Server Edition) due to a network issue such as Proxy authentication/firewall, you can request an offline license activation for BI Connector.  


Below are the steps to follow for activating the license offline in BI Connector:


Step 1: Search for ODBC on your Windows PC and it will bring up the ODBC Data Sources.


Step 2: Launch ODBC Data Sources (64-bit).

Important note:  If you're activating the license on the Tableau Server/Bridge (or) Power BI Gateway machine, it is good to Run the ODBC as Administrator, this is done by right-clicking on the ODBC Data Sources (64-bit) and selecting Run as Administrator.


Step 3: Select the OBIEE DSN that you had configured earlier and click Configure... to launch the BI Connector UI.

Select DSN and click configure


Step 4: In BI Connector UI, click on the Activate License icon.

click the key icon 

Step 5: Enter the required information, and the license key in the appropriate fields. Then, check the Enable offline activation checkbox.


Note: Please enter a valid work email in the email field. For invalid/personal emails, the response file (in the step 8) will not be generated.


Step 6:  Click the Generate offline activation file button, to generate the offlineActivationRequest.json. Save the file to the local machine.

BI Connector generate offline activation file


Note: While saving the "offlineActivationRequest.json" file, please do not overwrite the "BI Connector.config" file (if exists) save it as a different file.


Step 7:  Now a message will be displayed as indicated on the below screenshot.

BI Connector offline activation file generated


Step 8: Open a web browser, and go to https://www.biconnector.com/offline-license-activation/ . On that page, click "Choose file" and upload the offlineActivationRequest.json file (which was generated in step 6).

Step 9: Click Activate.


Step 10: If the offlineActivationRequest.json file uploaded at step 8 is valid, the ResponseFile.dat file will be generated.


Step 11: Now, in BI Connector Activate License UI, Click the Browse button and upload the ReponseFile.dat file that was generated in the previous step.

BI Connector browse the location of response file


Step 12: Click Activate button to activate the license.

BI Connector response file location updated


A message, "Activation successful.", as indicated below will be displayed to confirm the offline license activation.

BI Connector confirmation message for successful offline activation


If you have any questions or issues activating the license, contact us at [email protected] or file a ticket at our support portal. We are just a click away.