Cannot activate SQL Compare licence from the command line

leepillen

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone could help me with a problem we're having activating SQL Compare from the command line on a deployment server? 

We're running SQL Compare version 14 and I'm trying to activate the licence from the command line with this command: 

sqlcompare /activateSerial:<serial number> 

... where <serial number> is our licence key. I'm running this as the service account Windows user that will be running the login using a Windows scheduled task (I have to do it this way as the user is not permitted interactive login to the server). 

I can see that the activation succeeds; the command completes with this message: 

SQL Compare V14.7.8.21163

======================================================================================================================

Copyright ¸ Red Gate Software Ltd 1999-2022

SQL Compare: expired, edition standard, serial number: Not Licensed

Activating license

Please login to your Redgate account to start a trial or configure licensing. Visit http://127.0.0.1:22223/dialog/views/entry.html?connectionId=thbqxyeewy in your browser to continue.

Exiting since no valid license was found

I click through the URL provided with Edge browser installed on the server, I don't log in (the service account doesn't have an e-mail address or login to the RedGate portal), but can see the click has activated the licence for the server in the RedGate portal and has assigned it to a device number.

... but, when the service account runs the deployment using SQL Compare from the command line, it fails, reporting that it is not licensed: 

============================================================================== 

Copyright © Red Gate Software Ltd 1999-2022 

SQL Compare: expired, edition standard, serial number: Not Licensed 

Exiting since no valid license was found 

Terminating because of run-time error: sqlcompare exited with a failure code. Check the sqlcompare logs for details. Abandoning job. 

Does anyone know why this might be happening? The licence does appear to be activated.

Victoria W

Hi @leepillen

To use the SQL Compare command line functionality under a service account, you would need a SQL Change Automation license which is available in the SQL Toolbelt. The following article gives some more information about this:

https://documentation.red-gate.com/sc/using-the-command-line/integrating-the-command-line-with-applications

leepillen

Thank you Victoria, I have re-tried with one of our SQL Toolbelt serial numbers and it's now working.