Licensing
Note that during the 8.1 beta, the version number was bumped up to 9.0 due to some breaking changes we needed to make. As a result, the Deadline 9.0 beta releases now require a 9.0 beta license. If you currently have an 8.1 beta license, please see the information below about contacting the Sales team for an updated 9.0 beta license.
Metered Licensing
Metered licensing is still very much a part of Deadline 9.0, however we are not supplying free render time (like we did for the 8.0 beta) to beta testers at this time. Note that unlike the floating licenses, render time credits purchased are version-agnostic. This means that any render time already purchased should with the Deadline 9.0 beta, however the credits will be consumed.
Traditional (Floating) Licensing
In order to test Deadline with more than two slaves, you will need a floating FlexLM license for the version of Deadline you are running; version 9.0 in this case. Licenses are backward compatible, so if you have a 9.0 license, you can still run Deadline 8.0 and earlier. However, if you only have an 8.0 license or earlier, you will need to request a new license to run Deadline 9.0.
Note that the Draft version has also changed in 9.0 (to version 1.6 from 1.5), so you will also need an updated license to use Draft.
To request a new beta license, send the following information to sales (at) thinkboxsoftware (dot) com:
- Include “Requesting Deadline 9.0 Beta license.” in both the message subject and message body.
- The FlexLM server machine name.
- Physical Ethernet address (NIC address) of the FlexLM server computer.
- The number of licenses you require.
Note that only the Deadline Slave application requires a license (the license is per machine, not per CPU). Licenses are not required for monitoring or submitting jobs to the queue. Please allow two business days to receive your license file.
Compatibility
Because Deadline 9.0 is a major upgrade, you will need to do a full reinstall of the Repository, Database, and Clients. Refer to the Installation -> Upgrading Deadline section in the Deadline 9.0 user manual, which can be downloaded from the same location as the beta installers.
System Requirements
The system requirements for Deadline 9.0 are mostly the same as they were for deadline 8.0. The one key change is that Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are no longer supported by the Deadline Repository or Deadline Client. Please refer to the Installation -> System Requirements section in the Deadline 9.0 user manual, which can be downloaded from the same location as the beta installers.