Is deauthorization ArcGIS for server required?

[RYANCARL]

Is a deauthorization process required after entering the .prvc into the "Software Authorization for ArcGIS Server" wizard and deciding to rebuild the system from scratch (new MAC address, new IP address, etc)?

I am going to have to rebuild a new AWS image to account for some changes in the system requirements for a new project and I need to know if there is a deauthorization process that needs to happen so that the current .prvc file is not associated to the instance that I will be destroying.

I was told that the authorization is tied to the MAC address of the computer that the software is authorized on and want to redeploy to a new machine without needing to get a new .prvc file.

The version of ArcGIS Enterprise we are using is 10.8.1

[VictorTey]

Not my area of expertise but  in my esri -> license file if you click on the current license file detail, there is the option of cancelling the license file. Hope that helps 🙂

[JoshuaBixby · Accepted solution]

License compliance with ArcGIS Enterprise is mostly a paper exercise.  For example, ArcGIS Server installer and software does not check or enforce number of cores licensed, so a 4-core license can be activated on a machine with more than 4 cores and all the cores will be used.  Just because it can be done, i.e., using a 4-core license on a machine with more than 4 cores, it doesn't make it legal.

There is no technical way to deauthorize an ArcGIS Server license and return it to Esri.  Everything you will find online about deauthorizing licenses will be for ArcGIS Desktop/Pro products or the license managers that serve ArcGIS Desktop/Pro products.  An ArcGIS Server license can be backed up and transferred to another deployment or restored to a rebuilt deployment, but I won't provide specifics here since the steps aren't documented publicly. 

I suggest contacting Esri Support and asking them how to backup and restore your ArcGIS Server license.