Home > Data Protection > PowerProtect DP Series Appliances > White Papers > Dell PowerProtect DP Series Appliance: Configuration Best Practices > License activation
To use all the features of the PowerProtect DP Series Appliance server, you must have a license file before deployment of the PowerProtect DP Series Appliance server.
You can activate the PowerProtect DP Series Appliance server using in-product activation or manual activation.
The in-product license activation enables the Appliance Configuration Manager to automatically download the licenses for Protection Storage, Backup Server, and Reporting and Analytics products from the ELMS server.
Note: Ensure that the appliance is connected to a network with a working Internet connection to automatically download the licenses.
After you download the licenses, the License tab on the PowerProtect DP Series Appliance Configuration page is not displayed. If the licenses are not downloaded successfully during the network configuration, the License tab is displayed on the PowerProtect DP Series Appliance Configuration page with a Check online for licenses button. You can click Check online for licenses to download the licenses from the ELMS server.
Note: If the system is unable to download the licenses automatically from the ELMS server, an error message displays, and you must manually activate the licenses.
The manual license activation feature enables you to upload and activate the licenses that you have downloaded from the ELMS server.
The following are the prerequisites:
To manually activate the licenses on the PowerProtect DP Series Appliance configuration page, complete the following actions.
The licenses are activated, and a green checkmark appears next to Browse.