Specifying a License Key

A Parallels Desktop for Mac license key is required to activate Parallels Desktop on target Macs. The key must be specified in the autodeploy package.

Note: In Parallels Desktop for Mac, the activation method defined by a pre-installed configuration profile always takes priority over the one specified in the deployment package. Therefore, if you deploy a package to a machine that already has a configuration profile installed, the activation will happen as defined in the configuration profile.

You can find the primary key in your Business Account customer area as described in this chapter. There, you can also issue secondary keys that we recommend using for activation.

Attention: For security reasons, we strongly advise against using your primary key directly. Any compromised secondary keys can be deleted and replaced with new ones.

To specify the license key:

1. In the autodeploy package, expand the Parallels Desktop Autodeploy > Scripts > License Key and Configuration folder.

   
2. Open the deploy.cfg file in a text editor.

3. Find the License section (second from the top) and enter your Parallels Desktop Business Edition license key as a value of the license_key variable. The key must be supplied in the following format: "XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX" (including quotes and dashes).

4. Save the deploy.cfg file.

Starting from Parallels Desktop 18, 'Activation using corporate account (SSO)' option became available. This option works only if you have purchased a special license type and set up integration with your identity provider in Parallels My Account. Please check your license certificate for details. To enable 'Activation using corporate account' experience, comment the line with the license_key variable.

Note: Parallels Desktop activation requires Internet access. You need to make sure that port 443 is opened on target Mac computers so they can communicate with the Parallels License Server. You can also verify that the Mac computers can reach the Parallels License Server at https://desktop.parallels.com.