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Feature Restricted Licensing- Offline in ColdFusion

Last updated on Feb 25, 2025

Learn about Feature Restricted Licensing (FRL)-Offline licensing in ColdFusion and how you can activate or deactivate the license.

Feature Restricted Licensing - Offline is a license activation mode for users who work on machines that aren't connected to the Internet and require their licenses directly installed with the activation package. Licenses are directly installed on user machines with the package.

Note:

The Feature Restricted Licensing - Offline option appears in your Admin Console only when Adobe entitles your organization to use this type of licensing. The option does not appear by default.

Admin workflow

Due to being deployed in offline environments, Feature Restricted Licensing - Offline applications are unable to check in with Adobe servers during the license activation process. Therefore, ColdFusion licensed using Feature Restricted Licensing - Offline does not report anything to the Admin Console. In summary, Adobe receives no data or information from client machines using this license activation method. Additionally, no usage data is reported in this licensing mode.

The license expiration date is the organization's contract end date.

Create the package in Admin console

Launch the Adobe Admin console.
Select the Packages tab.
On the Packages tab, select Create a package.
Select Feature restricted licensing and then select Next.

Select the Feature Restricted Licensing option in the Admin Console
Select Offline and then select Next.
On the Entitlements screen, select the ColdFusion entitlement, and select Next.

Select the entitlement
On the Configure screen, select the required options and then select Next

Select a platform and language
- Choose a platform: Choose the operating system and the processor support from the following:
  
  macOS (Universal)
  
  macOS (Intel)
  
  macOS (Apple Silicon)
  
  Windows (64-bit)
  
  Windows (32-bit)
  
  Windows (ARM)
- Language: Select the language in which you want to create the package.
- Use OS Locale: Enables you to create a package that deploys in the OS language of client machine. In which case, the OS language is the default fallback language in which the package is deployed.
On the Choose Apps screen, you’ll see the license file required to activate ColdFusion. You can ignore the Available applications section as it is not applicable to ColdFusion. ColdFusion will only use the license file, that contains the files to activate the product. Select Next.

Select the license file
Ignore the Choose plugins screen. It is not applicable to ColdFusion. Select Next.
Ignore the Options screen as well. It is not applicable to ColdFusion. Select Next.
On the Finalize screen, enter the name of the package. You can also view the package details that contain the entitlement, platform, and language, among other information.

Enter the name of the package to create
Select Create package.

You are returned to the package list when the package creation process begins.

If the package is built successfully, you are prompted to download the package.

Also, the Download link is available in the Download column of the corresponding package row. So, you can download the package later.

A package is available in the Admin Console for up to three days. To check the time remaining to download a package, click to the right of the package’s name.

Activate ColdFusion

The downloaded package file is a .zip file format. Unzip the file and save the license on your computer. The package contains the following files:

adobe-licensing-toolkit.exe: ColdFusion doesn’t use the file.
ngl-preconditioning-data.json: ColdFusion uses the file for activation. The file contains npdID, npdSpecVersion, deploymentMode, operatingConfigs among other license-related information.
PackageInfo.txt: Contains the package’s name, type, and the platform.

The ngl-preconditioning-data.json file will be used to activate ColdFusion.

Launch the ColdFusion Administrator.
Navigate to Activation page in Licensing and Activation.
Select the License Mode and the Deployment Type.
In the Activate License section, browse to the path where you’ve saved the files, and select the json file.
Select Activate. If the activation is successful, you’ll see a confirmation message. If the activation fails, you must check the logs in license.log (cfusion/logs).

After activation, the following are created in CF_HOME > .nglfiles:

OperatingConfigs
Certificates
Asnps
cfusion/lib/ngl-preconditioning-data.json

Deactivate a license

Deactivating the license reverts ColdFusion to the developer mode. Follow the steps to deactivate the license:

Launch the ColdFusion Administrator.
Navigate to the Activation section in the Licensing and Activation page.
Select Deactivate.

If the deactivation is successful, you’ll see a confirmation message. If the deactivation fails, you must check the logs in license.log (cfusion/logs).

If ColdFusion is within the trial period, it reverts to trial. All license-related files are cleared upon deactivation. The file ngl-preconditioning-data.json will be deleted after deactivation.

Admin API support

The license.cfc contains the following APIs for activation, deactivation, and generating the activation code for FRL isolated licensing.

activateNow()
deactivateNow()

Activate using Admin API

The following script activates FRL offline license.

<cfscript> 
    activationPackageJSONPath = ExpandPath( "./ngl-preconditioning-data.json") 
    admin= createObject("component","CFIDE.adminapi.administrator") 
    admin.login("Adobe$123") 
    licenseObj = CreateObject("component","CFIDE.adminapi.license") 
    response = licenseObj.activateNow(activationPackageJSONPath, "Production") 
    writeDump(response) 
</cfscript>

Deactivate using Admin API

The following script deactivates FRL offline license.

<cfscript> 
    admin= createObject("component","CFIDE.adminapi.administrator") 
    admin.login("Adobe$123") 
    licenseObj = CreateObject("component","CFIDE.adminapi.license") 
    response = licenseObj.deactivateNow() 
    writeDump(response) 
</cfscript>

Install ColdFusion silently with FRL offline license

A silent installation does not interact with the user. A silent installation is useful when you install ColdFusion on multiple computers with the same installation options and configuration.

You can use the silent installer to install the ColdFusion server configuration, multi-server configuration, or JEE configuration. The silent installer runs on all the platforms that ColdFusion supports.

Create the properties file

The silent.properties file is an ASCII text file that defines the installation parameters. Specify the details as provided in the file. Select only the ones that apply to your installation type.

Note: Using the silent installer, you'll be able to install ColdFusion, but you need to log into the ColdFusion Adminustrator, and activate the license from the License and Activation page.

GUI installer

Use the following properties in the silent.properties file.

#Silent properties for ColdFusion 2025 GUI Installer 

INSTALLER_UI=SILENT  

#Valid Values are 1/2/3 (full/trial/developer)  

SILENT_INSTALL_TYPE= 

#Valid values are 1/2 (NUL/FRL) 

SILENT_LICENSE_ACTIVATION_MODE=2 

SILENT_LICENSE_FILE_PATH=C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\License\\ngl-preconditioning-data.json 

#Valid values are 1/2 (ENT/STD) 

SILENT_LICENSE_EDITION=2 

#Valid values are 1/2/3/4/5 (Production/Development/Staging/Testing/Disaster_Recovery) 

SILENT_DEPLOYMENT_TYPE= 

#Valid values are 1/2/3 (ear/war/standalone) 

SILENT_SERVER_TYPE=3  

SILENT_INSTALL_JNBRIDGE=false  

#Remote administrator component for server remote start/stop 

SILENT_INSTALL_ADMIN=false  

SILENT_INSTALL_SOLR=false  

SILENT_INSTALL_PDFG=false  

#For Linux it would be as /opt/coldfusion2025 (Change it as per your path) 

SILENT_INSTALL_FOLDER=C:\\ColdFusion2025  

#Enable one of Prod(secure/prod)/dev profile. These 3 are mutually exclusive and only one of them can be true and others are false.  

SILENT_ENABLE_PROD_SECURE_PROFILE=false  

SILENT_ENABLE_PROD_DEFAULT_PROFILE=false  

SILENT_ENABLE_DEV_PROFILE=true  

#IP addresses from which Administrator can be accessed. 

SILENT_ADMIN_IP=  

#IP address of the CF installed machine through which PDFG/Solr service would be accessed remotely. 

SILENT_JETTY_IP=  

SILENT_ADMIN_USERNAME=admin  

SILENT_ADMIN_PASSWORD=Adm1n$12  

SILENT_ENABLE_RDS=true  

SILENT_RUNTIME_USER=  

#Provide password when enable RDS is true  

SILENT_RDS_PASSWORD=Adm1n$12  

#username/password of remote administrator component for server remote start/stop  

SILENT_JETTY_USERNAME=admin  

SILENT_JETTY_PASSWORD=Adm1n$12  

#Context Root for J2ee Installation  

SILENT_CONTEXT_ROOT=  

SILENT_AUTO_ENABLE_UPDATES=true  

#For Linux it would be as /opt/coldfusion11 (Change it as per your path) 

SILENT_PREV_CF_MIGR_DIR=  

#Enable/Disable the servlets depending on if they are not used by your application or not.  

#Applicable only if production OR Production+Secure profile is enabled. For Dev profile, all are enabled by default.  

ENABLE_RDS=false  

ENABLE_WSRP=false  

ENABLE_JSDEBUG=false  

ENABLE_CFR=false  

ENABLE_CFSWF=false  

ENABLE_CFFORMS=false

ZIP installer

To silently install the service, enter the following command:

Windows

Execute cfinstall.bat --file-name <file name> --installer-mode silent
Execute cfinstall.bat -f <file name> -i silent

Non-Windows

Execute ./cfinstall.sh --file-name <file name> --installer-mode silent
Execute ./cfinstall.sh -f <file name> -i silent

The file requires the below properties to be mentioned in a specific format to install the service silently.

#Silent properties for ColdFusion 2025 ZIP Installer  

# ColdFusion Administrator password  

COLDFUSION_ADMIN_PASSWORD=Adobe$123  

# Internal webserver port  

COLDFUSION_ADMIN_PORT=8550 

# Install License type - 1-Install new version of Adobe ColdFusion 2025 with License , 2-30-day trial, 3-Developer Edition  

INSTALL_TYPE=1  

# Edition - 1-Enterprise,2-Standard 

LICENSE_EDITION=2 

# Mode - 1-NUL,2-FRL 

LICENSE_ACTIVATION_MODE=2  

# FRL License File Path 

LICENSE_FILE_PATH=C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\License\\ngl-preconditioning-data.json 

# Accept EULA- true. To proceed, you must accept the EULA  

EULA_ACCEPTED=true 

# IP address from which Administrator can be accessed  

IP_ADDRESSES= 

# Specify the deployment type- 1-Production, 2-Development, 3-Staging, 4-Testing, 5-Disaster recovery  

DEPLOYMENT_TYPE=5 

# Name of the ColdFusion service  

COLDFUSION_WIN_SERVICE_NAME=cftest1 

# Server profile - 1-Production+Secure, 2-Production, 3-Development.  

SERVER_PROFILE=1 

# Specify the RDS password  

COLDFUSION_RDS_PASSWORD=Adobe$123 

# ColdFusion install location  

COLDFUSION_INSTALL_LOCATION=C:\\ColdFusion_2025_WWEJ_win64\\ColdFusion\\

Frequently asked questions

Note:

View Frequently Asked Questions in ColdFusion for more information on ColdFusion Named User Licensing and Feature Restricted Licensing.

Both workflows are offline, but:

FRL Offline: Not tied to any specific machine and can be used on multiple machines. The package created is not specific to any machine.
FRL Isolated: Restricted to specific machines, requiring an activation code generated based on the machine’s configuration. The package is specific to machines as the licensing uses the activation code while creating the packages.

No, for ColdFusion, the license package is platform-independent and works across all supported platforms.

Yes, the offline license package is not tied to a specific machine and can be used to activate licenses on any number of systems.

Offline licenses are generally reserved for firewall-restricted users to prevent misuse, as there is no tracking for the number of activations.

The files related to the license, such as JSON files and configuration data, are removed from the system upon deactivation.

Updates can be applied manually by downloading them on another machine (if behind a firewall) and transferring them to the machine where ColdFusion is installed.

No, deactivating a license on one machine does not impact other machines activated with the same package.

The same license package can be applied on multiple machines, but the activation must be done independently on each machine.

You will need to recreate the license package from the Admin Console and apply it again to the ColdFusion instance.

Once the license contract is renewed, re-download the package, and add the package path. For example, if your contract ends in Dec 2025, and you’ve renewed it till 2028, then you must re-download the package, and apply it.

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