K2 licensing keys are provided by the Nintex licensing team and are unique to a customer based on a system key and their license type and contract agreement. This includes environment type (e.g., production, nonproduction, and development), and number of users, workflows, and forms. However, the most important part of the license key process is the expiration date. There have been some challenges and some confusion with the types of licenses, which this article will address.
NOTE: Older K2 environments (including versions of K2 blackpearl prior to 4.7) may have server-based license keys, or known as perpetual licenses. These keys do not have expiration dates, and are therefore NOT impacted by the expiration date bug. If your K2 environment is running with a perpetual license key, NO ACTION IS NEEDED. If you do not know what type of K2 license entitlement you have, reach out to your Nintex Account Manager.
Expiration Dates
If you have a K2 environment that was installed and configured prior to version 5.5, there was an issue identified where license keys could not be validated beyond 31 December 2022. This issue has been addressed in K2 Five 5.5 and later.
If you have a K2 environment that is older than 5.5, you cannot input a license key beyond 1 January 2023 and have the validation succeed. In order to address this, we've provided fix packs for all supported versions as well as new installers that can validate license keys beyond 2022.
How can I tell which license key to use?
Older versions of K2 validate 36 character long license keys. The license keys that are valid beyond 31 Dec 2022 are 37 characters long for K2 Five, and 53 characters for K2 blackpearl. The Nintex licensing team will provide both license key types based on your system key to ensure that your K2 environment will function properly.
How can I tell which version I've got installed?
There are several ways described in KB001893: How to determine the installed K2 software version, updates, and fixpacks. The simplest way is to go into your K2 Designer, and click on the copyright notice in the bottom left corner to bring up the About dialog. This will show the latest update.
How do I input a license key beyond 2022?
If you have an already installed and configured K2 environment, be sure you have the minimum fix pack installed that includes the fix. Remember, fix packs and cumulative updates include all prior fixes, so you do not need to install all fix packs individually.
Once the fix pack is installed, use K2 Management to input your new license key as described in the user guide.
- K2 Five (5.4) Fix Pack 35 or later (including the March 2022 Cumulative Update)
- K2 Five (5.3) November 2020 Cumulative Update with Fix Pack 13 or later
- K2 Five (5.2) June 2022 Cumulative Update or later
- K2 blackpearl (4.7) April 2022 Cumulative Update with Fix Pack 1 or later
If you are on a different version, such as an older K2 blackpearl version or a K2 Five version that has reached the end of extended support (5.0 and 5.1), there are no fix packs available. To continue running your K2 environment beyond 31 December 2022, you must upgrade to a supported version.
If you are installing a new K2 server, or you wish to change your license key using the K2 Setup Manager as described in the installation guide, you must download the latest installer version from Nintex Customer Central. You cannot run the older installer as the validation will fail.
- K2 Five (5.4) (5.0005.1000.3)
- K2 Five (5.3) (5.0004.1000.3)
- K2 Five (5.2) (5.0003.1000.3) (Note, this installer is only available through a support ticket for approved customers as this version has reached the end of extended support date.)
- K2 blackpearl (4.7) (4.16060.2000.6)
Additional Information
For guidance on how to request license keys, see KB1310: How to Obtain and Manage K2 License Keys.
For K2 installer downloads, visit Nintex Customer Central Product Releases.
For cumulative updates and fix pack downloads, ensure you are logged into community and use the left hand navigation to visit Workflow Automation > K2 Five (or K2 blackpearl) > Cumulative Updates and Fixpacks.
For more details on license keys and how to include them when installing K2, see the installation guide.
For more details on how to update your license key on an existing K2 environment, see the K2 Management user guide topic on Licenses.
