Create packages with serial number licenses

Creative Cloud for enterprise: Serial number licensing

Serial Number Licensing is anonymous licensing, and is not tied to an individual user, but to a particular computer. Serial number licensing can be used to create pre-licensed packages that are deployed remotely. End users do not need to sign in to begin using the desktop apps. Serial number licensing is also suitable for environments where Internet access is prohibited or infrequent.

  • Flexible licensing options
  • Includes complete set of Creative Cloud applications
  • Available through a customizable Enterprise Term License Agreement (ETLA)
  • Creates a package that is already licensed. No further validation is required on the client machine.

Create Serial number-based packages

To create packages using Adobe Creative Cloud Packager, perform the following steps.

  1. Run Adobe Creative Cloud Packager.

    • (Windows) Click the shortcut for the application in the Start menu, under Programs > Adobe > Creative Cloud Packager.
    • (Mac OS) Use the alias at /Applications/Adobe/Creative Cloud Packager.
    Note: You must run Creative Cloud Packager as an Administrator on the machine where you are building packages.
  2. Choose Creative Cloud for enterprise as your account type.

  3. Sign in with your ID and password.

    Note:

    Your ID should be listed as an admin ID for one of the account types.

  4. After you have successfully signed in, the Create Package screen appears.

    Creative Cloud Packager

    Note: To specify preference for download location for products, clear the cache, or view Help for Creative Cloud Packager, see Edit and save configurations.

  5. In the Create Package screen, do one of the following:

    • Click Create Package to start the package creation process.
  6. In the Package Details screen that appears, enter the required details.

    Package name

    Enter the name of the package that will be created.

    Save to

    Enter the location to which you want to save the package you create. You can click the Browse icon to locate the destination folder, or enter the absolute path.

    Select Organization

    Select the name of your organization.

    32-bit/64-bit

    In Windows, choose 32-bit or 64-bit processor support. You must make
    separate packages for 32-bit and 64-bit installations. A 32-bit package will not run on a
    64-bit machine. 

    License type

    Select Serial Number License. This option creates a package with a valid license. Use this workflow to deploy a product or group of products containing updates to client machines in a licensed state. No further validation is required on the client machine.

    Package configurations

    The settings for package configuration include options such as whether to ignore conflicting processes during installation. To review or change the package configuration settings, see Modify package configuration.

    Creative Cloud Desktop Application

    Adobe Creative Cloud for desktop is the central hub for Creative Cloud activity and allows the users to view applications and updates.

    Caution:

    Deselect this option and do not install the Creative Cloud desktop application. Adobe recommends that you keep this option disabled for serial number license packages. 

    There is a known issue with specific types of account which can cause the license to get removed from the system when the user logs out of Creative Cloud Desktop. It is not a requirement, but there may be unexpected results if users log in and log out again.

    Show Applications and Updates via the Apps panel

    This option is applicable only when Creative Cloud Desktop Application is enabled. When disabled, this option hides the apps panel in Creative Cloud desktop application for end-users.

    Selecting or deselecting this option results in the following changes to the options in the Advanced Update Manager Behavior section of the Advanced configurations dialog:

    User selection

    Admin users update via Adobe Update Manager

    Adobe Update Manager is disabled (IT manages update distribution)

    Enable Adobe Update Manager

    Disable Adobe Update Manager

    Select Show Applications and Updates via the Apps panel

    Enabled

     

     

     

    Deselect Show Applications and Updates via the Apps panel

     

    Enabled

     

     

    Select Show Applications and Updates via the Apps panel and Use internal update server

     

     

    Enabled

     

    Deselect Show Applications and Updates via the Apps panel and Use internal update server

     

     

     

    Enabled

    Note:
    • Selecting or deselecting this option overrides the updater behavior that you may have changed in the package configurations.. It is recommended that you verify the package configuration updates before proceeding.
    • To install applications or updates from the Apps panel, users must have administrative privileges.

    You can also retrospectively enable the Apps panel. For more information, see Customize Creative Cloud app for desktop.

    Elevated Privileges

    This option allows users to manage applications and updates even when they do not have Administrator privileges. To allow your users without Administrator credentials to manage applications and updates, select this option.

    Once you have deployed a package with elevated privileges, to revoke the elevated privileges later, you need to create a Creative Cloud desktop app-only package with Elevated Privileges deselected and deploy it. Similarly, to grant elevated privileges to existing users, you need to create a Creative Cloud desktop app only package with Elevated Privileges selected and deploy it.

     

    The Elevated Privileges option is available only when you have selected Show Applications And Updates Via The Apps Panel.

    Note:
    • You need to relaunch the Creative Cloud desktop Application for this change to take effect.
    • If an end user has entitlements assigned and signs into the desktop app, the existing serial license on the machine is replaced with that user's entitlements.
  7. In the Package Details screen, click Next. You are prompted to enter the enterprise license key. If you do not have your enterprise license key, you can find it at licensing.adobe.com. Enter the key and then click Next.

  8. The Applications and Updates screen appears. Using the drop-down list on the upper-right side, select a language. 

    When you package an update for the latest version of some of the applications, you can apply the package to a system that does not already have the base version of the application installed. You can identify such apps with the icon ().  For a list of such applications, see Applications that can be deployed without their base versions.

    For example, the update of Photoshop CC 2015.0.1 could be installed on a client machine that already had base version of Photoshop CC 2015 installed. The latest version of Photoshop update can be installed on a machine that may not have the Photoshop base version. So while creating a package, you can choose to package only the update version for the apps that can be deployed without their base versions.

    You can package archived versions of software as well. Select the Show archived versions check box to display the list of supported previous versions, if any. If the product or update that you selected has already been downloaded to your machine, a Down Arrow appears next to its name.

  9. The apps and updates list appears. 

    Select the products and/or updates that you want to include in the package. For example, you might choose to include the Adobe® Photoshop® software and all it updates, as well as (only) the updates for Adobe® InDesign®. Select the checkboxes appropriately.

    Core Components is always selected, and you cannot deselect it. This option deploys the common licensing infrastructure to client machines. 

    By default, only the latest versions of the software are displayed. Enable Show Archived Versions to display a list of archived applications. You can package archived versions of software as well. If the product or update that you selected has already been downloaded to your machine, a Down Arrow appears next to its name.

    Note:

    Ensure that the target devices meet the system requirements of the apps being packaged. Deploying apps on unsupported systems may give unexpected results.

    Select Match OS language to create just one package that adapts to the client machine's OS language. 

    The language in which the package is installed depends on three factors:

    • Whether or not Match OS Language option is selected while creating the package.
    • The language you specify in the command while deploying the package.
    • The language in which you have created the package.

    The following table details how each of these factors affect the language in which the package is installed.

    Match OS language

    Language explicitly specified while deploying a package using command line or Info.plist file

    The package is  installed in...

    Selected

    No

    OS Language

    Selected

    Yes

    Language explicitly specified in command line while deploying a package

    Not Selected

    Not Selected

    No

    Language in which the package is created

    Selected

    Yes, but the specified language is unavailable

    Language in which the package is created

    Not Selected

    Note:
    • When the installer is run, it checks for the locale that is set at the system level and not at the user level. For more details on this setting, see Install Creative Cloud package with Match OS Language option.
    • Adobe Fireworks does not support multi-lingual packages and installs in the language you have created the package in.
    • The Match OS option is not supported for CS6 applications.
  10. To add applications and updates from a local source, such as a DVD or ESD, instead of downloading from the Creative Cloud, see Add Offline Media.

  11. Click Build to start packaging the selected applications and updates. The Adobe Creative Cloud Packager downloads the products and/or updates that have not been downloaded already to your machine. It then builds the package. The progress is displayed on the Download Progress and the Build Progress screens.

  12. When the build completes successfully, the Summary page appears.

    This page displays a summary of the products or components included in the build. The name of the folder in which the package is created is displayed on the screen. Clicking the folder name opens the folder.

    You can click the Build Log link to see the detailed progress report, including any errors.

    Note: When you create a package, Adobe Creative Cloud Packager creates a configuration file for the package, with the name <package_name>.ccp. This file is located in the folder that you specify for the package. This configuration file is for internal use only - do not modify or delete this file.

  13. To create another package, click Main Menu — this takes you back to the Welcome screen. To exit Adobe Creative Cloud Packager, click Close.

Create Serial number-based packages for Acrobat

If you're creating a package that includes Acrobat, follow these steps after you have created the package and before you deploy the package to client machines.

  1. Open the following file in a text editor:

    <Package name>\Build\Setup\APRO20.0\proxy.xml

  2. Remove the <Argument name="ENFORCE_NGL=">1</Argument> line from prox.xml.

Note:

If you do not follow these steps, the installed Acrobat app will require your users to sign in at startup.

Deploying packages

As part of the build process, two folders are created:

  1. The Build folder contains the MSI (Windows) or the PKG (Mac OS) files.
  2. The Exceptions folder contains the payloads that must be installed separately.
For information on how to deploy the packages, see Deploy packages.  
Note:

For exception media (such as msi or exe) of latest version of Muse, the exception installer is copied in the following location and the user needs to install this exception separately:

Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Installers\Third Party\<Sapcode_Of_App>\<package_name>\

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