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Adobe End of Serialized Licensing

On Saturday, November 30th, 2019, all instances of serialized Adobe software will cease to operate. In preparation, individual users will need to be converted to the Named User License model, and shared devices will need to operate under the new Shared Device License model. Below you can find details, instructions, and tips and tricks.

Adobe ID vs. Federated ID

Adobe software can be logged in to via two forms of authentication: the Adobe ID and the Federated ID. Adobe uses these terms to distinguish their traditional login from the PennKey SSO option. Each authentication method has its pros and cons, which are laid out below.

Adobe ID

The Adobe ID is the traditional email-and-password method of authentication. On end-user-facing products, this will be defined as the "Personal Account." When assigning named user licensed products to individual users, this is the form of authentication that is recommended. These accounts are more easily managed by local IT support providers at the schools and centers, who have a bit more control over the accounts.

Federated ID

The Federated ID is Adobe's terminology for integrated single sign-on (SSO) authentication -- in our case, PennKey. On end-user-facing products, this will be defined as the "Enterprise Account." To log in using a Federated ID, users will need to enter their username in the format of "PennKey@upenn.edu" on the Adobe login screen, at which point they will be prompted by a PennKey weblogin request.

ISC recommends that these accounts be used for faculty and staff who do not require an individual license, but rather, simply need to authenticate to gain access to shared devices. This is not typically recommended for use in situations where users will need to access a personal license, as they are more centrally managed, and local IT support providers will have less control over these accounts. For example, if you wished to remove a Federated ID account from your organization, the enterprise system administrator role is required to do that.

Users who were previously using serialized versions of Acrobat will need to be granted Named User licenses, in the form of Adobe IDs or Federated IDs, to access Acrobat going forward. To do so, follow the instructions below.

Manually Adding Named Users

  1. Add your users to the Adobe Admin Console (See Help Article)
  2. Assign and Acrobat Pro DC profile to your users (See Help Article)
  3. ID Type:
    1. If your users are set up as Adobe IDs, they will need to follow directions they receive from Adobe via email to set up their account.
    2. If your users are set up as Federated IDs, they may proceed to the next step.
  4. Your users will need to Sign In to Acrobat DC, once the application has been deserialized (login can happen before deserialization).
    1. Open Acrobat DC
    2. Go to Help >> Sign In
    3. Log in with your credentials

Bulk-adding Users

In preparation, ISC will be available to assist with bulk-adding users to the Adobe console and assigning them Acrobat licenses. To request a bulk upload, simply fill out the linked CSV template with the information of the users you wish to have added, and send the completed CSV to Client Care.

Once we receive a CSV for your school or org, we will cross-reference with a report from the Adobe console, to determine which users already exist in the console and have an Acrobat or Creative Cloud license, and then add and assign licenses to the remaining users. This means that supplying a list of users that includes users who may already be assigned an Adobe license will not be an issue.

 

Adobe's new Shared Device License allows for IT support teams to create installer packages in the Adobe Admin Console that can be installed on devices that will be shared by multiple users. This license should be used in cases where multiple users will need to access Adobe software on the same machine, but where those users (in most cases) do not need to be granted access to Adobe software across multiple machines.

  • Shared Device Licenses can be accessed by any user with an Adobe credential.
    • This includes Adobe IDs and Federated IDs.
    • These accounts do not have to be part of the Penn enterprise. Free Adobe IDs can be created at adobe.com by users, such as students, to access shared device licenses, such as in a public lab.
  • Shared Device Licenses will only work on campus.
    • Shared Device Licenses should be used with caution when being deployed to devices with mobility, such as laptops.
    • These licenses are tied to the public IP range owned by Penn, and will cease to function once outside of the Penn network.

All serialized versions of Acrobat will need to be deserialized when support staff have prepared their users with named licenses.

Deserialize using the APTEE tool

  1. Download the APTEE tool.
    1. APTEE for Windows
    2. APTEE for Mac
  2. Determine your product's LEID as described in Appendix A: Identifying Installs. Typical LEIDs are:
    1. DC Continuous Track: V7{}AcrobatCont-12-Win-GM
    2. DC Classic Track 2017: V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Win-GM
    3. DC Classic Track 2015: V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Win-GM
    4. DC Continuous Track: V7{}AcrobatCont-12-Mac-GM
    5. DC Classic Track 2017: V7{}AcrobatESR-17-Mac-GM
    6. DC Classic Track 2015: V7{}AcrobatESR-12-Mac-GM
  3. Open a console with administrator privileges.
  4. CD to the tool location.
  5. Run the following APTEE tool command for each of your Product LEIDs deployed, replacing <Product LEID> with the appropriate Product LEID.
    1. Adobe_prtk –-tool=UnSerialize --leid=<Product LEID> --deactivate –-force

Acrobat DC Classic vs Continuous

All versions of Acrobat DC Classic will need to be uninstalled, and replaced with Acrobat DC Continuous. Existing instances of Acrobat DC Continuous will not need to be uninstalled.

  1. To check your edition, open Acrobat, go to Help and select “About Adobe Acrobat Pro DC…”. Below you can see an example of the Continuous edition.
  2. Uninstall the Acrobat Pro DC Classic edition.
  3. Download Acrobat Pro DC Continuous.
  4. Install Acrobat Pro DC Continuous.

As part of our contract with Adobe, Penn IT staff have access to several modes of professional support from Adobe.

Escalation

  1. Any incidents or requests regarding the Adobe Admin Console, licensing, or end-user support can be submitted to Client Care via help@isc.upenn.edu.
  2. Client Care's Adobe Tier 1 support team will complete any work orders, or make a best effort attempt to quickly resolve any incidents that are reported.
    1. In some cases, elevated permissions are required to complete some work, in which case an internal escalation to a Tier 2 team of Adobe system administrators will be required.
  3. If ISC is unable to resolve any issues quickly, or if clients prefer to speak to Adobe directly, Client Care's Adobe Support team can submit a request for support on your behalf with Adobe Enterprise Support.

Adobe Enterprise Support

Adobe's Enterprise Support provides several options for obtaining support from Adobe.

  • Create a Case
    • Client Care can open a case to begin an email dialogue between Adobe's support engineers, and the requesting IT staff member.
    • Client Care staff will continue to be a part of the dialogue as needed.
  • Request Expert Session
    • In cases where support staff may want a more instantaneous dialogue, and will need more direct support, an Expert Session can be scheduled.
    • These comprise of a scheduled phone call, allowing the IT staff member to be positioned with the console, machines, or end-users that are experiencing issues.
      • When scheduling one of these, Adobe requests that three days and times be suggested, at which point they will schedule the call for the first of those times that they are available.

As we learn and collect common technical or operational issues, as well as their solutions, we will update this section with any information we have.

  • Okta 400 Error
    • Issue: Some users with Federated IDs may be confronted with a 400 error when attempting to log in, and not be able to log in to their software.
    • Other Info: Adobe's SSO integration mandates email as a data point, which in our case means pulling information from the Penn Directory.
    • Resolution: Setting the user's email address to public has resolved this issue in almost all cases.

Adobe Reference Documentation