TIBCO Enterprise Message Service™ 10.4.0 requires activation to start. Production environments must exclusively use the TIBCO Activation Service product to activate TIBCO products.

To activate the product using TIBCO Activation Service, follow these steps:

Step 1: Download the latest TIBCO Activation Service product from the TIBCO Software Downloads site: https://www.tibco.com/downloads.

Step 2: Review the TIBCO Activation Service product documentation at https://docs.tibco.com/products/tibco-activation-service-1-0-0.

Step 3: Install and configure the TIBCO Activation Service. Follow the installation and configuration instructions provided in the TIBCO Activation Service documentation.

TIBCO Activation Service is only supported on Linux. Check its readme file for details about the supported platforms.

Installation packages: TIB_tibco-activation_1.0.0_linux_x86_64.zip
unzip TIB_tibco-activation_1.0.0_linux_x86_64.zip
cd TIB_tibco-activation_1.0.0

Install using one of the following commands, depending on the Linux platform variant. (You can run the commands without 'sudo' if you have the privileges.)

For Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora:
sudo yum install -y rpm/*.rpm
or
sudo dnf install -y rpm/*.rpm

For Debian, Ubuntu:
sudo apt install -y ./deb/*.deb

TIBCO Activation Service is started automatically after installation. Check the  /usr/libexec/tib-lm/README.txt for details.
The tib-activate command is installed under /usr/bin. Run tib-activate to configure TIBCO Activation Service by providing the TIBCO Activation Service details.

Step 4: Activate TIBCO Enterprise Message Service 10.4.0.

You need to get the host identifier (hostid) for the Linux machine where the TIBCO Activation Service runs. The hostid is a unique identifier for the instance of the activation server. It is used to bind a generated license to the instance of TIBCO Activation Service. A license bound to a specific instance of TIBCO Activation Service can only be uploaded to that instance.

Use the following command to get the hostid:
tib-activate server hostids

For detailed steps on activating TIBCO Enterprise Message Service 10.4.0 with the TIBCO Activation Service, please see https://docs.tibco.com/pub/ems/10.4.0/doc/html/Default.htm#users-guide/running-ems-license.htm.

The article "How to Configure TIBCO Activation Service for TIBCO Messaging Components" on TIBCommunity has details about how to generate the TIBCO license key, install and configure the Activation Service, and configure TIBCO EMS and Rendezvous to use the license key:
https://community.tibco.com/articles/37_tibco-platform/39_messaging/how-to-configure-tibco-activation-server-for-tibco-messaging-components-r3545

Activation Requirements for TIBCO Enterprise Message Service™ 10.4.0 in Production Environments