You use incremental license keys to update an existing license. You add an incremental key to an existing license to add or remove options, such as PowerCenter options, connectivity, and Metadata Exchange options. For example, if an existing license does not allow high availability, you can add an incremental key with the high availability option to the existing license.
The Service Manager updates the license expiration date if the expiration date of an incremental key is later than the expiration date of an original key. The Service Manager uses the latest expiration date. A license object can have different expiration dates for options in the license. For example, the IBM DB2 relational connectivity option may expire on 12/01/2006, and the session on grid option may expire on 04/01/06.
The Service Manager validates the incremental key against the original key used to create the license. An error appears if the keys are not compatible.