At first newly installed servers have no password protection, thus cannot distribute licenses, because this is linked to a password assignment.

Only when the first license is installed (where the Master/Backup configuration is specified), the password assignment is required when saving. (Without password assignment, actually the server cannot be used for productive operation.)

Before that time the server is „PASSIVE“ and actually cannot be properly used by any client.

A cluster can be created before.

The person managing the licenses does not necessarily need admin access to the license server. For him knowing the password is sufficient - after initial assignment.

For security reasons both servers and clients should be updated to V11 SP9, even if the server is compatible with old clients (protocol did not change basically). Old clients would not request a server password when saving/creating the cluster. In this way one could circumvent protected access to the server. That's why it is not supported anymore. Furthermore old clients do not perform a check if licenses are correct for the cluster.