Software licence lost after VM restart

[markomladenovic]

Hello guys,

I have situation that after VM machine restart I lost activation of licensed software.

VM is WIN 10 64bit and host also.

It seems that guest OS has installed win update, because it was fresh installation. License was paid, so I cant claim to software producer anything.

Is there any instruction about software licensing for software run under virtual box? Should ee take care for some specifics?

[mpack]

VirtualBox doesn't know anything about guest software activation.

Assuming that the activation record was written to disk, then if that record is gone then you must have done something to delete or undo the change. There are many virtualbox features that could be misused to do this, e.g. immutable drives (this would fit with losing the data on a restart), or linked clones when you expected one activation to result in all clones being activated.

But this is idle speculation. I suggest you contact the people whose software you activated, as this is clearly a guest software support problem. VirtualBox is just the PC, it does nothing to help or hinder guest software activation schemes.

[markomladenovic]

or linked clones when you expected one activation to result in all clones being activated.

If this is a situation, what can we do to undo effects that caused license deactivation?

[scottgus1]

what can we do to undo effects that caused license deactivation?

Nothing in Virtualbox can be done:

VirtualBox doesn't know anything about guest software activation.

The VM is a different computer than the host. If your software's license only allows you to run it on one computer, then you have to pay for another license to run the software on another computer at the same time. The VM is another computer, so you need another license.

If you bought another license, then you didn't install the license correctly. Ask the software's support for help to license the software correctly.

[markomladenovic]

The VM is a different computer than the host. If your software's license only allows you to run it on one computer, then you have to pay for another license to run the software on another computer at the same time. The VM is another computer, so you need another license.

Let's be clear:

If I install software and it's license in guest (VM on computer 1), I will lost activation if run guest on another host (VM on Computer 2, other physical computer)?

[scottgus1]

It depends on how you copy the VM to another Virtualbox host, what computer hardware the software uses for activation testing, and whether the licensing function calls in over the internet.

A file-copy of the whole VM folder and all files within to a new host is the same computer as the original on the old host, except for the physical CPU, which is not emulated and which always appears to the VM's OS.

So the software in the VM on the new host sees the same 'hardware' (motherboard, network card MAC address, UUIDs, etc) in the VM as on the old host. However, if the old and new hosts have different CPUs, this will show to the VM OS, and the software might deactivate if it is programmed to include the CPU in its licensing scheme.

Copying via export/import will definitely make the copy look like a different computer, since UUIDs and MAC address change, as well as the CPU.

Licensing may also 'phone home' over the internet and determine that two copies of the software are running at the same time with the same license and deactivate one or the other.

[mpack]

How on earth did we get from "VM restart" to "I moved the VM to a different PC". That's an entirely different scenario, my answer would have been completely different.

[scottgus1]

Another example of "mission creep" (although the posts are a lot shorter than the other ongoing 'example' )

[markomladenovic]

I sent VM with command Move to SSD.

After that, at other computer, double click to vbox.

VM machine started but software lost activation.
Tomorrow, same, double click to vbox, it started VM but also at original PC (host) software doesnt has activation.

In both situation message is License file is not suitable for current version...

[scottgus1]

I sent VM with command Move to SSD.

After that, at other computer, double click to vbox.

OK, from this I gather that you used the Virtualbox Move command to put the VM on an external SSD, which you can then take to different hosts to run the VM.

Assuming you moved the whole VM and not just the virtual disk file, this is a good use of a VM. All the VM's virtual 'hardware' should be the same on either host. However, the possible different CPU thing above can be a problem.

(If you did only move the virtual disk file, not the whole VM, then the VM has different virtual hardware, and activation will definitely suffer.)

There's nothing in Virtualbox that can influence this.

The "current version" error can mean anything, because it comes from the software, not Virtualbox. You should contact the software company to ask about running the software in a VM on two different host computers and how to license properly.

[markomladenovic]

Thank you guys, for time and effort to unswer.