virtualbox.org

Hello,
i have a problem.

one thing in advance: i am owner of a msdn prof. subscription, so i have the legal keys for my purposes (10 for every os).
i need the same virtual machine for testing some things several times. so i make an initial installation without acitvating my windows.
The i copied the hd file to another pc.
when i start the vm on the pc where it was created i can activate it via phone without any problem.
when i start the vm on a second pc (hd copied, same configuration) i try to acitvate it but the number which i give the activation phone computer is declined.
same key works with first method (tried it afterwards just to be sure).

MS has no clue. (not really MS but the first level support) they just say it would be the best to go out in the community.

Has anybody the same problems and maybe a solution for this?

Are you saying that a hardware generated machine signature is different on two hosts? That is quite possible, since not all host hardware is hidden from the VM. The CPU in particular is not virtualized.

Incidentally, you are vague on which Windows version you are using as a guest: this behaviour differs between versions hence you should tell us. In the meantime I'm guessing you mean XP.

Best practice IMHO is to create a basic XP install - basic in the sense that this is what you want as your starting point for all future XP VMs, and activate it (you don't give a reason why you wouldn't want to do this). Clone the post activation image for your purposes.

I assume you know that too many activations of the same image in a short period of time can lead to complications: activation being refused etc. This is the main reason why it's better to activate then clone, rather than t'other way round.

Thank you for the fast answer.

As guest i'm using not just one single os. vista, 2003 server, 2008 server, win 7,all in 32bit and 64bit for example.

so, now comes the reason. it's just the law... in fact it is possible, that two persons at the same time want to use the same os. and everybody has it's own keys. so if you activate before and you have two instances (same net, but no internet) you have a different problem. And let me tell you: keys are not the problem with msdn subscription for everybody each.
image contains base install and iis. no extra features.

we are using different keys to avoid the problem with many activations in a short period.

oliverf wrote:so, now comes the reason. it's just the law...

Um, actually it isn't.

As a brief aside I would first mention that copyright infringement is a civil matter in most western jurisdications, not a matter of criminal law (i.e. you can get sued by the copyright holder, but not fined or jailed by the state). But, that's just a technical point which we can easily ignore from now on.

Activation is a crude way of ensuring that you have a license to run that software on that hardware. I'm not aware that the license terms demand that you activate, it's just a practical matter to get past. IMHO if you do have a valid license, i.e. if your installation is perfectly kosher, then taking a few shortcuts with the activation process is perfectly acceptable.

For example: in my case I bought an additional XP license just for VirtualBox, distinct from the OS licenses I had for each of the host PCs I use. For that reason I feel entitled to use that VBox-XP license on whatever PC I happen to have VBox installed on, since the whole point was to create a floating license. I feel my setup is legal - that I would win any lawsuit - so I certainly don't want the activation feature making a nuisance of itself.

Cue a bunch of nuts joining the conversation to say yeah, activation is a pain, how do we crack it. That isn't what I'm talking about at all.

from you rpoint of view you are completely right.

But we had problems in the past if we activated the vm and cloned then. that's just a fact for us.

But we found out something. if we enter a valid key and then instead of internet or phone ativation we just press "log out" and then restart and do it again it is working.
So don't aks me why, but we can live with that.