RA Toolkit and virtualization

[CanaanP 1]

I was just wondering what the forum's thoughts were on using the toolkit with virtual computers... for those of you out there that are doing it, how to do work out licensing, if at all...

[Ken Roach 194]

Is the Toolkit a Concurrent Activation, like the GoldMaster (RA's internal licenses) ? When I was using a Concurrent license, I'd just load RSLinx Classic Gateway and the FactoryTalk Activation Manager on the host OS, then point the guest operating systems at the host for their licensing. RSLinx Classic on the guests would use RSLinx Classic Gateway in Gateway mode, so I could run thing that don't translate correctly to virtualization, like the 1784-PCD and -PCC cards and even the notorious 1747-PIC/AIC+ driver. The main drawback is that FT Activation uses TCP/IP to commnunicate with the FT Activation Server on TCP Port 27000. Whenever I would disconnect or change networks with the host, the guests would lose activation. Usually this meant that starting a program would give me a Grace Period warning, but in the worst cases, running software would shut down when it lost connection to the host. This was made a lot worse by a flaky Windows driver for my Dell Latitude WiFi card, so when I had serious work to do I made sure I was plugged firmly into a wired network.

[CanaanP 1]

Well lets say, hypothetically, that we have a 5 license toolkit. I create and configure a VM and install the toolkit components I need - rslinx classic, ft activation, rslogix 500&5000 and ft view studio. I run the activation on the VM which uses 1 of 5 licenses. Now I take that VM and distribute to 5 computers. Is this violating licensing terms from RA?

[Ken Roach 194]

I don't know if the license agreement and terms of use address virtual machines specifically, but consider if you did this with cloned hard drives and had five PCs sitting at five desks, all running the same activation. That would be a violation of any single-seat license I've ever seen. If all those VMs were on the same PC, running one at a time, that would probably pass all but the most specific of audits. My preferred method of storing the License and the FT Activation Manager on the host and having the VM's point to the host as a concurrent license server has the benefit of conforming exactly with the terms of use, and I don't even have to update my VMs each year when the license is renewed. Now if only the FT Activation Manager ran in 64-bit Ubuntu, I'd be even happier, so I wouldn't even need Windows as my host OS.