License issue & WINCCOA VMWare backups in a working server

[ketxu]

Hello.

I've got a project working in redundancy (virtualized with vmware) with a valid license since 6 months ago. A few days ago, there was a power failure with the physical server, which restarted the virtual machine and after that, the hw code was changed in the machine, leaving invalid the license in the second server, but we can work with the first one.

We obtained a server backup with the VMWare clone tools, so the hardware is not the exactly the same. Apparently it doesn't work correctly because the license is related with the MAC address of the network interface, that changed after take a backup of this server.

So, which is the correct way to obtain a machine backup with a virtualized server in case of something happens? And why my hw code was changed after the restart of my main server?

[agruber]

Hello,

The licensing is of course also a copy protection for ETM. So a hardware change, like when you let the backup run on a different machine is recognized. If the hardware is changed by intention or not, the project starts the emergency period (details in the documentation). In this time, 7 days, you should contact ETM or your sales contact about a replacement license.

If you do a simple reboot of the guest or host of a VM system, the license should not get invalid. If that happens on your system everytime (could you verify?) then please contact the WinCC OA product support at https://support.industry.siemens.com/ with information about the WinCC OA version, the operatiing systems and virtualization software.

BR, Andreas

[kilianvp]

The best solution is using a Dongle Server and Dongle's