Issue
What will happen with the EBO license when used with cloned Virtual Machines in a fail-over scenario to another host?
Product Line
EcoStruxure Building Operation.
Environment
Building Operation Enterprise Server
Cause
Even if the Virtual Machines are "cloned" the licensing will show as "Damaged"
Since Virtual Machines don't have unique hardware and the software images can be identical, another identifier called UMN3 (Unique Machine Number 3) is provided by the Virtual Machine. This is, as the name indicates, unique for each Virtual Machine.
Without this feature, it could be possible to cheat the licensing system and run many instances of software without a license being purchased for each instance.
See the following technical description of the virtual machine image identifier (VMID) that provides the UMN3
A hash of the universally unique ID (UUID or SMBIOS3) that the hypervisor issues whenever a virtual machine is created or cloned. SMBIOS is commonly virtualized by hypervisor providers such as VMware and Microsoft. In addition, virtualization management systems such as VMware’s VMotion ensure that all virtual machines being managed have a unique SMBIOS value.
Resolution
If Virtual machines are being utilized to provide a fail-over or "hot swap" of the EBO Server then licenses need to be purchased for each Virtual Machine, just as if two physical computers were used.
Each Virtual Machine will require its own License Server installation and have the required licenses activated.
