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What could change the Computer ID used for the licenses in NI License Manager?

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at our customer site we originally set up our software which uses the Vision Run-Time and Vision Acquisition Software.    We purchased a license for the PC and it was installed. It has been running since July.   but today the customer started getting errors asking for the license. using NI license manager we see "Status: Activated for a different computer"

 

looking further we now see a different "Computer ID" code   I have original screen shots of when I originally applied the license so I know the Computer ID was not a typo.   

The customer says no one has swapped out the PC's,  but is currently looking to see if any other work was done.

 

Has anyone expirenced this before?

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That happened to me this morning on my backup computer.  I just reactivated and was done with it.

 

EDIT:  I just had to reboot the machine due to a Windows Update and I am encountering the same issue again.

Another update:  I did a screen capture to save the computer ID from lisence manager, rebooted the machine again, and looked at the computer ID in lisence manager again.  It changed just from rebooting the machine.

Windows 7 64-bit

License Manager 3.7


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On What Is the Computer ID Based?

 

 


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Solution
Accepted by topic author Paul.Boucher

Quote:  Your computer ID is based on the MAC address of your Ethernet adapter. In some cases, your computer ID is based on the disk volume serial number.

 

Well, my computer was literally just sitting there on for the week and this morning it told me LabVIEW was not activated.  I don't think the MAC address or disk got changed in that time.  But who knows.  Our IT is pretty bad.


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It's possible I installed the License before the customer added a 2nd NIC to the PC's.  I dont' remember the order but 4 out of the 5 PC's had new ID's

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I'd like to state that my computer is still messed up.  It gets a new ID after each reboot.  May be time to send the request in to NI.


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Crossrulz,

 

You should definitely call or email in on this request.  We have methods that can ensure that your device ID stays constant.

 

You can reach us at 1-866-ASK-MYNI(275-6964) and we will be more than happy to help!

 

J Newk
Systems Engineer
National Instruments
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I hope your problem was solved by now.

 

If not, is your customer using any VPN software?

VPN software creates virtual MAC address, and somehow NI License Manager will use that for computer ID.

 

A known case is that VPN software by Juniper Networks will randomly create a virtual MAC address

every time the computer reboots. This will screw up NI License Manager because the computer ID will be different every time

computer reboots.

 

A workaround is to ask NI for an activation code based on computer ID that is generated from your hard drive.

With this, unless you change your harddriver or format it, it will keep the same computer ID.

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@doradorachan wrote:

I hope your problem was solved by now.

 

If not, is your customer using any VPN software?

VPN software creates virtual MAC address, and somehow NI License Manager will use that for computer ID.

 

A known case is that VPN software by Juniper Networks will randomly create a virtual MAC address

every time the computer reboots. This will screw up NI License Manager because the computer ID will be different every time

computer reboots.

 

A workaround is to ask NI for an activation code based on computer ID that is generated from your hard drive.

With this, unless you change your harddriver or format it, it will keep the same computer ID.


That is exactly what my problem was.  I ended up getting a computer ID based on the harddrive.  The thing is that when performing the "automated" activation, it uses the computer ID from the MAC address.  So I have to activate over email, change the file so that it uses my harddrive based computer ID, send it, apply the received codes.  It is kind of a pain, but not that bad.


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I had a similar problem with my internet provider , they locked my access when 15 mac-adresses was found, since it was a private access and not a company one.
I only had one computer, and it happened that my oem-nic was used in several manufactorers computer and send all mac-address it could use...
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