virtual machines and licences

[Intaris]

A question which has occurred to me on a few occasions:

What's the official stance of NI on installing LabVIEW and toolkits on virtual PCs.

One example was a customer who insisted that software be written in 8.20 which meant I could no way work on the same PC as my 8.2.1 installation.  I moved over to a virtual machine.

I have to re-register the toolkits from time to time  (understandable due to the licensing agreement). 

Everything works fine and I have no real technical problems but.... what's the official stance of NI on this?

Shane. 

[altenbach]

I understand that if you have a named user license, you can activate it on up to three business computers (plus one home computer).

details

[Intaris]

The 3x activation is clear, that's why I need to keep re-activating my VMs.

The question is whether I should be uninstalling my other LV installations (I currently have 5 VMs with different versions) in between.

So it's more a question of installations than activation.  The language of the licence agreement is a little less transparent on this subject with phrases "install and activate on up to three computers".  Does that mean install as often as I like but only activate three times or only install three times and only activate three times....... 

I'm probably making too much fuss about this, but I'd like to know if I'm in a grey zone or if NI is officially OK with what I'm doing.....

My saving grace is that I only ever have 2 LV versions running at a time, my Windows version (one of my 5 VMs) and my Mac version, two separate Licenses....

Shane. 

[AndreasStark]

The NI policy for virtual machines is the same as for "real" PCs. Take a look at the following article:

What is NI Licensing Policy on Virtual Machines?

Let me know if you have further questions,

Regards,

Andreas Stark

Applications Engineering

NI Germany

[AndreasStark]

The NI policy for virtual machines is the same as for "real" PCs. Take a look at the following article:

What is NI Licensing Policy on Virtual Machines?

Let me know if you have further questions,

Regards,

Andreas Stark

Applications Engineering

NI Germany

[Intaris]

So the essence of this is that by having VMs with different versions of LV Installed on VMs (6.1, 7.1, 8.20, 8.21 and 8.51) I'm in breach of the license agreement?

Even though I'm only using one at a time and that these are all used on the same machine?

Can't it be possible to increase the limit for virtual machines regarding installation while keeping the "one concurrent session" rule?  Virtualization is becoming more and more popular (and powerful) and there are lots of versions of LV and VISA and DAQmx and so on.  Three installations just doesn't really cover enough bases any more. 

I presume the same is valid for any toolkits like Vision or Motion?

Shane. 

[AndreasStark]

Hi Shane,

I forwarded your question to the NI licensing help group. I will keep you updated upon their response.

Andreas

[Marni]

Each virtual image/computer combination is considered a "computer." If you have 5 LabVIEW versions on 5 virtual machines, you are not following the license agreement. You can have 5 versions on 3 VMs on a single computer and still follow the license agreement. This is valid for all software using the Standard License Agreement, which are most of our Motion and Vision software products.

Regards, 

Marni Schwartz

Licensing Product Manager

[Intaris]

OK, 5 Versions on 3 VMs is at least something to start with.  I don't quite understand the difference between 5versions on 5 VMs on a single machine and 5 versions on 3 VMs on a single machine, but I suppose NI decides what's allowed and what not so......

What about dual-boot machines?   If I have two LV versions on a dual-boot PC (or a quad-boot PC for example) how does that weigh into the discussion?

I really really don't want to have to install the entire LV family of software each time I have a different request from a customer.  My time is expensive enough without having to take 3-4 hours setting up a machine before I can even start working.

Surely there are others out there facing similar problems?  Or am I the only one stupid enough to actually ask if I'm sticking to the license?

Shane.

[rolfk]

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Intaris wrote:
 

Surely there are others out there facing similar problems?  Or am I the only one stupid enough to actually ask if I'm sticking to the license?

Shane.

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I think there are a few who do stretch the license terms in these aspects but doubt NI will really do much about that as long as it remains a real single user license, meaning nobody else is using those installations.

As for me, I do have all released versions of LabVIEW 5.1 until 8.6 installed on my machine in the same OS and it really mostly works. Mostly since installing newer LabVIEW versions quite often does disable or corrupt the installation of older NI-DAQ, Vision and similar Drivers/Toolkits. But for most basic LabVIEWing it works. Also I got LabVIEW 6.x NI-DAQ, Vision and others working again by simply copying the according VI libraries from an older backup back into the installation folder after the new installer borked/removed them.

Rolf Kalbermatter