VLM on VMWare EXSi 4: computer ID change

[Baturin]

Hello!

We are using Volume License Manager 2.1.1 under VMWare ESXi 4.

There is a problem with change of computer ID after each change in ESXi hypervisor or BIOS of the server hardware (upgrade of the server firmware, change the version of the hypervisor 3.5->4, move of machine from one hypervisor to another with the same version).

The virtual machine configuration is not changed at all.

VM OS is Windows Server 2003 r2 sp2.

Can anyone advise the reason for computer ID change and how it is possible to avoid that?

Thank you in advance!

Message Edited by Baturin on 08-03-2009 01:14 AM

[Kelly_R]

Hi Baturin,

Your computer ID can be based off of two sources, the Ethernet card MAC address or the hard drive.  If you have a desktop computer, the computer ID is based off of the MAC address.  It sounds like when you make changes to the hypervisor, it is changing ithis MAC address for your virtual machine.  If this is the case, we can generate a new license file based off of the computer hard drive serial number as this may be more stable for you.  For this to work you will need to have a fixed drive on your computer.

[Baturin]

Hi Kelly,

Thank you for your answer. It seems that MAC adress of computer doesn't change during the change in the hypervisor. It is in a virtual machine settings. Is data in ipconfig /all enough to check for MAC adrress change?

Regards,

Ivan

[Kelly_R]

Hi Baturin,

It should be.  If you would like to continue troubleshooting, I think I will need more information specific to your system.  If you would like, I can look up your email via our forum database, and we can continue to troubleshoot via email.

[Baturin]

Hi Kelly,

It would be nice to continue to communicate by e-mail.

Please, describe what information is required and what tests we can perform to find the origin of the issue.

Regards,

Ivan Baturin

[Kelly_R]

Upon decrypting the different computer IDs for this system, we found that the MAC address was indeed changing with changes in the hypervisor.  One option we will try is basing the computer ID off of the hard drive.