A VM can use either the host physical NIC or a virtual NIC. When the user activates Control Expert, the license manager automatically chooses the NIC and binds the license to it's MAC address.

If the VM is using a virtual NIC, each virtual NIC would be assigned it's own virtual MAC address. When the VM switched to a different virtual network, the MAC address for the virtual NIC that the licensed was binded to will get deleted. This will cause the activation to be lost. When Control Expert is started, the software will report that it is not licensed.

To resolve the issue, it is recommended to add a dummy virtual NIC using the following steps:

• Open the VMware virtual machine settings.
• Click on Add

• Select 'Network Adapter'.
• Click on 'Finish'.

Assign the new adapter to a virtual network (Do not connect it to the host Ethernet adapter).

• Disconnect from all other network adapters.
• Connect to the dummy virtual network adapter

Activate the license.(The license manager will automatically select the dummy adapter and bind the activation ID to it.)

Released for:Schneider Electric Canada