Control Expert license running in a VMWare virtual machine becomes untrusted when using a USB Ethernet Adapter.

Issue
Control Expert license becomes untrusted when using a USB Ethernet Adapter in a virtual machine.

Product Line
Control Expert

Environment
Windows 10

Resolution
If the USB Ethernet adapter is either removed or disconnected from the virtual machine before shutting down the VM,  Control Expert will
fail to start the next time that it is launched after starting the virtual machine.  When this occurs, the License Manager will show the license as
untrusted.  This occurs only if the VM does not have a virtual network adapter configured.

The reason this issue occurs is due to the binding of the license to both the VMWare and Windows operating system hardware ID of the USB Ethernet
adapter being deleted by both VMWare and the virtual machine operating system.  When the USB Ethernet adapter is either removed from the PC or
disconnected using the VMWare menu option ('VM\Removable devices'), it is viewed by VMWare and the virtual machine Windows operating system
as a hardware removal.  The next time that the USB Ethernet adapter is plugged in, it is interpreted as a new hardware being added and gets assigned
a new hardware ID from both VMWare and the Windows operating system running in the VM. The lost binding and the difference in VMWare hardware
ID assigned to the USB Ethernet adapter causes the license to become untrusted.  The License Manager is behaving as designed to prevent piracy.

To prevent this from occurring, use the following steps.

• Shut down the virtual machine.
• Close VMWare Workstation.
• Remove the USB adapater.

Use the following steps to start the VM,

• Ensure that the USB Ethernet adapter is plugged into the PC
• Start VMware Workstation.
• Start the virtual machine.

Note:
1.) If the virtual machine is started without the USB Ethernet adapter plugged in, the virtual machine virtual machine Window
operating system will view this as a new hardware being added the next time it is plugged in..

2.) If the USB Ethernet adapter is removed or disconnected while the VM is running, the binding will be lost when the
USB Ethernet adapter is reconnected or plugged back in.

Publikováno pro: Schneider Electric Česká republika