Dongle checking

[bwelch]

I'm upgrading a CM integration Unity from 2.46 to 3.1. We are using a separate server for the installation of 3.1. To minimize downtime I want to keep the current 2.46 Unity server running at least 24 hours while we transition the various CM sites using lagacy VM to the new 3.1 server. My question is: How long will the Unity 2.46 server run after I remove the key? AND, I understand the upgrade kit rewrites the key for use in 3.1, What happens if I need to roll back to the 2.46 key for disaster recovery?<br><br>Thanks,<br>Brad<br><br>

[#2]

Unity will stay up for a minimum of 72 hours without the key attached but it'll bark at you if you try to add more users with the key not there (i.e. it checks for licenses and you, of course, are out). It'll run fine, though. If you take it off line and restart it without the key it'll come up in demo mode, however.

You can take a 3.0 or 3.1 key and put it on a 2.4.6 machine and it'll run OK (the same is not true taking an older key and putting it on a newer version, however). Be aware that when Unity 2.4.6 starts up it'll write the 2.4 version info through to the key so you'll need to reapply the upgrade code to the key again if you stick it back on the 2.4.6 box and then want to go back again to the 3.1 server.


Jeff Lindborg
Unity Technical Lead/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

[bwelch]

I unplugged the key around 6:00pm and around 12:00am the event log shows a security key not present error, services are being shut down. Sure enough, I call Unity and the VM is not available. I replaced the key, bounced Unity, and everything worked fine. Is there any way I can make sure I get a ful 72 hours before Unity checks the key? Should I bounce Unity to get it to check the key and cycle the timer, then remove the key?

Thanks,
Brad

[#4]

Hmmm... it checks every night at midnight for sure but it SHOULD allow 3 checks to pass before starting the shutdown sequence. I'll have to hunt around for this one and see if there's a configuration item in the registry for this.

Jeff Lindborg
Unity Technical Lead/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)

[#5]

Just checked with the dev folks, looks like this got changed in 3.0(x) when they were working on the failover stuff. It used to pass though 4 checks at midnight so it would ensure 72 hours minimum up time without the key (i.e. you pull the key off at 1 minute to midnight, you've got 3 days to get a new key before Unity goes off line).

they changed it to only 1 pass so it shuts down at midnight that first night. Not sure why they felt the need to do this (I suspect someone who didn't know what it was used for yanked out the code without realizing the issues).

With the FlexLM licensing coming in 4.0 I doubt they'll go back and change this again for me, but I'll pop a DDTS in there anyway.


Jeff Lindborg
Unity Technical Lead/Answer Monkey
Cisco Systems
lindborg@cisco.com
http://www.AnswerMonkey.net (new page for Unity support tools and scripts)