IMA 2019.1.4 release of the TRIAL on Windows 10 inside Synology Virtual Machine Manager stops working after change in virtual machine memory size (from 1984 MB to 2 GB). The symptoms after change in memory size are as described in https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=8672.0 (https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=8672.0) only this time I cannot activate CALs - I get a message that the CALs are already activated. After returning to the original memory 1984 MB size IMA works again.
Is this a bug?
IMatch Anywhere uses several machine-dependent data items to identify the machine on which it was installed. If you change the configuration too much, the license manager will not recognize the machine anymore and require a reactivation. You can reactivate your CALs every 90 days.
Changing only the RAM is not sufficient to cause are-activation. At least some other hardware attribute has also changed.
I don't recommend installed IMA in a VM and then fiddling with the VM settings. This will, at some point, offset the license manager and the CAL will become void. This is for anti-theft and anti-piracy reasons.
I am sure that memory size was the only parameter of the VM that I changed using Synology Virtual Machine Manager. I cannot guarantee that DSM (Synology's operating system) doesn't change something on it's own, however memory size was the only parameter I changed to make IMA work again.
As to the anti-piracy and anti-theft reasons for CAL activation - I fully understand that some kind of mechanism has to be deployed. I just wonder what is a recommended way to deal with a situation if, after installing IMA on a PC, be it physical or virtual machine, user has to upgrade hardware in the PC? Perform one change every 90 days - or maybe there is some way to process such changes through photools.com?
Changing memory size does not affect the activation. I've just checked in VPC and WMWare.
Which container/VM solution is used by your Sinology box and in which version?
A user can reactivate the CAL license every 90 days, up to two times.
In the rare situation where a user has to upgrade the hardware within 90 days after the last activation in a way that breaks the activation, he/she is free to contact me and explain the situation. I can then deactivate the CAL activation on the server. But this happened maybe 2 times in the past year.
A user installing IMA in a VM and then changing several relevant parameters that the activation breaks multiple times is rare.
I can assure you that users out there (not you) try to 'split' a single license for IMA to run on several computers by using multiple VMs. To save money at my expense.