[TriLUG] machine comparing... possibly OT

[Kevin Flanagan]

You really don't need a load of hardware for a VM solution, or money for 
that matter.


VMware has released VMWare server for Windows or Linux as free, as in 
beer, not speech, but we'll take the small victories. In a VMWare 
session you can run only one Virtual machine, that shouldn't take a lot 
of overhead.  I'm guessing that a system with 512 MB RAM can run a host 
os, say Fedora, and a VM with Windows XP fairly well, not under any real 
load, but it doesn't sound like that's an issue.  You can map physical 
serial ports to VM instances so they present as if they are real hardware.

Perhaps you can't go there today, but I'd work that angle hard.  Invest 
today, about $1K and not spend $500 later if the system needs to be 
reloaded again.  Not to mention that it would take just a couple of 
minutes to bring up a new instance of the VM from saved files.

Any way you go, good luck.

Kevin

David McDowell wrote:
> Your virtual machine idea is a keen one... though I don't "yet" have
> the resources for doing such... I will before the year is out.  My
> only problem is location... it has a 9pin serial connection to the
> physical system it monitors... sounds like COM1 will work in the
> virtual machine scenario, but I won't have any hardware close enough
> to it that could do that and other things as well (so as not to waste
> the hardware).  *sigh*
>
> Here we are presented with a perfect example of what sucks about
> purchased, non open sourced software.  The vendor used to give new
> license keys on re-installs without having to collect money (as well
> they should)... now they "claim" they changed their policies and wrote
> their end users about such change and are essentially holding us
> hostage with the software... meaning if we don't give them money, they
> won't run their keygen.  We never received such notification, and even
> our reseller wasn't informed.  Imagine that!
>
> Someone offered to try to write a FOSS package ... however,
> considering the nature of this software, I don't know if it would be
> possible to get the white papers on how to talk to the keycard
> hardware.  I've not the time to research right now anyway.  I see
> Glenn has a possible item for me to consider, so if I can get the
> setup the way I want, maybe I can run that and see.
>
> thanks everyone,
> David
>
>
>
> On 7/13/06, Kevin Flanagan <kevin at flanagannc.net> wrote:
>> That's my point, if you have a Virtual Machine with everything installed
>> then snapshot it off to DVD you don't ever reinstall the software.  So
>> long as you only need the one copy running at a time you won't need to
>> install the software again.
>>
>>
>> The only catch I see with this, so far, is hardware support, if it's
>> standard serial, parallel, or USB you should do fine, if it's some
>> special card, you may have a challenge there.
>>
>>
>> Kevin
>>
>> Barry Gaskins wrote:
>> >   I dont think that any of these solutions are going to work.  The
>> > program
>> > is building a magic number using things that will be different on each
>> > piece
>> > of hardware.  Things like the mac address of the ethernet card, the 
>> bios
>> > version number, the checksum from the ROM, ... and who knows what
>> > else. I am
>> > willing to bet that even if you figure out EXACTLY what changed on the
>> > machine from before you install the key and after you install the key,
>> > doing
>> > the same thing on a different piece of hardware will not make the 
>> program
>> > work.  The same thing will probably be true with a virtual machine 
>> (mac
>> > address on the ethernet will still be different etc...)
>> >
>> >   It might work if you need to reinstall the software on the exact 
>> same
>> > hardware, but if your hardware dies then you will be out of luck.
>> >
>> >   - Barry Gaskins
>> >
>> > On 7/12/06, Kevin Flanagan <kevin at flanagannc.net> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Have you looked at a Virtual Machine solution?  You could snapshot it
>> >> every now and then, if the hardware fails, just bring the new virtual
>> >> machine up on a new server.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> David McDowell wrote:
>> >> > Let me elaborate... I have a WinXP system (yup, this might be 
>> the OT
>> >> > part) which has software on it that interfaces with our keycard
>> >> > system.  This software is ours, we own it.  However, when you 
>> install
>> >> > the software, somewhere, someplace there is a "Reference Code" 
>> created
>> >> > (a different one each time you install the product) and you must 
>> call
>> >> > the software vendor to have them put that code into their keygen to
>> >> > get your "License Key" so that your software operates as 
>> registered.
>> >> > In the past, we have called tech support and they have given us 
>> this
>> >> > without question... well, today, as we moved this software to a new
>> >> > piece of hardware... we are approached with this situation 
>> again, BUT
>> >> > the software vendor now claims they will only generate license 
>> keys if
>> >> > you maintain a $560/yr support contract with them (or a per 
>> incident
>> >> > fee)... what crap I say!!!
>> >> >
>> >> > So, maybe there is an open source tool for this... maybe not, 
>> but my
>> >> > question comes down to this.  We OWN this piece of software.  If I
>> >> > choose to pay the per incident fee or at least pickup a contact 
>> for 1
>> >> > year, I want to be able to do this.  I want to take a snapshot 
>> of the
>> >> > machine PRIOR to entering in the license key, then I want a 
>> snapshot
>> >> > of the machine AFTER entering the license key.  I want something to
>> >> > compare these snapshots and tell me every file and every registry
>> >> > entry which has changed.  My hope is that I will discover where 
>> their
>> >> > hidden changes are occurring and if I have to re-install this 
>> software
>> >> > again, I will be able to force an old "Reference Code" in place 
>> of the
>> >> > automatically generated one by either replacing files or registry
>> >> > entries and then enter the License Key which I know works for that
>> >> > Reference Code OR simple replace all the files/reg entries that 
>> exist
>> >> > AFTER the license key has been given such that the code and key 
>> are in
>> >> > concurrance together.
>> >> >
>> >> > At any rate, this really upsets me what this vendor is doing.  
>> We OWN
>> >> > the piece of software and they are holding us hostage by forcing 
>> us to
>> >> > pay to get a new license key just b/c we had to re-install the 
>> product
>> >> > on a new machine (the old one crashed).  I know this kind of 
>> tool must
>> >> > exist as virus, worm and spyware companies must use them to 
>> determine
>> >> > what a particular item does to a system.  I'm hoping something 
>> exist
>> >> > in the FOSS world that can help me even though this system is WinXP
>> >> > and would need files and the registry snapshot and compared.
>> >> >
>> >> > Thanks!!
>> >> > David McD
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