Managing Acitvation Disks

I thought I would share this, you may find it useful.

With 38 different Rockwell activations to manage I found I needed to do something to keep them all straight.

I purchased some 7.5" X 10.5" Manilla clasp envelopes and ran them through the printer to print the attached document on the front of the envelope. Then I filled out one for each disk and the location of each of the activations. The floppy disk goes in the envelope. By looking at the front of each envelope I can quickly tell where the activation is and even track a history of where the file has been moved to.

OK, for some reason I can't seem to upload the file.
I'll try again later.

Here is basically what it looked like:

Description:_______________________________
Serial No:_________________________________
Cat. No:___________________________________

Key Installed Location | Date Installed | By | Date Recalled | BY |
______________________ | ______________ |____| ______________|___|
______________________ | ______________ |____| ______________|___|
______________________ | ______________ |____| ______________|___|
______________________ | ______________ |____| ______________|___|
______________________ | ______________ |____| ______________|___|
______________________ | ______________ |____| ______________|___|
______________________ | ______________ |____| ______________|___|

Fantastic idea.

Good plan....I'm our Rockwell Software site administrator, we have 47 activations between development and runtime licenses....Yes, the floppy management thing is a real pain. The first step in our organization process was getting ALL the software registered to one person. We had software registered to about 8 different people at our company, this makes upgrading and replacing floppies difficult. Now that they are all registered to me, I can easily reset activations, upgrade versions, or request new floppies. I have made the leap of moving my activations to a memory stick. This way I can jump from my laptop to my workstation or vise versa pretty quickly.


Greg

I don’t want to get into anyone’s company politics so I’ll just tell this story for what it’s worth ...



a plant not too far from here had a PLC system go down during a “working” weekend ... a big order was due out ... the laptop with the activation was dead ... someone came up with the CD to load RSLogix onto another laptop ... but the activation disk was safely locked away in the head engineer’s office desk drawer ... the head engineer was away on vacation and couldn’t be reached for another week or so ... the plant foreman got in touch with the company CEO in Headquarters City ... when the situation was explained to him, the CEO had the security guards open the desk drawer with a crowbar ... (reports are that they had fun doing it) ... the PLC was resurrected ... the order shipped on time ...



the head engineer finally got back to his office and immediately called security when he found that his desk had been broken into ... “yeah, we did that - and Mr. Big wants you to give him a call” ...



the CEO didn’t criticize the engineer - he had, after all, been trying to safeguard the company’s investment in the software ... but ... the engineer did get a brand new project assignment to come up with a system that would be both safe - and allow access to the activation disks in an emergency ...



this is what he finally came up with ... each activation disk is kept sealed in a labeled envelope (much like the ones that Alaric has mentioned) ... and (here’s the best part) the envelopes are all kept in a file cabinet drawer in the security office ... the technicians are all told where the disks are ... if one is ever needed, they can tell the security guard to “give me the envelope marked RSLogix5 out of that bottom drawer in the far left cabinet” ... they sign right on the envelope and the guard logs it out ...



so far that’s the most sensible system that I’ve ever heard of ...

We actually do something like that. I live in a cube farm (or at least it seems like I live here.) In my cubicle are two fire proof Mosler filing cabinets with combination locks. However, I only lock one of them. The unlocked file has the activation disks, program printouts, necessary manuals, etc in it. The maintenance staff all knows what is in there, as does our other controls engineer and the IT admin also know the activation disks are there. The combination to the file cabinet is on a card inserted behind one of the drawer lables on the front of the cabinet just in case it gets accidentally locked - everyone with a need to know knows its there. The engineering cube farm room is locked at night, but maintenance techs have keys to all the rooms. This way those wConnection: closeith a need to get to something can do so easily, while those who don't will find it slightly more difficult, and its not locked away where no one can get at it, such as in the IT admin's office.

BTW, I do recommend keeping the activation disks somewhere that is fireproof and waterproof.

A simple fireproof anything will not protect disk, tapes etc...
Standard fireproof devices keep the inside temperature below the ignition point of paper.

To properly protect your backup disk, tapes, etc... You will need a fire proof media safe/cabinet. These are designed to keep the internal temperature below 120 F. And of course, they cost MUCH more than a standard fireproof device.

Don't want anyone to mistakenly use the wrong kind of storage device, and get a false sense of security.

Ken

I thought I would resurrect this thread and attach the word file I use for printing the disk storage envelopes as back when I started the thread I was unsuccessful in uploading it for some reason.

Ya'll feel free to use it to print disk management envelopes. The method works great for us.

Ken, good point. I use a fireproof safe to hold all of my backups on my home PC, My docs...etc, ghost images of HD. Now that I know the difference, I will have to put in a request for PO to the wife to go to Canadian Tire or Walmart and get one ASAP.

Back on topic, guys......

Why don't you just have a few more laptops floating around?
I manage out plants automation licences, we have 6 laptops that all have individual licences, Siemens, Rockwell, Omron whatever. Yeah, it costs more...but come on. This is a Production environment.
More importantly, our IS dept ghosts the HD for this type of tragic failure.

Now I don't know where you guys live and work , but since I'm on site , it is essential that my information is available all the time , it doesn't take much time lost before I can afford to purchase the software again . With this in mind , I keep a back up of all software and licenses on a USB hard disk . I also keep a disk image too . Even if I loose $2000 worth of licenses , the time lost by getting 'net access and retrieving them (assuming the original floppy is any good after a few months anyhow) , I have to work , and I also need a good secure solution , that is why I tend to make a "flexible" backup .

(all my software is licensed , so I don't think I am cheating anyone)