Rockwell Activation Components Explained

aiki202

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Aug 2007
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Pennsylvania
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I am currently in the process of inventorying all of our Rockwell activations in the facility (125+). There are keys and licenses on the each floppy disk. I know there can be multiple licenses on each floppy. Can someone explain what the key is and what its purpose is. Also we have several disks with activation serial numbers that show up in the transfer utility that do not match the printed serial on the outside of the disk??? How is this possible? A previous employee was trying to sort through the mess but is no longer here, now its my turn. Can anyone say nightmare? :confused:
 
Sounds knarly. A key is what the software loads every time it runs and periodically afterward to provide functionality to your software. It's a pair of license files that's been written to a volume (Rockwell key disk, hard drive, or even mapped network drive) that has characteristics written based on the drive volume name. This means that copying the license files won't transfer the key. You usually can't transfer to a USB memory stick because of the drive volume issue. You use a Rockwell program called evmove to "transfer" the license from one volume to another (ie from floppy disk to local hard drive). You can move licenses to different disks, so that isn't too surprising.

You'll want to use that same evmove on your Rockwell installed PCs to see what licenses/keys actually reside on that machine. You can pull up the same thing for the floppy disks. I'm willing to bet that many of the disks will say something to the extent of 0/1 licenses, meaning that they've been moved. Alternatively, you can leave the floppy disk in the PC to run the application without ever moving the license files.

Good luck.
 
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Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought you cound not move, for example, license # 123 from a hard drive back onto an activation disk with a serial of 234?

Does the number of keys on a disk match the number of licenses on the disk? I thought there could be 1 key with multiple licenses?
 
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Let's get a second opinion, but I'm nearly positive that's not a correct statement.

In fact, the software will install with any 10 digit serial number. I don't think that's taken into account with the license key. Your serial number should mean something to Rockwell, though.

Also, their new scheme (Factory Talk version) uses online activations and is quite different.

aiki202 said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought you cound not move, for example, license # 123 from a hard drive back onto an activation disk with a serial of 234?
 
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Does the number of keys on a disk match the number of licenses on the disk? I thought there could be 1 key with multiple licenses?
 
I may not have the terminology exactly correct, but you're intent is right. As a Rockwell Certified Solution Provider we had key disks that each came with 5 transferable licenses.

aiki202 said:
Does the number of keys on a disk match the number of licenses on the disk? I thought there could be 1 key with multiple licenses?
 
You don't have to move activation to the exact disk it was taken from. In fact I now use the EVMoveCF for Flash drives to move activations from a hard drive to my USB Flash drive.
Each key enables the use of a particular Rockwell software program. So if you have RSLogix5000 and RSLogix500 installed on a computer you should have two keys installed on your hard drive.
Keys are stored in the EVRI.sys file. The single file may contain multiple keys. If this file gets corrupted or if you try and copy the file to use elsewhere your keys will usually be lost.
Beyond all that... I assume you are doing this as Rockwell is implementing FactoryTalk activation to get away from using the keydisks. I know my supplier and Rockwell do a pretty good job of retaining what serial #s I have and you may want a copy to make sure everything is legit. I know most everyone here knows about getting around the keydisk activation so I won't divulge any further.
 
The other thing that is confusing me is that some disks have a sticker on the outside with serial # 123, but in the transfer utility the serial # is shown as 234 (numbers are only examples). Keep in mind these are disks that do not have any licesnses on them, only keys. On other disks the serial numbers match exactly. Is this normal?
 
Wow!...lol..this gets old and dry over time eh?

The worst thing they did was have the file attributes check on the EVRSI file....so many mess up disks caused by mistakenly(?) trying to copy MASTERDISK files...

...not that the instructions for proper file transfer were flawed....we just did not remember or listen when the time came eh?...lol...(well sometimes we were scared and tried to backup)

....moving on to a better way...was a long time coming.....
(unless you also have a horror story with FactoryTalk as well..LOL)

..If you have MASTERDISK(s) for valid RS-SOFT...don't mess with them...and move on when you can..(or company will let you)....

...follow all the proper procedures...and if something goes wrong????....contact rep....if you are legit....all will be well....

..and remember....put the floppy in the drive if you have a problem......your RS-Soft will most likely run.
 
With regards to damaging your activation files.

Whilst they are still good, move them to a floppy, take an image using Disk Factory 32 or similar program, then move your activation back to your hard drive.

Now you have a good image that you can write to a floppy when your original activation has a problem.

Takes all of 3 minutes. I have tested this procedure with success.
 
HJTRBO - I wouldn't publish such things. You're describing the process to duplicate (pirate) activations. BTW, there are simpler ways of accomplishing the same.
 

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