Activations

[Andres Camilo]

Hello

I'm  working in one of the automation labs in my University, where 3 licenses  for different Rockwell software's were installed through factory talk web service in three different computers. One of the computers was formatted and the license  for this computer was lost. How can I do to recover it. Im trying to get customer support through the chat service, but this message appears  :"You don't have permission to access this document".

Thank you

This answer is 'locked' or being updated You do not have permission to access this document.This answer is 'locked' or being updated You do not have permission to access this document.

[JHutch]

Hi Andres.

Unfortunately, the chat service can't, at this time, tell the difference between chat requests for products that require a support contract (ie, most of them) and those that do not (ie, Activations).  Therefore, if you don't have a support contract, online chat is not available to you.  However, the phone support guys *are* able to help with Activation issues, so give them a call.

I realize this isn't the optimal solution (both for you *or* us, since chat is more efficient use of our engineers in most cases).  We've got some ideas on ways to fix this, but we haven't started trying to implement those ideas yet, so for right now ... just call.

JHutch

[TJ McDermott]

JHutch, FTA asks us for either a hard drive identifier or MAC address when initially getting the activation from RS through the internet.

In this particular case, the hard drive was reformatted, no hardware replacement.  The hard drive identifier and the MAC address are the same as before the formatting.

One would expect FTA to make note of the identical hardware and re-download the activation with no further hassle.  The identifiers are unique, right?

Is this how FTA actually works in the case of reinstalling software?

This is not an idle question; I have a computer on which I must soon do a reformat, possibly do a hard drive replacement.  The user installed using the MAC address as the unique hardware code.

[Ken_Roach]

If you back up your FTA activation file, you can re-use it on the same hardware.   This is the point of having a nonencrypted plaint-text activation file.

It's just a text file;  you can store it on any computer media or network device that you can connect to. The file has a *.LIC extension and is located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Rockwell\Activations.   As long as the hardware used to create the license has not changed, you can simple copy the file into that directory and FT Activation will use it.

That's the circumstance that TJ will be in, so he will have no problem preserving his FT Activation.

When you reformat a machine or otherwise delete the FT Activation license file but have no backup, the FTA server does not just serve up another copy of the license file.  You have to call and ask for it.    I've done it;  I had my serial number handy and it took about 5 minutes.

[TJ McDermott]

Ken, I think I've made my opinion of FTA clear here and in other venues.  (grin).

Don't you think that, if nothing's changed with the unique hardware identifier (say, the MAC address), that FTA should register back with RS (call the mothership, in other words), note that the information is still the same, and be back in operation without the explicit call to request it?

If FTA worked this way (transparently to the user for once), I would have one small positive thing to say about it.

[Ken_Roach]

Ideally, FT Activations are restored by having the user copy their backup of the *.LIC file onto the restored computer.  No phone calls, no Internet access, no database inquiry, no validation, no support, no contract, no mess, no fuss, no indigestion, no headaches.

Instead, when the *.LIC file is lost, it is not automatically restored but must be requested.   

[Ken_Roach]

I don't urge customers to "pick up the phone" anymore, after an incident a couple of years ago when a customer complained repeatedly about not getting an e-mail reply back from Tech Support.

I lost my patience with him.  "Why is it so hard for you to make a simple phone call !"

He lost his patience with me.  "Because I've been deaf since the war !"