Two PCs (in different locations), one 3d artist, one V-Ray dongle, one V-Ray Licence. How best to have access to V-Ray when I'm working on either machine ?

[JezUK]

I will be working at a client site for a few days each week and am providing a computer which will be situated in their offices.

I will be needing V-Ray there for when I am working on-site with them, and V-Ray at my home office when working from home on my 'main' pc.

My computer at home currently has a dongle for V-Ray and I prefer to always keep that dongle in that machine and not carry it around with me every time I visit my client's offices.

What are my options please ?

Can I simply purchase another dongle for my 2nd on-site pc (and leave that dongle in the machine whilst it is onsite) ?

I will never be working on both machines at the same time.

Many thanks.

[ivan.slavchev]

You can either migrate your dongle to online licensing (non - reversible!) and use your login on both computers, or you can set up a VPN between the two computers so that you'll be able to use them in the same virtual network and obtain a license, or carry the dongle with you between the machines.
A second dongle will not be an option in that case.

[JezUK]

Thanks Ivan for your reply.

I am trying to understand the online licencing a bit better.

So if I migrate my dongle (non-reversible !) to online licencing, then by merely logging in onto either computer, I'd be able to use V-Ray on whichever machine I am at ? Must there *always* be an internet connection ?

This sounds like it'd give me the greatest flexibility, It's just I'm new to online licencind, and am afraid I'd lose some functionality by relinquishing my dongle ! I understand how carrying a dongle would always work for me, unless I lose it of course...... but if I choose to go the online licensing route, turn up to my remote client site to be informed by my client that the internet is unfortunately down for the day, would that mean I'd have no access to V-Ray either ?


Many thanks.

[ivan.slavchev]

I once wrote about dongle and online licensing pros and cons - you can have a look at it at this topic - https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...line-licensing

Yes, you can have a problem if your workstation in your client's office has no internet access whatsoever, in that case carrying the dongle back and forth will be the way to go, inconvenient as it may be.
If there's internet connection there and you're just concerned about outages - you can borrow the license to be used offline there - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...rrowingProcess
BTW - you can use the same approach at home (the borrowed licenses can be set to auto-renew when there's network connection.)
It's important to remember to release the license when you finish work, otherwise, you won't be able to use it at home - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...urningLicenses

Other problems you might run into are proxy servers and firewall restrictions in the client's network. That's usually the case if you work for companies that make cars, planes, government-related companies etc. Often their proxies refuse to accept self-signed certificates (and our license server uses these), or their security policy forbids exchanging data with outside organizations.

An easy way to check if Online licensing works for you is using your CG username to activate the license server on a computer inside their network - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...tup-Activation
If it's successful and "Online licensing" becomes green - that means that you've successfully connected to our backend.
I also like having mobile internet on my phone - that way I have the flexibility to provide internet connection to a certain computer and borrow/release licenses even if there's no internet connection at the time.

[wxyz]

I once wrote about dongle and online licensing pros and cons - you can have a look at it at this topic - https://forums.chaosgroup.com/forum/...line-licensing

Yes, you can have a problem if your workstation in your client's office has no internet access whatsoever, in that case carrying the dongle back and forth will be the way to go, inconvenient as it may be.
If there's internet connection there and you're just concerned about outages - you can borrow the license to be used offline there - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...rrowingProcess
BTW - you can use the same approach at home (the borrowed licenses can be set to auto-renew when there's network connection.)
It's important to remember to release the license when you finish work, otherwise, you won't be able to use it at home - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...urningLicenses

Other problems you might run into are proxy servers and firewall restrictions in the client's network. That's usually the case if you work for companies that make cars, planes, government-related companies etc. Often their proxies refuse to accept self-signed certificates (and our license server uses these), or their security policy forbids exchanging data with outside organizations.

An easy way to check if Online licensing works for you is using your CG username to activate the license server on a computer inside their network - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...tup-Activation
If it's successful and "Online licensing" becomes green - that means that you've successfully connected to our backend.
I also like having mobile internet on my phone - that way I have the flexibility to provide internet connection to a certain computer and borrow/release licenses even if there's no internet connection at the time.

Does the license borrowing sw run on Android phones?

[ivan.slavchev]

Does the license borrowing sw run on Android phones?

No, only on x64 CPU architecture. I use my mobile device to provide Internet access (USB tethering, mobile hotspot etc) to the actual computer.

[JezUK]

..........
If there's internet connection there and you're just concerned about outages - you can borrow the license to be used offline there - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...rrowingProcess

Hi Ivan,

I'm afraid I don't understand the borrowing licenses documentation.

The documentation gives the impression that to initiate the borrowing process, you *have* to have internet connection availability first ! (in which case, the Borrowing system appears to be for situations where you KNOW you are going to a place where there is going to be NO internet connection beforehand).

Please excuse my ignorance on online licencing, it's just that I am so used to dongles and my software 'just working' !

For example, if I have my computer at home, internet connection, online licencing (so no more dongles) what would happen during renders or during when I am using 3DS Max and my internet goes down....... will V-Ray still continue to work ?? And if it does work, for how long will it carry on working until it stops working ?

How does borrowing work for two computers - one at home, one at an office, where say the one at the office might have outages ? I can picture a scenario where you want to borrow the licence say for a laptop you're taking with you on holiday, but not in my scenario where I have two PCs, one at home (almost never a problem with internet) and one on client site (may have internet, or may have outages, which I only learn about once I arrive to the site).

How do I 'pass' the borrowing from the home computer to the one at the office (which doesn't have any internet) ?

And equally, how do I 'release' the borrowing on the office computer (which may not have internet temporarily) to the one at home ?? (otherwise I can see a situation where both would have access to the licences which I am sure isn't something CG would want to allow !).

Please can you advise further.

Once again, my apologies for not understanding licencing.

Many thanks.

PS - I have HDR Light Studio and that works on Mac addresses for its licencing (I am allowed to put the software on two computers) - were VRay licencing to work in that way, it'd make much better sense to me since then there'd be no total dependence on having an internet connection (Lightmap send you the licence file, if necessary).

[mihail_kuzev]

Hello Jez,

In this scenario you can do the following:

1. Enable the "Online licensing" on both your home computer and the computer at the client site.
2. When you work from home you can "borrow" the license to prevent any issues that might be cause by internet outage.
3. If you chose to "borrow" it then please "release" the license when you finish working. That way it will be once again available to all the license servers activated with your account.
4. When you go at the client site there are two possible situations - there is internet or there is no internet. Here is what you can do in both cases:

a) There is internet:
- You can "borrow" the license and start working.
- Please don't forget to release the license when you stop working otherwise it will not be available to your computer at home.

b) There is no internet:
- It is possible to "borrow" the online licensing in "offline mode" from the my.chaosgroup.com portal. However to access the portal you will need internet access - if you have a phone with data connection you can download the offline.bin on it and transfer it to your computer.
- In case you are able to provide the computer with temporally internet connection from you phone (tethering), you should be able to "borrow" the license in "online mode" then disconnect the phone and continue working.

In summary - the case where you have internet connection on both sites you only need to "borrow" and "release" the licenses when you start/stop working (Please note that this is only necessary if you are concerned that there will be network outages) This is the equivalent of plugging and unplugging the WibuKey Dongle. The difference is that you do not need to carry any hardware device with you.
There is still a way to activate the licenses if you have no internet in your home/office network, however this still requires internet from another device (such as phone with data connection).

In the example of the HDR Light Studio licensing you have two licenses (for each computer). In case you have two licenses for V-Ray (for two computers) then you can "borrow" each one of them on each computer separately (you will need to use the "Auto-renew licenses" option). That way there will be no need to "release" the licenses and you will also be able to use them simultaneously on both machines.

There is another possible use case for the Online licensing and the "borrowing" which might work for you if you carry a laptop from your home to the customer site and back. (Not sure if you do but it might be worth mentioning). In case you "borrow" the license on your laptop you can use it to provide the licenses to your home network or the office/customer site network. This means that as long as you have your mobile computer at your side, you can use the licenses on it, or you can provide access to them in the local network that you are connected to and use them on another machine in that network.