Will Licence Upgrade from 5.3.0 to 5.4.0 remove my Dongle licencing ?

[JezUK]

Yes. If you have no internet connection, no chance to get connected temporarily to borrow the license (via mobile hotspot etc), or no way to borrow from a different machine, and transfer the file with the license information (via flash drive for example), you'll get only the couple of hours.

Because I'm still dongle based, I'm still a little unclear how online licencing works.

Say if I have kicked off a network render to work overnight to render my animation frames - I go to bed, and am looking forward to seeing all my render frames completed in the morning.

If there was a licencing issue during the night, is there a possibility that I could find that my 1000 frames didn't complete because the rendering stopped due to not being able to verify licences ?

Or are you saying that to prevent something like that happening I would need to have to borrow the licences before I start the overnight renders and leaving them running overnight ?

[ivan.slavchev]

Because I'm still dongle based, I'm still a little unclear how online licencing works.

It's quite similar with the dongle licencing, the only difference is that instead of a dongle your licences are associated with your account (email or username can be used for logging into the license server). The licence server software then obtains license information over the internet from our backend.

If there was a licencing issue during the night, is there a possibility that I could find that my 1000 frames didn't complete because the rendering stopped due to not being able to verify licenses?

Yes, if you have a licensce issue frames that start rendering after a potential problem won't render.

Or are you saying that to prevent something like that happening I would need to have to borrow the licences before I start the overnight renders and leaving them running overnight?

If the issue is overnight you should still be OK since the license server will allow you to use licenses with some grace period, but if you have licence issues for a longer period, e.g. over a weekend - you'd need your licenses borrowed previously.
Generally speaking - if your setup is 1 license server computer + certain number оf workstations/ RN computers - you can borrow the licences on the license server computer and leave them that way - they'll be available offline if needed.

[andybot_cg]

This is a helpful thread! So as long as you are always using one machine to run V-Ray - there's no downside to having a license "borrowed" all the time? I haven't upgraded from a dongle either, and have had these concerns in the back of my mind too.

[ivan.slavchev]

This is a helpful thread! So as long as you are always using one machine to run V-Ray - there's no downside to having a license "borrowed" all the time? I haven't upgraded from a dongle either, and have had these concerns in the back of my mind too.

I'd say - as long as you're using a single license server machine - there's no downside to having a license "borrowed" all the time. You can have a lot of computers with V-Ray installed that obtain licenses from a single license server computer, which is a typical studio setup.
You can see some example setups here - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...d+Installation

[andybot_cg]

You can see some example setups here - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...d+Installation

Very helpful examples. Thanks!

[JezUK]

I'd say - as long as you're using a single license server machine - there's no downside to having a license "borrowed" all the time. You can have a lot of computers with V-Ray installed that obtain licenses from a single license server computer, which is a typical studio setup.
You can see some example setups here - https://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/...d+Installation

Hi Ivan,

So to be clear, if I set up my TWO computers (ONE main workstation and ONE render node) so that I am borrowing licences permanently, then this should be okay - I can work offline (if need be) and before the 2 weeks is up, 3 days before, the automatic renewal for the borrowing will happen again by itself and then I'm set for the next two weeks (repeated every two weeks automatically) ? This is my understanding, is this correct ?

Also, are there any reminders / warnings to inform you that renewal is coming soon or that renewal has been failing (during those 3 days before auto renewal) ? Or that auto-renewal has happened successfully (and that the next renewal will be on xx/xx/20xx) ? I'm just trying to understand and feel safe that jobs won't fail because I wasn't aware of this new way I'll need to ensure licencing is in place.

Many thanks.

PS - I know it might be too soon to ask, but will V-Ray 5 be online only (dongle-less only) do you know / can you say ?

[ivan.slavchev]

Hi Ivan,

So to be clear, if I set up my TWO computers (ONE main workstation and ONE render node) so that I am borrowing licences permanently, then this should be okay - I can work offline (if need be) and before the 2 weeks is up, 3 days before, the automatic renewal for the borrowing will happen again by itself and then I'm set for the next two weeks (repeated every two weeks automatically)? This is my understanding, is this correct?

Yes, that's correct. Note that the license setup, in this case, is the same as with a dongle - you borrow the licenses on a single computer that's running the license server software and all other machines obtain licenses from it

Also, are there any reminders/warnings to inform you that renewal is coming soon or that renewal has been failing (during those 3 days before auto-renewal)? Or that auto-renewal has happened successfully (and that the next renewal will be on xx/xx/20xx)? I'm just trying to understand and feel safe that jobs won't fail because I wasn't aware of this new way I'll need to ensure licencing is in place.

I don't think there's a specific warning, apart from checking the license server's status page and seeing a warning that your licenses expire (if you have term licenses, for example).
The license server has an API that can be used with a simple script to do some custom checks, you can message me at support@chaosgroup.com for more information (if you do, please include a link to this topic).

PS - I know it might be too soon to ask, but will V-Ray 5 be online only (dongle-less only) do you know / can you say?

Yes, it won't be available on dongles.

[JezUK]

Hi Ivan,

As V-Ray 5 has now just been released and so I'm interested to learn about that and also more about the borrowing of licences, please can you show me where "auto-renew" of borrowed licencing happens ? I see nowhere on any Chaosgroup YouTube video on how to borrow a licence of where that auto-renew is set. I see that the licensing interface tells us the date when our licence will expire but nothing about "auto-renew".

Many thanks.


**** please ignore post above - I found the answer to my question in the documentation link provided ********