# Virtualizing a Physical Install

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/virtualizing-a-physical-install/8526>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [June 5, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/virtualizing-a-physical-install/8526 "2014-06-05T17:58:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jmartell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@jmartell](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jmartell)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/virtualizing-a-physical-install/8526/1 "2014-06-05T17:58:14Z")

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We have a client who currently has a gateway running on a physical machine and would like to migrate to virtual one. They plan on imaging the existing server in order to accomplish this. I am not anticipating any problems running Ignition on the virtual machine, but I am wondering about licensing.

It seems to me that we should ‘unactivate’ our existing system before the imaging since the activation processes uses information from the underlying hardware. Is there any potential to run into some problems if we image the activated gateway. Anyone have any experience or recommendations?

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**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/virtualizing-a-physical-install/8526/2 "2014-06-05T18:02:00Z")

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You should unactivate, image the gateway, load the image on the VM, then activate again.

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**Author:** ![diat150](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a587f6/32.png) [@diat150](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/diat150)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/virtualizing-a-physical-install/8526/3 "2014-06-05T18:24:12Z")

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what all components does the license bind to? just wondering in case we ever have to change something after a failure?

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**Author:** ![jmartell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@jmartell](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/jmartell)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/virtualizing-a-physical-install/8526/4 "2014-06-05T20:07:52Z")

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Thanks. That is what I thought.

I’m not sure what they use to generate the activation, but I would suspect the system ID is included in that. You can see what information they collect and store if you look for “Licensing and Activation” in the Ignition help.

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**Author:** ![greg.simpson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/greg.simpson/32/3135_2.png) [@greg.simpson](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/greg.simpson)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/virtualizing-a-physical-install/8526/5 "2014-06-05T20:55:03Z")

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It really depends on the OS being used. On Windows the activation binds to the hard drive serial number, and a few other parameters. I can’t go into great detail.