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wallywalrus
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X86 licensing - linked to anything other than HDD / MB?

Thu Dec 29, 2022 6:01 pm

I have a low-ish power x86 PC (HP T740 thin client) with a quad GbE card and installed RouterOS bare metal as I didn't want to deal with complexity of a virtualized environment. As expected performance is excellent on my crawling-low speed VDSL connection, including Cake SQM to deal with bufferbloat.

I'm also looking to evaluate other router / firewall distros, but may come back to RouterOS as I really like it. The question is - will my license be reinstated if I reinstall RouterOS down the road on the exact same hardware (including same HDD)? Or is the license lost once another OS is installed overwriting the existing (and licensed) RouterOS? License is currently showing in the "Generated keys 2022" folder in my Mikrotik account and is tied to SoftID that was generated when RouterOS was first installed


Thanks in advance everyone,
 
kevinds
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Re: X86 licensing - linked to anything other than HDD / MB?

Fri Dec 30, 2022 2:01 am

License is on the storage only.

If you wipe the storage with any tool other then Mikrotik's reinstall tools, you will lose the license.

My suggestion would be to dedicate a hard drive to this. If you want to use the system for something else in the future, replace the storage drive.
 
wallywalrus
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Re: X86 licensing - linked to anything other than HDD / MB?

Fri Dec 30, 2022 2:52 am

Thanks for clarifying, I guess this is coming from the wiki page - https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:License. Given the only tools that can be used to refresh an x86 installation are Netinstall and "the CD-install" - what is the procedure to do so:
1. using Netinstall - how do I use it given there is no reset button to press and hold unlike on RouterBoards?
2. using "the CD-install" - the ISO image didn't work for me, can I use the *.img file to create a USB installation disk instead?

Best,
Last edited by BartoszP on Fri Dec 30, 2022 10:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: removed excessive quotting of preceding post; be wise, quote smart, save network traffic
 
kevinds
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Re: X86 licensing - linked to anything other than HDD / MB?

Fri Dec 30, 2022 3:39 am

Given the only tools that can be used to refresh an x86 installation are Netinstall and "the CD-install" - what is the procedure to do so:
1. using Netinstall - how do I use it given there is no reset button to press and hold unlike on RouterBoards?
2. using "the CD-install" - the ISO image didn't work for me, can I use the *.img file to create a USB installation disk instead?
What is the goal/purpose of "refresh"? Or what does that mean to you?

Reset-to-defaults and version up/downgrade are possible in RouterOS with your preferred management.

Those reinstall tools are used for recovery.

What are you trying to achieve, maybe there is another way.. It sounded like you just want to leave RouterOS alone for a while, go back to it in the future. If this is the case, I suggest taking the storage drive out and using a different drive for whatever operating system you want to use.
 
wallywalrus
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Re: X86 licensing - linked to anything other than HDD / MB?

Fri Dec 30, 2022 6:08 am

Thanks for tagging along!
I know about the Reset-to-defaults from within RouterOS and that's probably good enough for 99.9% of cases when I need to "refresh". But my understanding is that sometimes Netinstall is the better way to start fresh as it goes "deeper" than a Reset-to-defaults (read something about a config database completely erased and recreated). I understand it's also useful when connectivity to the router is somehow lost, and can't be regained any other way.

Since Mikrotik mentions Netinstall as a possibility for x86, I'd like to know how to use it. I'd also like to know if I ever need to reinstall from scratch and using a USB installer created from the *.img file will lead to the same SoftID thus license will be reinstated. Just trying to be prepared for when the need arise, I know I can leave it alone on its own HDD for now

Cheers!

Edit 1: Can someone please confirm that Netinstall is the ONLY way to reinstall RouterOS on x86, thus (re)using the USB *.img installer erases the license and resets SoftID?
Edit 2: I think I found how to use Netinstall on a x86 router here:
viewtopic.php?p=931324#p435611
Last edited by BartoszP on Fri Dec 30, 2022 10:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: removed excessive quotting of preceding post; be wise, quote smart, save network traffic

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