Hello everyone,
Another issue we ran into. We've got a customer with specific software which uses a security system which generates a unique license code / key requestor based upon the SMBIOS Type 2 information to activate the software. Unfortunately after migrating a virtual machine from Microsoft Windows Hyper-V to Proxmox VE we noticed that the software couldn't activate, because the specified string that was returned was empty when running: Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem or Get-WmiObject Win32_BaseBoard in Microsoft PowerShell.
I know that it is possible to manipulate the SMBIOS string and that you can actually manipulate it in the graphical interface, but apparently this only works for SMBIOS Type 1 and not for SMBIOS Type 2. I eventually resolved this by editing the virtual machines configuration file and adding: args: -smbios 'type=1,manufacturer=Proxmox,product=System Product Name,serial=SYS123456' -smbios 'type=2,manufacturer=Proxmox,product=Virtual Machine,version=Rev 1.0,serial=MB987654321' with some random information and this resolved the issue after rebooting the virtual machine.
I figured out how to resolve and fix the issue, but do not consider this user friendly (especially for less experienced System Administrators). Perhaps SMBIOS information for both Type 1 and Type 2 should be filled in by default, as there's more software out there that is activated based upon this information? Both Microsoft Hyper-V and Broadcom VMware fill in this information by default and have never given me this issue.
Another issue we ran into. We've got a customer with specific software which uses a security system which generates a unique license code / key requestor based upon the SMBIOS Type 2 information to activate the software. Unfortunately after migrating a virtual machine from Microsoft Windows Hyper-V to Proxmox VE we noticed that the software couldn't activate, because the specified string that was returned was empty when running: Get-WmiObject Win32_ComputerSystem or Get-WmiObject Win32_BaseBoard in Microsoft PowerShell.
I know that it is possible to manipulate the SMBIOS string and that you can actually manipulate it in the graphical interface, but apparently this only works for SMBIOS Type 1 and not for SMBIOS Type 2. I eventually resolved this by editing the virtual machines configuration file and adding: args: -smbios 'type=1,manufacturer=Proxmox,product=System Product Name,serial=SYS123456' -smbios 'type=2,manufacturer=Proxmox,product=Virtual Machine,version=Rev 1.0,serial=MB987654321' with some random information and this resolved the issue after rebooting the virtual machine.
I figured out how to resolve and fix the issue, but do not consider this user friendly (especially for less experienced System Administrators). Perhaps SMBIOS information for both Type 1 and Type 2 should be filled in by default, as there's more software out there that is activated based upon this information? Both Microsoft Hyper-V and Broadcom VMware fill in this information by default and have never given me this issue.
