Will VM UUID change after the VM falls into inactive / shutdown mode for a few days and then is restarted

Question

We have one situation, generally we are using the serial number of a Windows machine to generate a server license. This is how it was written in our application a long time ago. Currently, when these applications are deployed to a VM, they may be hosted on Azure or AWS. They request the server license based on the serial number for the first time and receive the server license based on the serial number.

If that VM falls into inactive / shutdown mode for a few days and then is restarted, the serial number of that VM will be modified. Due to the change in serial number, our application's license will become invalid in this situation.

Our ask is that, instead of a serial number, do we have a unique id for each VM in the cloud that remains the same through its life?

Answer 1

Hello @Pavan

The Azure VM unique ID is what you are looking for: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/accessing-and-using-azure-vm-unique-id/

I hope this helps provide you with the information you need. If it does, please make sure to mark the question as answered so it helps other people in future.

Kind regards

Alistair