Issue as Mac user and NT giving me multiple machine IDs

[sdp1969]

Hello,

I own a mac and therefore I have windows loaded on a separate partition on my hard drive. There are two ways to access that windows partition from a Mac. The first is called Bootcamping where I press the the option button when the computer starts up and there are two popups that appear asking me which OS I prefer…OSX or Windows. The other way, I access the windows partition is through a software called Parallels that I can initiate while in the Mac environment. Each method has its pros and cons. For example, when using Parallels, I can have the windows environment and the mac environment available side by side. The downside is that I have to split the RAM between the two environments. Bootcamp on the other hand enables me to use all of my RAM for my trading but I only have one environment available. The point is that I use both methods of accessing my windows environment depending on what I am doing (trading vs back testing).

Anyway here is the problem…When I access my windows environment using these two different methods, I get TWO DIFFERENT MACHINE IDs for my NT8. In addition, when I access windows by one method and then I go to access windows by the other method, a popup appears when I start up NT8 that says I need to reapply my NT8 license and my connection settings to NT. So obviously NT thinks it is a different computer when it is really the same computer. I emailed Ninja about it and they said to call Microsoft as Microsoft assigns the machine IDs. We all know whats going to happen when I call Microsoft and ask them about NinjaTrader. They are not going to be helpful. I was really disappointed in Ninja and their lack of support here. I cannot be the only Mac user who trades with NinjaTrader.

Does anyone who owns a Mac know how to solve this issue without calling the software vendor and asking for more licenses? Is there a way to maintain a single machine ID while accessing the windows environment by these two methods.

Thanks,

Steven Perry

[NinjaTrader_PatrickG]

If your machine ID has changed, NinjaTrader 8 will automatically remove your license key, username and password, and other sensitive information. This is a purposeful security feature. This feature prevents others from being able to access your personal information simply by stealing your files and loading them onto another PC.

To clarify what my colleague stated, Microsoft does not generate the machine ID. Your machine ID is generated by NinjaTrader based on your PC's fundamental hardware (like RAM, motherboard, etc.) and fundamental software (BIOS/UEFI version, Windows updates, firmware updates, etc.). If any of these items change, your machine ID is likely to change as well. There is no way to manually change your machine ID.

Mac is officially unsupported which is why we're able to provide limited support for issues related to the work-arounds available to Mac users to get a Windows machine running on their Macs.

The root issue you're experiencing must be caused by your use of two different programs to access your virtual Windows machine. I can deduce this based on the fact that Parallels and Bootcamp (when configured properly) will work with NinjaTrader without issue individually. The work-around would be to only access NinjaTrader from one virtual machine service.

I've made a note of this in our documentation as a limitation of using multiple virtual machine services on a Mac