Have a  software that we need data from time to time for audits from a vendor we no longer use. My IT staff does not want to take the time to build sql queries. I called the old vendor and they sent me a CD that will give me read only access for 30 days. I asked them what if I need it again in a few months? "Call us again and we will send another CD. It is possible to clone this box onto a virtual machine and have the date/time frozen to always be the same day when you fire up the VM?

vm is going to take your system date and time.
if you have a box you control and can be rolled back you can try it.
depends on how dumb their security is.
you can verify if it works by rolling the date forward on the box you are currently running it on.
if you lose access and roll it back and can get access again, you should be able to do the same in 30 days.

But, if they are smarter than just looking at the system time, you won't be able to pull that off.

Also, it depends on if this data is all on the system you changed the time stamp on.
if it is a DB on another system, that system may need a date change as well.
But again, it could be reading latest time stamps from the db.

There is no reason to build a VM to do this.

yes, he can do this as long as their security is dumb...which sounds distinctly possible being that it's a CD they sent you. since he isn't adding anything to the database and simply just wants to call the queries.....

 
















 

They're your IT?  As in their subordinate to you?

How about tell them to do their fucking jobs and build the SQL queries.

I'm kind of failing to understand the problem, why does the software stop working after 30 days? Is it a license issue? Are they just giving you a functional demo for something? Or do they control the DB and are cutting off your authentication after 30 days? These situations have very different answers.

As to P2V'ing the CD install or installing in a VM, I would give it a shot but make one small change to the recommendations already posted. Do the install, snapshot, but clone or snapshot while the software is already running (and suspend the VM while the software is running or connected to the db). In all likelihood the time check or license check only runs at the startup of the application, but if you just resume the VM to the state where the app is already started and connected to the DB then the check may not run again.

Other than that, may need more details on the architecture of your situation. Either way good luck.

IT is not subordinate to anyone but the COO. I could force the issue and go over our IT directors head and to COO, but where would that put me down the road? Inducing nerd rage hurts your department at some point. Thanks for the responses. I'm betting one of these two options will work. I'm going to try both of them and report back.

I'm in IT and you need to go over their head and make them do their damn jobs.

With a VM, he can simply take a snapshot of the machine, then revert to that snapshot as needed.  

The state of the machine will revert but the date/time will update with the host date/time.

sp_msforeachtable 'select  * from ?'

I ended up just changing the bios date and got in. that was dumb. I thought I'd give it a shot before installing the read only license.