Replacing Hardware RIP with newer hardware running Virtual Machine

[jpfulton248]

Has anyone ever replace a rip with modern hardware running a virtual machine? I've considered throwing a modern computer together (though it would need a SCSI card, parallel port and serial port). The biggest challenge here I think would be that there is a DRM dongle for the software that plugs into the serial port (it's AB Dick's Printer's RIP 5 and a DPM2340). The perk of course would be more easily replaceable parts and easy backups/restoration in event of an issue.

 

[benstarr]

I've setup several proofing RIPs on VMs in VMware vSphere, depending on the hardware thats needed to connect there are a couple ways to get it to pass through to the VM. I've configured PCI cards and USB to get passed through but not serial, I'm sure it's possible but don't have any experience.

I was mostly learning as I went but it wasn't too difficult, as long as you are fairly good with technology and searching the web for answers. If you have an IT staff that's already got a VM solution in place thats probably even better.

 

[zoran]

We have two workflows, Prinergy and Printready virtualized on VMware, including Meta Dimension rips. Dongles are more modern, USB so we just bought couple of "Anywhere USB" network things that have physical USB port to plugin dongle and licensing is available through network.
Not sure if they have same thing for serial, though, their website claims they do but we did not have need to test that.http://www.digi.com/products/serial-servers

 

[jpfulton248]

Interesting. So what I'm talking about is actually still having a hardware PC sitting right next to the platemaker (though a hardware PC that is 18 years newer), still hooked up with the same cords and with a parallel dongle plugged into it. The only difference is that the OS would be Windows 7 with VMWare running on it with a Windows NT virtual machine running the PrintersRip 5 software.

 

[zoran]

That might be even easier, our setup is actually in server room that is on different floor so only physical connection we have to it is through ethernet network.
Your setup would need to be tested, to make sure you are properly passing all serial/parallel requests through virtual machine, but it sounds doable to me. Make sure you have someone who is tech savvy with you when you test it.

 

[benstarr]

The setup you're talking about would be with VMware Workstation (Type 2 hypervisor) or something similar, which actually should be pretty easy to setup and passthru should be pretty easy. You won't get the same performance as you would with vSphere (type 1 hypervisor) but I'm sure even with the limitations you'll have much better performance than an 18 year old computer.

You'll lose a lot of memory and CPU to the host operating system (I think the VM will only be able to access half the CPU and RAM) make sure you buy more than you want for the RIP so that you can actually give the RIP what you want. But then again if you'r going to be tied to Windows 2K you may not have to spec that much since RAM is likely limited to 4GB depending on the exact version.

 

[bglasgow]

I attempted virtualizing our old RIP and had some success. Our setup required a total of three serial dongles daisy chained together. Although it recognized the first in the chain, I wasn't able to configure it to recognize the other two. The first dongle's pinout was standard DB25 with a null modem built into the plastic casing. The other two were nonstandard with only 3 pins each. I suspect VMWare had an issue with that, especially considering the first dongle in the chain was technically a terminal. If your pinout is standard then there's a good chance it will work.

If you haven't already I would suggest plugging the dongle into another PC, reboot both, and RDP into your RIP with local port sharing enabled. If this works then you would almost certainly be able to virtualize your RIP and run it in either Hyper-V or VMware without any extra configuration.

If your RIP OS is older than Server 2003 you can install a virtual serial port driver on both the RIP and another system on your network with the dongle. Configure them to talk to each other over your network and your RIP *shouldn't* know the difference. Again, this is assuming there isn't a weird pinout preventing proper pass thru in the software layer. If there is a null modem or loopback option in the virtual driver you might need to toggle it.

If your RIP still can't authenticate the dongle there are other things to try. Using a port sniffer or dumping the serial data to a text file on your existing RIP could give you an idea as to what the software is expecting to hear back from the dongle. If it's communicating asynchronously in 7 bits you could probably just replace the dongle with a simple script. Though I doubt you'll be that lucky.