As explained in the MacPrefect manual (page 5), the MacPrefect extension and the MacPrefect Control application are now ‘tied’ together with a serial number. This note explains how this works and how it affects you
The first thing to state is that neither the MacPrefect extension nor the MacPrefect Control application are network aware. Serialisation is NOT used for this purpose. The only aim of MacPrefect’s serialisation strategy is to prevent reconfiguration of your MacPrefect controlled machines by other purchasers of MacPrefect - this includes both other educational establishments and students.
This function is implemented by the MacPrefect extension - when it sees MacPrefect being launched it checks the serial number of the application with its own serial number. If the serial numbers match then then MacPrefect Control is allowed to run, otherwise it is automatically ‘Quit’ by the extension.
The actual serialisation is performed by you the first time you run the MacPrefect Control application - it’s the last item on the ‘Registration’ dialogue. Once you have sucessfully entered the serial number the disk is ‘serialised’ - all installations of the MacPrefect extension from this disk will use the serial number you entered, and will only be configurable by MacPrefect Control applications with the same serial number.
Scenarios
1. You have a number of machines, and you require several different administrators to be able to configure then using MacPrefect.
Serialise the MacPrefect disk using the serial number supplied, and then make a copy of this serialised disk for each administrator. Note that each administrator can use their own password on their own copy of the disk.
2. You have a number of machines, and you require that several administrators can only configure their own machines.
DO NOT serialise the master disk. Ask Hi Resolution for some additional serial numbers - you will need one for each independant set of machines. Supply each administrator with a copy of the master disk and a serial number. Each administrator will serialise their own disk, and installed MacPrefect extensions will have their serial number and therefore be configurable only by their disk (or copies of it).
NOTE that the extensions for each group of machines must be installed from the correct disk to be configurable by the correct administrators.
NOTE also that you can still have multiple administrators for each group of machines - simply copy the disk used for installation on the group of machines.
In Conclusion
MacPrefect’s serialisation system is extremely flexible, and very powerful in terms the different ways in which it can be employed. If you have any questions or requirements do not hesitate to contact Hi Resolution technical support.
