InDesign Server license becomes deactivated when installed on a VM that is moved.

Whilst Adobe does not officially support running InDesign Server on a VM, it is technically possible and legally permitted (see license terms for more information). If a VM file is moved between physical servers, or even if the disk file is moved, the licensing system can detect this as a change in the hosting environment and deactivate the license.

It is possible to workaround this by creating a task that is run when the virtual OS boots which will
relicense InDesign Server. This method uses the Provisioning Toolkit which you may have used to initially license your InDesign Server installation. If not, you can download the Provisioning Toolkit from here (in the section ‘Adobe Provisioning Toolkit Enterprise Edition’):

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/creativesuite/enterprisedeployment.html

1. On a machine with access to the internet create a prov.xml file
   using your InDesign Server serial number. This is a one-time task. The command
   lines are as follows:
   
   Windows:
   adobe_prtk--tool=VolumeSerialize --generate --serial=SERIAL_NUMBER --leid=V7{}InDesignServer-12-Win-GM --provfilepath={OPTIONAL-absolute path where you have write access, or leave out to write to the directory that contains adobe_prtk}
   
   Mac:
   adobe_prtk --tool=VolumeSerialize --generate --serial=SERIAL_NUMBER  --leid=V7{}InDesignServer-12-Mac-GM --provfilepath={OPTIONAL-absolute path where you have write access, or leave out to write to the directory that contains adobe_prtk}
   
   
2. Copy the adobe_prtk tool and the prov.xml file to the server which will run IDS when the OS launches. Using the tools appropriate for your platform create, a task that will run a command-line to execute the adobe_prtk tool to relicense the server. The command to run is as follows:
   
   Windows / Mac:
   adobe_prtk --tool=VolumeSerialize --provfile={absolute path of the prov.xml file on the target machine}