I have my VC as virtual and it is licensing server. I had to shutdown my entire network and now I am getting this message "There are not enough licenses installed to perform the operation"
when trying to power on VC on ESX host....
I would check your license server, you might get that error if the license server has been unavailable and the hosts basically only allow your VMs to continue running, it will prevent you from powering them on.
If this is the case, and your license server is running on the virtual center VM then you may need to install the license server on another box import the lic file and get the host to point to that one.
Hope this helps,
Dan
if you open up the virtualcenter setup zip you used to install virtualcenter originally (or download it again) you can install just the license server from the cd autorun splash screen. Once installed, download your .lic file again off the vmware site and install it. Then point your esx host(s) at that. This would be recommended configuration going forward to have your license server on a physical.
I would imagine what has happened is that the grace period has expired on the hosts, so short of rebuilding them, you will need to give it a license.
You could try converting your central license to a host based license then add that to the host as per the vmware kb article: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1013698
However I have never done it myself. I think the easiest is a quick install of the license server.
Dan
Just an aside,
vSphere now uses a key based license model, so you can just put in the key for each esx server or group of esx servers and one for your VC.
Dan
