ESXI 6.5 Free License ?

[COSYNLTD]

ESXI 6.5 Free License ?

[vjekobalas]

I wrote a message to vmware support and got a phone call about half an hour later
The latest version of the free /esxi are not available - 6.5.0a is the latest version

[athompson88]

I also got the "You either are not entitled or do not have permissions to download this product. Check with your My VMware Super User, Procurement Contact or Administrator." message when I try to download the 6.5u1 version. Couldn't figure a way to get past this. Regardless, I thought the version through this channel fell under the "trial" license, which after 90 days or so deactivates.

When vmware responded, did they give any indication of the free hypervisor license seeing any updates past 6.5.0a?

[dtrounce]

With the free license, you can’t currently download any version to install later than 6.5.0a, but you can install that and then use ESXCLI to update it to 6.5.0 Update 1, the latest version currently available. I‘ve done it on two hosts and it works perfectly with the free license code. It takes about 10 minutes and a reboot.

instructions here: How to easily update your VMware Hypervisor from 6.5.x to 6.5 Update 1 (ESXi 6.5 U1) | TinkerTry IT ...

[qZzZp]

https://my.vmware.com/en/group/vmware/evalcenter?p=vsphere-6

[timobiz]

i think this process works Free ESXi 6.5 – How to Download and get License Keys | Virten.net

[vjekobalas]

https://www.v-front.de/p/esxi-customizer-ps.html

[wizdude]

there is a lot of confusion here, so let's straighten this out.

- there is no code/binary difference between "vSphere ESXi" and "VMware Hypervisor" or "VMware Free Hypervisor". it's one and the same thing. the feature set is controlled by the license key that you use.

- the free hypervisor license is "VMware vSphere Hypervisor 6 License". this covers 6.0 and 6.5 with all patches

- for any release of ESXi there is not always going to be a new ISO file cut. sometimes you need to patch to get the latest code.

- patches are available from https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/patch​

- there are patches (released in december 2017) which are newer than update 1 (released in july 2017)

- regardless if you start with 6.5.0a or 6.5U1 you still need to patch if you want the latest release.

at this point in time, the free hypervisor download has an ISO for 6.5.0a only. you can download and install this, and then patch it up to the current release.

alternatively you can download the "trial" version of 6.5U1 in order to get the latest ISO and use your free hypervisor license. if you want the latest code, you will still need to patch it up.

you could also take the advantage to download one of the "Custom ISOs" if you have a HP, IBM, Lenovo etc server and want an ISO with embedded hardware support for your platform.

in most situations, the Custom ISOs aren't the latest release and require patching.

i hope this helps.

cheers, wizdude.

[TomHowarth]

You should just be able to download the binaries and then license with a vSphere Free 6 license.  There are no differences between the files contained in ESXi 6.5 Enterprise Plus edition and the Free Hypervisor.  it is down to the activated license to allow or deny access to features.

your vSphere 6 license will license 6.5, 6.51 and any other point between upto but not including vSphere 7 if and when it is released.

just download the latest version 6.5.1 or one of the customised ones if you have HP, Dell etc.  and add your license key.

as already stated you will need to patch.

[bgwallace]

Hey athompson88,

Were you able to find a solution to this issue?  I'm also unable to download the free 6.5.0 U1.  The latest update I can download is 6.5.0a which I can get from the link below.

https://my.vmware.com/en/group/vmware/evalcenter?p=free-esxi6

If I go to the link below and try to download 6.5.0 U1, I get the an error message which I've also included.

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?productId=614&download=true&fileId=6d71ca1a8c12d73ca75952...

You either are not entitled or do not have permissions to download this product.

Check with your My VMware Super User, Procurement Contact or Administrator.

If you recently purchased this product through VMware Store or through a third-party, try downloading later.

This is quite the cumbersome upgrade process VMware has put together.  Any assistance you can offer on what exactly is needed to download the free 6.5.0 U1 update would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Brad

[vjekobalas]

I hven't tried to patch as per wizdude's info, but I did get the latest version using
the procedure behind the link I included above and then use old license.

[bgwallace]

I was able to get the latest update installed using the article dtrounce shared and the helpful info wizdude shared.  I put together my own notes which I've included below in case they're helpful for anyone else.

Thanks,
Brad

Instructions

• Open an SSH console to the ESXi server.
• Run the command below to get a list of the latest updates/patches for ESXi 6.5.* sorted by most recent to least recent.  If, however, the return output doesn't include creation and modified datetime stamp columns on the far right, keep running the command until those columns display.  Once they're displayed, the top result is the most recent update.

esxcli software sources profile list -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml | grep -E '^ESXi-6\.5\..*-[0-9]+-standard.*$' | sort -k4 -r

• If you want, you can get the details of the latest update by running the command below.  Substitute <ProfileName> with the most recent update from the previous command.

esxcli software sources profile get -p <ProfileName> -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

• To install the latest update, run the commands below.  You should ensure all VMs are either shutdown before rebooting or set to gracefully shutdown on reboot.  Additionally, you may or may not need to enable maintenance mode during this time.  I didn't need this as I'm the only one making changes.

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient

esxcli software profile update -p <ProfileName> -d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

reboot

[Angenito]

Dear Brothe

I had some problem with WMware Exsi 6.5

When I had to deployed APp is finished

Storage have some status like picture bellow

[A13x]

Angenito A bit of a late post but is this a HP server? if so is there any reason why you did not use the HPE Custom ESXi ISO and is the server / device and drivers on VMwares compatibility list?

[EricChigoz]

Hello,

Once you make a new installation, you are free to try the product for 60 days.

Thank you.

[ibrahimaa]

Dear Sir,

I can't download  ESXi 6.5 free license.

Kindly can you allow me?

Best regards

Ibrahim Alghadeer

ialghadeer1@hotmail.com

[MoulineK]

Access this link : https://my.vmware.com/en/group/vmware/evalcenter?p=free-esxi6&src=vmw_so_vex_vsege_604
And read this article :

https://www.vladan.fr/apply-vmware-free-license-vmware-esxi/

[carmamir]

Go with Proxmox, ESXI will eventually fatally crash. I did the same thing during last 12 months on 3 different HP Gen8 servers.

Don't bother, it is full of bugs, issues and lame developers won't rectify it. (only the worst devs are working at VMware, I have worked with one of past devs and he admitted that his poor skill set and coding quality was one of the best back at the VMware (he was demoted to junior dev and fired for horrific quality of his code)).

We are in a middle of transferring all our servers to Proxmox which is a super fast breeze and it is free with all "enterprise" features.

[ragman2023]

Hi Together,

where can i register a free license for v6.5? I always get redirected to v7.

THX

[michaelmo666]

Same here - in 2023 i am always redireected to version 7 (that not works for 6.5)

[scott28tt]

You can’t get 6.x now since those versions are no longer supported.