encrypt my VMware infrastructure

[IronMan03]

Hello everyone,

I need to encrypt my VMware infrastructure that sits on a 3 node host cluster running multiple VMs.

The VMware license on my hosts is vSphere 7 Essential Plus

The VMware license on my vCenter Server is vCenter Server 7 Essentials

In order to use VM encryption, it’s required to upgrade the VMware licenses on our 3 hosts from Essentials Plus to Enterprise Plus.

I already have an existing vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus license.

Before assigning the existing Enterprise plus license to our 3 hosts, do I need to upgrade the license on the VCenter server from Essentials to Enterprise Plus?

Do the licenses have to match and be Enterprise Plus on both VCenter Server and hots?

I tried to assign the existing Enterprise license to one of our hosts and received the error below:

The host license edition is not compatible with the vCenter Server license edition

Can you guys point me in the right direction?

[e_espinel]

Hello.
The main thing is the vcenter server, if your license is essencials you can only manage essencials ESXi host.

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/products/vsphere/vmware-vsphere-pr...

[IronMan03]

Hello Enrique,

Thank you for your quick response. I figured it was something to that effect. 

Does changing the license on the host cause downtime?

When I initially switched the license on host1 from essentials to enterprise, the host was marked as disconnected and also triggered an alarm.  I was however able to revert back the license and reconnect the host.

Thanks

Constancio

[e_espinel]

Hello.

Entering or changing the license in VMware is online and does not impact the operation of the VMs or ESXi host. In some cases you may temporarily lose ESXI host management, but this does not affect the operation of the ESXI host or its VMs.

In your case you must first enter the license on the ESXi hosts, they will show disconnected on the vCenter server (Essentials), until you also enter and activate the Enterprise license on the vCenter server. After they all have the same license level you will have to reconnect the ESXI hosts on the vCenter server. In the last case if they do not reconnect, you will have to remove the ESXi host from the vCenter server and put it back on the vCenter server.

You must have the root password of each ESXi host at hand.

[IronMan03]

wow thank you . That is exactly what happened. I was disconnected from the Vcenter which freaked me out. But I was able to revert the host license and reconnect.

So I was under the impression that it was not possible to upgrade the Vcenter server license and that the highest license grade was standard. isn't that the case? I am still working on getting that host license upgraded to enterprise plus.

[degvm]

Hi, vCenter is Standard, but the hosts then are Enterprise Plus. But keep in mind, every socket of the hosts needs to be licensed.

Kind regards

Sascha

[IronMan03]

Hello,

Thank you for your response. I was able to upgrade the license on the vcenter server to standard edition and the license on the hots to enterprise. Everything went well. I already created the key provided and will proceed with encryption.

Thanks