lost license

[admsja]

i recently acquired a dell r900 that had an activated copy of esxi on it, i was unable to connect to the server even hooking a computer directly to the server and setting the correct ip info. i had the login info to login to the system but the only access i could gain was directly on the server so since i was unable to connect thru vsphere client i did a factory reset not knowing i would lose the activation.

my question is, is there anyway to recover the key this server was registered with from vmware? i contacted the seller but it was purchased through a third party that is no longer in business. if i'm hosed as far as a license then i can always fall back on proxmox or another bare metal hypervisor but i thought i'd give this a shot to see if there was a way to restore the previous active key.

TIA for any help.

[Eric_Allione]

First of all, ESXi is free. You can download a free copy of the latest version here and it will give you a free license too. If you download it today it will give you 6.5.0a. However, ESXi without vCenter is not spectacular because you won't have central management or the ability to cluster hosts and pool their resources. If your aim is just to go for server density and remotely access VMs from another computer on the same switch, then this will do the trick for you. You will also be able to take snapshots and set up a standard virtual switch. Since you're only talking about a single blade server, it doesn't sound like you are interested in clustering, VDI, or virtual routing, so just get the newest version of ESXi and enjoy. Installing ESXi is also an extremely brief and straightforward process, and will just take you through next > next > next. The only thing to remember, when prompted, is that you'll want to overwrite the VMFS datastore with a new installation.

Just in case, here are some basics: With ESXi you would start not by attaching a computer to it, but by attaching a keyboard and a monitor. This gets you to the DCUI (Direct Console User Interface). However, I presume you already got that far since you know what IP to type into.

Whoever sold you that Dell R900 (under the pretense that it was licensed) without giving you a root password knew better. "Reinstalling the ESXi host is the only supported way to reset a password on ESXi" (KB 1317898). There is only a password reset strategy in place for ESXi 4 and lower. Regardless, without having your own VMware account with the license associated to it, you're going to have unpatched and therefore an unsafe and problematic system.

[admsja]

eric,

thanks for the prompt response, i was given the root password for login and i did try to change some of the networking settings but to no avail as i was still unable to login via remote host but i could login on the server itself which is how i performed a factory reset. this server is running esxi 5.5.0, i purchased a similar r900 about a month ago and thought i'd try to play with some clustering (just toying around). on the other server i'm able login through vshpere and can see the key associated with it. i was unaware a factory reset would remove the key and at this point don't really have much hope in restoring it but thought i would ask if there were anyway possible.

thanks again

[Eric_Allione · Accepted solution]

The clustering would be done with vCenter, but since you're just toying around this is a lab so I strongly insist that you just get a 60 day trial evaluation of the latest VMware packages. For something more permanent and for labs, VMUG Advantage gives 365-day trial licenses for $200 and at this time will give you everything but NSX.

Coming from someone who works full-time professionally on vSphere 5.5, it's awful. 6.x is so different and easy to use that it's something that would be much better to play with. There are also different kinds of vCenter evals that you can play with. You can use the Windows installation type which goes on a Windows Server, or you can use the VCSA (server appliance) which as of 6.5 has now taken the lead with unique features.

You can keep tearing these vCenters down and reinstalling them without any impact on your VMs, which will stay faithfully licensed on your free ESXi. vCenter is easy to set up (just a lot of next next (coffee break) next (coffee break) next.

I could spend all day venting about vSphere 5 so I will spare you from that unless there was something specific you were looking for. The bottom line with the licensing, however, is that the license is linked to the VMware account that purchased it. You already have your own VMware account since you're using these forums, so you may as well use that to download trials of everything under the sun (except NSX). You can just keep reinstalling them since this is not for business/enterprise use, and then you get to play with the newest set of full features. That's what we do in our labs.

[admsja]

Eric,

thanks again!!! yes i have an account with vmware but it was just a free account i signed up for to post on the forums here. i will check into the VMUG for $200 you mentioned that does sound interesting, at least for $200 anyway. can you expand on the statement you made about setting up and tearing down vcenter without affecting the VMs? one of the advantages i was looking at with a licensed copy was if i setup something i actually wanted to keep i wouldn't have to worry about an expiring trial.

i do appreciate your help with sharing your knowledge and experience. i will setup a newer copy of vmware on the server i lost a license on and test it out and probably migrate the other one. i will probably be looking at the server appliance you mentioned as i try to avoid windows at all costs, i generally try to stick in the linux realm due to licensing with M$. i've been pretty happy so far for the most part with this approach, as an individual that doesn't have a ton of money to fork out for licenses just to experiment with stuff M$ is not the way to go for me. anyway i'm really interested on checking out the things you mentioned and i'll report back.

[Eric_Allione]

Aloha, please check these links to verify that you can download them with the same free account/login that you're using for this forum:

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 6.5a

VMware vCenter Server 6.5b

VMware vRealize Log Insight 4.3.0 for vCenter

VMware vSphere Replication 6.5

VMware vSphere Data Protection 6.1.4

VMware vSphere Big Data Extensions 2.3.2

VMware vRealize Orchestrator Appliance 7.2.0

VMware vRealize Operations Manager 6.5

VMware vSphere Integrated Containers 1.0.0

That's a lot of moving parts. I also cannot verify that you have access to each of them, but ESXi and vCenter should be a greenlight for you. I expect that ESXi is free indefinitely. If not from there then please use the other link I provided above where I confirmed that ESXi was free and gives a lifetime license for that version. That is just what the site said, I did not try it.

Tearing down vCenter means that vCenter is just a tool used to manage the VMs which are already sitting on ESXi. You can use the vSphere Client to connect to hosts directly. With 6.5 you can actually do it with the web client (not with the version you currently have). There is some debate here whether that's really a good thing but the point is that removing your vCenter will not affect the connectivity or performance of your VMs. You can remove vCenter and then install a new one with a fresh 60 day trial for your lab. Then you just add the hosts to it and boom you have a host (DRS) cluster.

Please report back on if this works for you.

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=ESXI650A&productId=614&rPId=15338

[admsja]

eric,

the only links that worked for me were replication and integrated containers all the other ones said i was unauthorized. still haven't signed up for vmug, i was halfway through it on my phone and accidentally swiped left and when i reloaded the page all the info i put in was gone so i got mad and decided to wait until i could do it on a pc or vm.

[Eric_Allione]

Ok how about this: https://my.vmware.com/en/group/vmware/evalcenter?p=vsphere-6&cid=70180000000Nb8V