Help with Licensing

[76dragon]

Sorry if this is a stupid question but ive read the SRM admin guide and it didnt help much.

Ive got SRM up and running, My Production environment is Fully licensed and no problems there.

Ive got a code from VMware and when i generate a license file it contains a PROD_SRM and a SRM_PROTECTED_HOST componect, but when i try configuring the esx server to use the license server it says unlicensed as i suspect it contains no components for VirtualCenter or the ESX server, when i try combining the 2 files the site errors says i cant combine two product familys. The SRM admin guide just says that i need the two components already listed above, but im wondering how i can get the host and VC licensed... Can i just create another file, then add the license information to that manually merging.

Thanks

[HyperViZor · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If I understood your issue properly, you are having some difficulties licensing the ESX host with the vCenter license server not the SRM, right?

In all cases, this is the steps you may want to follow in order:

1 - You should have two license files from VMware, the first for the vCenter+ESX, and the second for the SRM, you can't combine these two files in the VMware licensing portal, you will get two separate files.

2 - now you need to take these two files and put them in C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware License Server\Licenses , it doesn't mater what names you call this files, but they "must" have the .lic file extension.

3 - Go to START -> ALL PROGRAMS -> VMware -> VMware License Server , and press on the VMware License Server Tool

4 - Then go to Stop/Start/Reread tab, and click on ReRead License file button

5 - You may want to stop, and start the server as well.

6 - Now go to the Server Status tab, and click on Perform Status Enquiry, and make sure that you can see all the license items in the output, (like vCenter, ESX, SRM ..etc)

7 - Now go back to your vCenter server, and then Administration button on the top tool bar, and then Licenses, and finally press refresh.

8 - at this point you should see all your items there, with the available and used number of licenses as well.

9 - See now if the ESX host is licensed, if not make sure to put the vCenter hostname in the license server field.

10 - check also the DNS and make sure that all ESX servers can resolve the hostname of the vCenter to IP.

Hope this helps

Hany Michael

HyperViZor.com | Virtualization, and everything around it

[76dragon]

Hey thanks for the detailed instructions, something i didnt realise was you could have more then one .LIC file in the directory, sure enough when i check the status of the license server/file its listing all the SRM stuff as well as VMware stuff... One strange thing is no matter what i do i cant get rid of the eval number of says which should be gone now its seeing all the licenses (which i verified) i was thinking maybe the VC_PROD part was missing but not so as this usually prevents you from powering on a VM which i can do once i move away from eval to license server, but the count down of days is still present. Ive tried restarting services, different license files... restarting server with no luck. Any Ideas ?

Thanks

[HyperViZor]

Hi, you are most welcome!

I assume you are referring here to the vCenter server itself when you mentioned the "days count down"?!

If this is the case, your vCenter might be still running in eval, to check that you could do the following:

1 - Open your VI client, and login to your vCenter

2 - Go to "Administration" menu at the top (the dorp down menu not the icon).

3 - click on the second item (VirtualCenter Management Server configuration)

4 - in the fist page, you will see at the left (License server), you should make sure that the (Evaluate VirtualCenter Server) is *NOT* checked, and that the (Use license services on this VirtualCenter Server) is selected instead.

Hope this helps as well.

Hany Michael

HyperViZor.com | Virtualization, and everything around it

[76dragon]

That seems to have helped identify what the problem was.... when i unticked that eval box it errors with "There are not enough licenses to perfrom this action" which explains why the number of eval days is still present.

I had another look over my license file and noticed what i thought was PROD_VC was actually PROD_VC_EXPRESS which means unticking the eval then selecting the foundation box did the trick.

Thanks again for the help. All sorted.

[HyperViZor]

no problem .. gald i could help

Hany Michael

HyperViZor.com | Virtualization, and everything around it