Licensing problem adding host to vCenter trial

[jerryvca]

I am evaluating vmware as a virtualization option in our datacenter. I have ESXi 5.1.0 installed on a host, and I deployed the vCenter trial appliance 5.1.0 on a second server.

When I try and add the ESXi 5.1.0 host to vCenter, I get the following licensing error in vCenter (at the end of the Add a Host wizard):

"The host is licensed with VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor. The license edition of vCenter Server does not support VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor."

My vCenter is an evaluation copy - is there a separate license I should be using?

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the Community - You will need to run the ESXi host in evaluation mode and not with the free license.  One of the limitations of the free license if that it cannot be managed by vCenter - you will have to remove the license which will let you run the ESXi host in evaluation mode.

[jerryvca]

How can I remove the license? My options in the Assign License for the ESXi host are:

- VmWare VSphere 5 Hypervisor (ie. the free license, which is selected)

- Evaluation Mode (No License Key), which is expired and greyed out.

[Atul_gen]

- If Evaluatuon is gred out then it means Evalutaion alread has been used.If your sure that Evalution period is not used then check ESX date and Virtual center server date, both should be sync.

- If you are using vSphere 5 Hypervisor edition (The free license ) for an ESX then VC can not add the same ESX server.This is the limitation of Virtual center server.