Replacing licenses for vCenter and vSphere without downtime or impact

[sungpillhan2]

Hello,

As I read the instruction here  (VMware Knowledge Base ) I think there will be no issue replacing keys for vCenter and vSphere, but want to confirm as this private cloud is critical 24/7 system.

We transfer our product keys for vCenter and vSphere from a foreign country to US in order to reinstate the expired VMware support subscription. VMware states that new keys will be generated once transfer is done. So I have to add and assign the keys to my vCenter and vSphere. As my VMware support expired already if any issue occurs, I can't get support so I want to make sure replacing keys is safe not impacting our system. Will it?

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

Replacing license keys does not incur downtime. That said, if you no longer have an active support agreement you are taking a big gamble, especially if, as you say, this is a private cloud environment.

[sungpillhan2]

Yes, the customer's support agreement has been expired for long time as they care less and the license purchased aboard can't be renewed in US. I will fix it.

Thank you.

[scott28tt]

Are you transferring your own product keys to the customer's environment?

[sungpillhan2]

No, the keys owned by the customer, it's just purchased abroad, not US which results difficulty to renew

The customer purchased vCenter and vSphere licenses abroad, then deployed in a data center in US. This is because the deployment team is lack of resources for purchase and deploy of licenses. They brought everything abroad. Then, I took over the system maintenance, couldn't renew VMware support agreement because the key is not US based. So I'm in the middle of transferring the licenses to US with VMWare. VMware says, once it's signed they will change product keys and I have to apply.