vCenter Licence co-existence on 2 vCenters during upgrade (Grace period?)

[MJMVCIX]

Hi All, 

• We have a vCenter Server 7.0.3 with old ESXi hosts attached
• We are planning to deploy a new vCenter Server 8.0.2 with new ESXi Hosts
• Objective here is to migrate VMs from old Hosts and old vCenter to new Hosts and new vCenter, so will take more time than simply moving hosts from old to new vCenter (Also moving hosts from old vCenter is not permitted).
• Is there a grace period such as 60 days to allow for us to migrate hosts from the vCenter 7.0 to the new vCenter 8.0?
• As this is a production site, we do not want the new vCenter to run on the evaluation licence so the plan is:

1. Login to myvmware portal and select to upgrade the current vCenter 7 Licence to vCenter 8 Licence
2. Deploy new vCenter 8.0 and apply the upgraded version 8 licence
3. At this point the vCenter 7 and vCenter 8 will both have a full licence applied
4. Then migrate over VMs to new hosts/vCenter 8, test, etc, expected to take a few months with integration testing to new vCenter like Citrix, etc

Would the above be supported?

[tanjilislam · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The grace period varies from customer to customer. You need to check with the VMware business team, or if you have a dedicated TAM.

My company uses enterprise licenses, and we are in a phase of migrating the workload part of tech refresh and relocation.
The VMware team was initially told to use the keys for 90 days, after the successful negotiation with them, the time was extended to 120 days.
Its all about compliance.

Thanks,

[lukaszzasko]

Hi,

Please look at message during license update (EULA). If you upgrade license you must delete old licenses and stop using one. I can recommend to ask VMware for 90-days evaluation license for vCenter 7.0 environment and apply your upgraded license to new vCenter 8.0.