What happens when Demo License expires....?

[calamittyjane]

I've got an ESXi  5.5 host that's managing one single VM.  Its lifetime is longer than we thought, and the Demo License is about to expire.  What exactly happens to my one single VM, when that demo license expires?   Here's my info:

• Host:  20 CPUs  X  2.3Ghz   Xeon E5-2650 V3  2 Sockets, 10Cores per socket  128 GB  RAM

• My one Virtual machine:  Server 2012 R2   32GB RAM   2 Sockets, 4 cores per socket, for a total of 8 cores

Someone told me that existing VMs won't be harmed, but I won't be able to create any new Virtual machines.    If I can put a 'baby license' on this host (the free license)  will that suffice?  I"m worried that assigning 8 cores to my VM may have shot us in the foot.  Will the Free License allow 8 cores?     Windows will barf, and not boot any more if I lower the number of CPUs, right...?

Thanks!

[TheBobkin · Accepted solution]

Hello calamittyjane​,

"Someone told me that existing VMs won't be harmed, but I won't be able to create any new Virtual machines."

Nothing gets harmed but aside from creating anything new you won't be able to reset or power-on any VMs if they go down:

License and Evaluation Period Expiry

For ESXi hosts, license or evaluation period expiry leads to disconnection from vCenter Server. All powered on virtual machines continue to work, but you cannot power on virtual machines after they are powered off. You cannot change the current configuration of the features that are in use. You cannot use the features that remained unused while the host was in evaluation mode.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-7AFCC64B-7D94-...

"Will the Free License allow 8 cores?"

Yes, 8 vCPU per VM is the ESXi 5.5 Free maximum:

https://www.vladan.fr/esxi-5-5-free-version-details/

"Windows will barf, and not boot any more if I lower the number of CPUs, right...?"

Probably not - easily tested by creating a dummy VM with less resources and adding the disks to it temporarily (or cloning a new VM from the original but with less CPUs).

Bob

[calamittyjane]

Original poster here:   I'm actually not using vCenter Server, I'm using the vSphere Client to log directly into the ESXi host.   Does that change anything that works/doesn't work after expiration..?

[TheBobkin]

Hello calamittyjane​,

No, this doesn't change anything - licensed host capabilities are the same regardless of whether this is being managed by vCenter or not.

Bob