We have had a 40 hypervisor "free license" ESXi setup running for a while as we found it a great option for our Overpowered remote location servers that need little maintenance. This allowed us to have a bit more expandability, etc. This is the first time we've gone this route as until recently we were a bare metal shop, and we're just now moving some items to VM.
Recently we decided to update everything a new vCenter environment to allow a single point of entry for our Helpdesk/Desktop support groups to assist those locations, upgrade, motion if needed, etc.
As of today I built out our vCenter environment, and can get into the web console fine. I created a data center for our remote branch locations, and attempted to add a host. It took the IP fine, the ROOT logon fine, showed me all the details, asked me to attach our key, and that's when it goes downhill.
CURRENT CONFIGURATION: All the remote locations are running ESXi 5.5 U1 using the FREE license
vCenter is built with 5.5 U2B as the compatibility matrix said it would work with the one generation older ESXi (which we'd upgrade using the manager in the near future)
- License is vCenter 5 Standard
Branch "update" is to change them over to the VMware vSphere 5 Remote Office Branch Office Standard license.
When I select the Remote Office key during the add it says it'll lose the 8WAY SMP since that's the only feature on FREE. Fine. I click continue, and then it tries to add, but gives a LICENSEKEY error.
What am I doing wrong here?
Is it a version issue, key issue, etc?
Is the issue is its on Free, and cannot swap over easily?
Unfortunately I don't have any non-registered ones to test-add.
vCenter itself shows the 75 VM's available.
Help!
