Moving license server to a vm

[luctran]

hello

I was wondering if I did the following if it would work.

I currently have the license server on a physical box and virtual center in a VM. Can I just

1. install the license server into the VC vm

2. copy the license files trom the Physical license server.

3. Turn off old license server

4. start and stop the license service in the VC.

5. Point the license server to the VC vm ?

Is this enough to move everything over?

If anything, if the license server is down, the ESX suppose to still run for 30 days correct?

tiA!

-luc

[Troy_Clavell · Accepted solution]

that should work. Just update your ESX hosts to the new IP of the license source.

14 is the default days without a license source.

[luctran]

thank you very much Troy!

[luctran]

Troy,

Besides looking at the configuration is there anyway to tell that move to the license server was successful?

At first I was being retarded and I edited each ESX server's config License setting to point to my new server. (Actually I moved the license server to the same VM as the Virtual Center).

Then I realized that I also need to change my virtual center's license server as well - so I went into Administratration --> Virtual Center Management Server Configuration and change the License server to point the name of my new license server (which is the same as the VC).

I got an error, kind of wierd, almost like a "trial period ending" error or something like that. so I just logged out and logged back into the VC, and noticed in the same options that there is

"Use license services on this Virtual Center" and it was selected. and the "Change host license server settings to match these Virtual Server settings whenever a host is added to the inventory" was checked.

After that I noticed the rest of my ESX servers are now pointing to my new license server (VC).

Again, everything looks good...but any other way to confirm that I did it right?

Thanks again for your help.

P.S. I already copied all of my vmware licenese over to the VC and stop/re-read/started the license server....

[Troy_Clavell]

from the command line of your ESX Host you can run

vmware-vim-cmd vimsvc/license --show

[luctran]

Troy: this is what i got

License Source: Served from host: status: Connected

Edition selected: esxFull

License Usage Report:

Valid Licenses by feature name(count):

esxFull(2), backup(2), vsmp(2), nas(2), iscsi(2), san(2)

License Availability Report: ('*'=edition, 'e'=enabled, 'd'=disabled, 'o'=optional, '_'=unset)

Feature Total/Available/State Comments

*esxFull 22/0/_ Grants: count per CPU package

Dependent features: backup,

backup 22/2/o Grants: count per CPU package

Dependent features: none.

vsmp 1/0/e Grants: count per CPU package

Dependent features: none.

nas 1/0/e Grants: count per CPU package

Dependent features: none.

iscsi 1/0/e Grants: count per CPU package

Dependent features: none.

san 1/0/e Grants: count per CPU package

Dependent features: none.

Supported Feature Report:

Feature Edition Restriction

esxFull Edition unrestricted

backup AddOn unrestricted

vsmp AddOn unrestricted

nas AddOn unrestricted

iscsi AddOn unrestricted

san AddOn unrestricted

HostSystem Status Report

Overall status: 1/green Configuration status: 1/green

No configIssues found.

[Troy_Clavell]

looks good... Looks like your license source is ns-vc1. As long as that is your new license server you just set up, looks like you are good to go, atleast on that particular ESX Host.

[luctran]

sweet troy -- Thank you so much for your help!!!

:smileylaugh:

[Troy_Clavell]

also, as you know a quick and easy way is just to click on an ESX Host, then the configuration tab and licensed features.

..and to confirm your vCenter server is reading the correct .lic file, just check under the administration button and licenses tab.

[luctran]

I tried that and it looked good, but I don't know if its working or not haha - there's no error, and I'm always paranoid about things. (so that's why I needed that cool command line that you gave earlier- just makes me happy to know there's another method to confirm).

Thanks again!