There are not enough licenses installed...message when trying to start a VM

[fhrivers]

This error message started popping up today after migrating a vm and trying to restart it. I have all of the appropriate licenses. I even restarted the vCenter server and still nothing. Where do I begin?

[VladN]

Go to Configuration -licensed features to make sure esx server didn't loose the license server

[fhrivers]

It did lose the license server. How do I get it back?

[VladN · Accepted solution]

Same place: Configuration -> Licensed Features - >License Source -> Edit and point it to the license server or host license file

[fhrivers]

I tried stopping and restarting the license service and removing and re-adding the host (all in that order) to no avail. The only thing that's different between the hosts is that one is updated to verison 163429 and the problem host is version158874. Could that cause a problem?

[fhrivers]

Doh! I found the problem. I had a third esxhost that I use for testing that was snatching up the last license. It's working now. Thanks for the help, man.

[VladN]

Is your license server on vCenter? Is vCenter physical or virtual? Check DNS settings for vCenter. I had problem with license server a while ago, and it was caused by vCenter having two records in DNS.

[VladN]

No problem... Good to hear you solved the problem. Disregard my previous message then - those e-mail replies are usually delayed for few minutes.