Virtual Center licensing question

[plato98]

I have installed the VC evaluation software and I'm confused how ESX Servers are licensed as agents. I have 2 ESXi Servers installed with (purchased) ESX foundation key codes and 3 with "free" ESXi licenses. My question is when I review each of the 5 servers, all of them appear not to have VMware ESX Agent licenses. Doesn't a VMware Infrastructure Foundation key code include a ESX agent license?

[RParker]

I have installed the VC evaluation software and I'm confused how ESX Servers are licensed as agents. I have 2 ESXi Servers installed with (purchased) ESX foundation key codes and 3 with "free" ESXi licenses. My question is when I review each of the 5 servers, all of them appear not to have VMware ESX Agent licenses. Doesn't a VMware Infrastructure Foundation key code include a ESX agent license?

No. Foundation means you can manage up to 3 ESX servers IF you have licenses for them. you still need to buy licenses for your ESX hosts. Also 'free' doesn't imply they are centrally managed licenses either. You can probably install a host license on each ESX server, but unless you have a centrally managed license for VC, you can't manage them from 1 Virtual Center, you have to buy licenses.

[Craig_Baltzer]

Have a look at setting up the license server and creating the necessary license file

[plato98]

Now I'm confused. Referring to the link below, I understand the Foundation license to include the Virtual Center - ESX Agent.

[Craig_Baltzer]

If you haven't already registered the licenses goto and login with your VMware account (same one you use here). Then under "[Register License Activation Code|http://www.vmware.com/licensemgmt/license/reglac.lic?vmware=view]" enter the license codes you have for Foundation. Once you've done that you should see them down under "My Product Licenses".

Once the products are appearing under "My Product Licenses" click on the "Generate New License File" link and specify that you want to generate a file for a central license server. Select all of your foundation licenses when prompted for "Quantity to activate" and then click Done.

If you haven't installed a license server then do so by running vmware-licenseserver.exe from your VC install media (you will be prompted for your license file during the installation). If you already have it installed take the file that is generated and install it on your Virtual Center box under C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware License Server\Licenses (or where ever you installed the license server) and then start the VMware License Server Tools and under the Start/Stop/Reread click the "ReRead License FIle" button.

Finally change your ESXi hosts (the two that you have licenses for) to point to the license server rather than the host-based license (use the VI Client to connect to each of them and then specify the name of your VC server under the Configuration tab, Licensed Features link). Then connect back to VC and try to add the hosts that you've licensed through the license server...

[qla2300]

I have a similar question concerning Virtual Center Foundation. IF i interpret the docs correctly, this is essentially a scaled down VC Server that allows 3 (max) managed hosts. My question is does the Foundation product have all of the features that the server product does? Can I use tools such as VMware converter enterprise to do P2V directly to an ESX server?

[plato98]

Thanks Craig! I have not installed the license server so that must have been my problem.. Thanks again!

Second question: Is it true that Infrastructure Foundation will only support 3 ESX hosts? I was thinking of purchasing 2 or 3 packages of the 3-Pack Foundation application (1 VC Lic, 3 ESX Lic) next month thinking that I could centrally manage 6 to 9 ESX servers.

[Craig_Baltzer]

From my understanding the only thing that is limited to 3 hosts is the Virtual Center Foundation Edition. So if you have the "full" Virtual Center edition you should be able to manage any number of ESX 3.5 Foundation Edition servers. So the short answer based on my understanding is that to get 9 ESX Foundation hosts managed from one VC console you could buy

• 1 Virtual Center Server (full edition) @ $6044

• 3 x VI Foundation Acceleration Kit (you'd be "throwing away" the VC Foundation server that comes with it, but @ $3624 its still cheaper than buying individual ESX Foundation @ $1540)

goes through this, and explicitly mentions the limit in VC Foundation to only being able to manage 3 ESX hosts, and does not mention any other "# of hosts" limitations for other products...

[plato98]

Thanks again Craig.

I didn't realize that there is different VC licenses out there.

Thanks again.

[plato98]

Craig,

How can I tell if the License Server has the correct ESX licenses? I downloaded the License file (for the 2 ESX Servers) and placed it in the license directory and then ran a rescan. After the scan I checked the "Server Status" in VMware License Server and it displays 1 used server and none available? I tried to change a ESX host to point to the License server and now it displays that the server is unlicensed. I must bemissing a step.

[Craig_Baltzer]

If you open your .LIC file, have a look and see what you have in there (the comments at the top of the file tell you what different things are (i.e. VC management agent for ESX = VC_ESXHOST, etc) . You should see a few different products (ESX, VCB, VC management agent, etc.). Take a look to see if you have entries for VC_ESXHOST and PROD_ESX_STARTER (this may have been changed to something like PROD_ESX_FOUNDATION (I don't have a recently generated license file) but it will tell you the different names in the file. Look for the "permanent x" entries within each key area and see if the numbers are what you'd expect (the same item (i.e. PROD_ESX_STARTER) may be repeated a number of times so you'll need to add up the entries to get a total). If they're not as you'd expect then it looks like the license file wasn't generated correctly so go back to the licensing web site and make sure you put the "full amount" in the quantities field when generating the license.

If everything looks ok try stopping and restarting the license service and then checking the licenses in the License Manager client again...