vCenter 5.0 upgrade to 5.5 license question

[rawbar]

Is  my 5.0 vCenter Server license good for 5.5?

If so, I need to figure out how to unassign it from the vCenter 5.0 server so I can apply it to the 5.5 install.

What I did was I cloned the VM running 5.0, then did the 5.5 upgrade on the clone in trial mode.  When I look at licensing in 5.5, I see the vCenter license assigned to the 5.0 server (because the clone includes the database that contained the licensing info) and I don't see any way to unassign it.  When I select the vCenter Server 5 license under Licenses, there is an option under Actions to remove the license key, but it's greyed out.

I just noticed the same issue with the vSphere 5 Enterprise licenses as well.  They are also assigned to the 5.0 VM and the remove key option is greyed out.

Once 5.5 is fully up and running the plan is to shut down the old 5.0 server.

Thanks!

[a_p_]

You cannot remove an assigned license, you can only assign another license or - in case the system is still within the 60-days evaluation period - switch back to evaluation. From a license perspective, the proper way to replace the vCenter Server is to install a new one and run it in evaluation mode until you shut down the old one. Then assign the license key to it.

André

[rawbar]

Well that's sort of the problem.  The new 5.5 vCenter server is installed in evaluation mode, the old one will be shut down.

But because I cloned the new VM from the old VM, the new VM already has the license assigned that I would want to use for it.

Are you saying I need to either build a new vCenter server from scratch, or purchase another license?  Surely there is a way to remove the license.  Is this something that could be done by Vmware if I opened a ticket?

[vmroyale]

Note: Discussion successfully moved from Licensing to VMware vCenter™ Server

[rawbar]

Researching a bit more it seems I may be able to remove it with ASDI edit?

[a_p_]

Since you are going to shutdown the old vCenter Server, I woldn't actually worry much about the assigned license. If  you don't use both vCenter Server systems simultaneously, I don't think that this will violate the EULA.

André

[rawbar]

I think you're still misunderstanding.  Let me try a screenshot

This is a screenshot from my new vCenter 5.5 install.  The circled license is already assigned to the old vCenter 5.0 install.  I want to unassign so I can reassign it to the new vCenter server. I believe I will need to use ASDI Edit to delete the license and then just readd it.

[bayupw]

Hi

Is the screenshot is a new vCenter 5.5?
If yes, its actually stated that the vCenter Server 5 Standard license is assigned (Assigned column=Yes), and the evaluation is not assigned to any vCenter (Assigned column=No).

So you do not need to unassign & reassign since it is already assigned, you can safely remove the Evaluation License.

You do not need to worry about the old vCenter as you are planning to destroy the old vCenter - no need to unassign from old vCenter too.

[rawbar · Accepted solution]

Just to close this out, what I discovered is the machine name listed in the licensing was just the name stored in the license database on the local machine.  I discovered because I cloned this VM, even though I changed the NetBIOS name, VMware still thought the name was the old name.  Once I followed all the necessary steps to change the name within VMware, the license reflected the name of the local machine.  I was thinking that the license was aware of multiple machines in the infrastructure and had the license assigned to the wrong machine.  All set.  Thanks for the help.