vCenter v4 "Validation of License file against VC Server edition failed."

[vancod]

Background:

I have a new purchase for 12 ESX licenses (with all the bells and whistles). I have the license file emailed from VMware.

I had a new install of vCenter Server (and all other components) from the v3 release, running in eval mode.

The vCenter Server is on a fresh install of WindowsXP with SP2+ patches

Today, I upgraded all to the code in the v4 release. It went smoothly - until I tried to actually use it.

Issue(s):

I pointed my license server to the license file. It reads it, no issue. I can see the output in the log, I can see the output in the query tool. I can look at lmstat -a and see all my licenses, zero showing used.

When I tried to take vCenter out of eval mode, it gives me a pop-up stating that there are not enough licenses.

I tried 2 other licenses I had access to. One of them (an older VAC partner NFR license) seemed to make vCenter happy, but the moment I tried to add a host to my cluster it bombed with the same error - not enough licenses.

So - after what was quite possibly the messiest / heroic uninstall I've ever done in my life, I was able to initiate a clean installation of the v4 release of the vCenter Suite - and the minute I tell the installer to use my license file I get a pop-up that says "Validation of License file against VC Server edition failed.". I've tried with all 3 of the licenses I have (that work fine on older installs) and I've tried "standard" -vs- "foundation" versions of vCenter (because a colleague insists that he had to select foundation at one customer site). Same error.

????????

[weinstein5]

VI-4 is not in public release and your VI-3 license file will not work - you need to be part of the Beta program to obtain a license and the software -

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[vancod]

He W5 - thanks for the reply.

Note that I am not using VI4 - it's merely vCenter 2.5 v4 which was released earlier this week.

http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/vi3_vc25u4_rel_notes.html

I have found my issue - it was in my licesence keys.

One of my keys had etries fo TWO instances of vCenter, ONE of my license keys had entries for 6 ESX hosts.

The "ESX only" license (my "new" one) wasn't working for obivous reasons - it had no vCenter entitlement in it. Now the vCenter key was apparently tolerated with v3 and older, but on v4 it is an issue

My first step was to combine the contents of the files "as-is" - this did not make vCenter v4 happy. I then removed one of the instances of vCenter, and, viola, vCenter v4 came on-line.

I would again point out that the license server had "no issue" with the file that vCenter was reject. Also - the on-line validation tool (http://www.vmware.com/checklicense/) did note there were 2 instances of vCenter, but gave no indication that it wasn't going to work.

Don

[weinstein5]

That is right - saw the v4 and jumped to conclusions - so ignore my answer - I am glad to hear you found your answer - shame you can not award yourself points

If you find this or any other answer useful please consider awarding points by marking the answer correct or helpful

[vancod]

I still believe this to be a bug - isn't it entirely plausible to have 2 vCenter hosts? Although they couldn't look at the same Datacenter at once, I would think that there could be reason to have 2 instances in a license file....