Need to use existing license for 5.1 install

[Labcoat]

We bought licensing for 3 hosts -- 6 physical CPUs total -- prior to 5.x release.  We built 2 hosts and installed a vSphere 4 Essentials license on each.

We just got a new, 3rd host, after 5.x came out.  I installed VMware Essentials 5.1 on it, but need a license.  The vSphere 4 Essentials license fails with version error.  I figure all I need to do is just click upgrade in my.vwmare.com console, and this will make it work with this new, 5.1 install?

I need to be able to run our existing 4.x installs along with this 5.1 install for a while.

Will this in any way cause a problem?

My hosts are:

1 VMware Essentials 4.0 -- working license.

1 VMware Essentials 4.1 Update 1 -- working license.

1 VMware Essentials 5.1 -- need a working license (which we own, just need to know best/how to apply it).

I think I know the answer to this one but wanted to double check.

[weinstein5]

If your license is under SnS you will be able to update the license - The best route would be to update vCenter first because you will need to do that to be able to manage the ESXi 5.1 host -

[Labcoat]

Mine is "Subscription Only."  When I view my License Keys I see this:

My "Support Contract Details says this:

These two screenshots are directly from my my.vmware.com

I read else where on the forums here that it is fine to go ahead and upgrade an Essentials 4.x license to 5.1 and you can run both as long as you need to (I cannot upgrade all of my hosts right now, and need to run 4.x and 5.1 in tandem), but when I just now went to play with the upgrade feature on my 4 license, I see this warning:

"Attention

This action may affect other users' access. All use of the original license keys must cease immediately upon the issuance of new license keys. You must delete all software deployed under the original license keys. You will be liable for any over-deployment."

I canceled.

To boot, I placed a support ticket on my license and they are telling me they are "unable to track my license key."  But I gave it to them <-- the very same key that was accepted way back on my 4.x hosts, bought and paid for and working fine.

I need some help with this since it is holding up launching this new VMware host and productivity.

[Labcoat]

Can someone please shed some light on this.  I need a key for 5.1 vSphere which we clearly own I thought.  Do I upgrade my 4.x key or do I need to some how request or generate a separate 5.1 key?  I need to run my 4.0, 4.1 Update 1 and new 5.1 hosts all at the same time for awhile.

[Labcoat]

I'm posting this reply in hopes it will help someone else.  Why support never could verify my license over 2 days I have no clue, but they could not, and kept asking me to resend it (I even sent screenshots of my license page at my.vmware.com).

I used this KB article:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=200697...

..and selected just 2 CPUs to upgrade.  It worked great, and my new install of 5.1 took the new 5.x key.

The only odd thing is that, it generated a new key for 4.x <-- I did not need this and did not select this.  My two 4.x hosts are working just fine.  I have no plans to muck with my existing 4.x hosts and their key to input this new, 4.x key below (where it says, "vSphere 4 Essentials:").  I mean, why is it even doing this at all?  The main reason I posted here at the forums was due to the odd/scary "Attention" warning, that seems to indicate I must muck with my existing 4.x hosts and their license keys.

Here is a screen of the results: