VMWARE VCenter en Vsphere evaluation mode license.

[GoMeZ2020]

Hi,

I have just deployed a Vcenter server in LAB environment and some Nested ESXi hosts.  This in emulation mode.

When I try to add a host to Vcenter I am getting a licensing issue warning:

Cannot connect 10.1.100.50in MAIN-DC : not enough CPU licenses

There are not enough licenses to add the host to the vCenter Server inventory. This event is accompanied by a fault that specifies the missing licenses required to add the host successfully. Action: Add the necessary licenses to vCenter Server and try adding the host again

I thought the evaluation mode gives me full capabilities for 60 days.

Or is this normal behaviour.

Kind regards,

Frederik.

[Alex_Romeo · Accepted solution]

Hi,

These are the vmware products that can be tested for 60 days.

Evaluate VMware Products

Licensing for vCenter Server

Evaluation Mode

When you install a vCenter Server system, it is in evaluation mode. An evaluation mode license of a vCenter Server system expires 60 days after the product is installed no matter whether you assign a license to vCenter Server or not. You can set vCenter Server back to evaluation mode only within 60 days after its installation.

For example, suppose that you install a vCenter Server system and use it in evaluation mode for 20 days and assign the system an appropriate license. The evaluation mode license of vCenter Server will expire after the remaining 40 days of the evaluation period.

License and Evaluation Period Expiry

When the license or evaluation period of a vCenter Server system expires, all hosts disconnect from that vCenter Server system.

Licensing for vCenter Server

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Licensing for ESXi Hosts

License and Evaluation Period Expiry

For ESXi hosts, license or evaluation period expiry leads to disconnection from vCenter Server. All powered on virtual machines continue to work, but you cannot power on virtual machines after they are powered off. You cannot change the current configuration of the features that are in use. You cannot use the features that remained unused while the host was in evaluation mode.

Licensing for ESXi Hosts

The List of Limitations for Free VMware ESXi

An Overview of ESXi Free Limitations and Restrictions:

Now let’s have a closer look at restrictions when using an ESXi server version 6.7 with a free license. Depending on your environment, some restrictions may be unnoticeable for you while others can be critical:

• No Official VMware Support
• Max 8 vCPU per Each VM
• Cannot Be Managed with vCenter
• vStorage API Is Not Available

Cannot Be Managed with vCenter

The free version of an ESXi server cannot be managed with vCenter – a centralized server for managing hosts and virtual machines. If you try to add an ESXi host with a free license to vCenter Server, you can expect to get the error: “License not available to perform the operation”. Hence, you cannot migrate machines from one free ESXi host to another as well as use clustering features, because vCenter Server is required to perform these operations. This is a significant disadvantage if you are planning to use multiple ESXi hosts.

ARomeo

[GoMeZ2020]

Tnx for the Reply.  There was a time issue with the ESXi hosts that is why it did not work in evaluation mode.

After fixing the time issue I also did:

rm -r /etc/vmware/license.cfg
cp /etc/vmware/.#license.cfg /etc/vmware/license.cfg
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart

After this i was able to register the hosts in my evaluation mode vcenter server.

[Alex_Romeo]

Hi,

Well! Thanks for the reply.

ARomeo