I installed ESXi on my host machine for home lab purposes 60 days ago. I assumed I was on the free version of ESXi since I couldn't do things like clone VMs and whatnot.
Posted by1 year ago
Archived
Your evaluation license for ESXi has expired.
Today, I did a RAM upgrade to my host and powered it back on. Now I find out I can't boot any VMs because my evaluation license for ESXi has expired.
How can I get another license, and how do I apply it to my host? I really don't want to lose my VMs, as I use them for learning subnetting, learning LINUX terminals, and image deployment for my degree program.
83% Upvoted
I’ve written a number of posts on how to install ESXi, vCenter and similar products but if memory serves me right, I don’t recall explaining in any detail how to apply license keys after you’re done installing. From a recently held conversation, I learned that licensing VMware products can be a tad confusing to some.
In today’s post, I go through the process of licensing the most frequently deployed VMware products these being ESXi and vCenter Server along with features such as vSAN. There are several options you can use to manage license keys; GUI, command line tools and PowerCLI. Let’s have a look.
How to license a standalone ESXi host
There are two ways to apply license keys on ESXi. You can either use the host client or run the vim-cmd shell command. The host must not be managed by vCenter Server – hence the term standalone – when using these methods.
Method 1: Using the host client
As always, navigate to https://<ESXi IP address> and log in as root. Click on Manage and select the Licensing tab.
Figure 1 – Using the ESXi host client to apply a license key
Click on the Assign license button and type in the designated license key. Click on Check License to verify the key. If it is valid, press Assign License once more to apply it.
Figure 2 – Verifying and applying a license key on ESXi
If for any reason you need to remove a license, you can do so by clicking on the Remove License button. Since there can only be one license assigned at any time, the last one entered is picked up by default.
Method 2: Running vim-cmd from shell
You first need to enable shell on ESXi using either the DCUI or the host client. Once you that, SSH to the ESXi host and log in as root. Run the following command:
Note: The key used in the above line is not valid.
If the command is successful, the output will show which features have been unlocked following the key’s assignment along with product expiry details (if applicable), the type of key applied as well as the number of instances supported (per physical processor).
Figure 4 – Licensing an ESXi host using the vim-cmd vimsvc/license command
To check which license key is currently applied, run the following.
The output is piped into grep so that only the product key is listed. Removing will list all the information associated with the key as per the previous screenshot.
How to license vCenter Server and managed ESXi
The vSphere Web client is the recommended method to use when you’re licensing vCenter Server. This applies to both the Windows and appliance versions. You will need to license vCenter itself and, optionally, any ESXi hosts it is managing. A separate license is required for vCenter. If the managed ESXi hosts have already been licensed, you can simply stick with the currently assigned license when adding hosts to vCenter Server as shown in Fig. 5. If on the other hand, the features unlocked by the current key do not suffice, you will need to replace the current key with a new one that does.
Figure 5 – Selecting an existing license key when adding an ESXi host to vCenter
Step 1 – Adding license keys
Adding license keys to vCenter is the first step. In general, you’ll have 2 keys, one for vCenter and a second one for the ESXi hypervisors. After you load vSphere Web client, click on Licensing from the Home screen.
Figure 6 – Accessing the licensing module in vCenter
Select the Licenses tab on the Licenses screen and click on the green arrow button to add the new license keys.
Enter every key on its own line. As can be seen in Fig.8, I’ve added 3 license keys for vCenter Server, ESXi Enterprise Plus and vSAN Advanced. The keys are obfuscated for obvious reasons!
Figure 8 – Adding multiple license keys to vCenter Server
On the next screen, you can name the license keys. This makes it easier to identify which key is being assigned to what. This screen also provides details about the product expiry and capacity relevant to each key.
Press Finish on the last screen (not shown) and then verify that the new keys have in fact been added. The new keys should be listed alongside the previous ones.
Figure 10 – A listing of all the available license keys on vCenter Server
Vcenter 6.5 Trial License Key
Step 2 – Assigning license keys
After the keys have been added, we can go ahead and use them to license the corresponding VMware products. The Products tab gives you an overview of the products you can license, with all the license keys grouped accordingly. You can also view the features unlocked by the currently assigned key for the specific product by right-clicking on the product name and selecting View Features.
Figure 11 – A view of currently licensed VMware products and related features
To license a product, switch to the Assets tab. Under the 4 additional tabs – vCenter Server systems, Hosts, Clusters, and Solution – you will find the respective products including one or more vCenter instances and managed ESXi hosts. The Clusters tab is there to license cluster-centric features such as vSAN. The Solutions tab is instead used to license products such as NSX.
Dr.fone - Android Data Recovery software allows you to recover deleted contacts, messages, photos, video, call logs, WhatsApp messages, documents and more from your Android phones and tablets, as well. Download Now. Verify data in detail before recovery. 5 Best Free Android Data Recovery Apps. Dr phone android data recovery free download. Download and use Dr.Fone if you need to recover any lost data on your Android phone; and if your device is not supported, we recommend looking into similar applications that may be more up to date. Dr.Fone download is the best recordings recovery for Smartphones and Pads. This application can enable you to retrieve accidentally deleted or misplaced photos, videos, Messages, and Contacts from your phone.
Figure 12 – In vCenter you can assign a license to vCenter, ESXi, clusters, and solutions
Step 2a – Licensing vCenter Server
To license vCenter Server, switch to the vCenter Server systems tab and right click on the vCenter Server name listed under the Asset column selecting Assign License as you do.
Figure 13 – Assigning a license key to vCenter Server
Select the license key you wish to assign to vCenter Server and press OK. This is where the license names, previously mentioned, come in handy.
Figure 14 – Choosing a license key to assign to vCenter Server
Step 2b – Licensing ESXi
Likewise, you can easily license one or multiple ESXi hosts by way of the Hosts tab. You can license hosts individually using different licenses or, as is generally the case, simply select all the hosts (Ctrl-A) and enter a common license. To do this, just right-click on the selection made and select Assign License. Again, select the required license from the list and press OK.
Figure 15 – Assigning a license to vCenter managed ESXi hosts Veer zaara full movie youtube.
How to license vSAN
Some vCenter and/or ESXi features require a separate license key. Virtual San (vSAN) is one such example. Since this is a cluster-centric feature, you can either license vSAN using the Clusters tab on the Licenses page or directly from the cluster’s context menu.
Figure 16 – Assigning a license to vSAN from the Licenses page
The other method you can use to license vSAN is to right-click on the cluster name while in Hosts and Clusters view selecting Assign License as you do.
Figure 17 – Assigning a vSAN license using the cluster context-menu option
Using PowerCLI to add license keys
No post would be complete without mentioning PowerCLI. Yep, you can query and add license keys to vCenter using PowerCLI.
First, launch a PowerCLI instance. Make sure you are connected only to the vCenter Server you want to query or make changes to. If in doubt, run Disconnect-VIServer * -Confirm:$false first. As always, use Connect-VIServer to connect to vCenter Server.
Download AutoCAD 2008 Full Crack – For friends who need software Autodesk AutoCAD 2008 again, you can simply download AutoCAD 2008 full crack at bedolsoft.com. AutoCAd software is regularly used for drawing 2D and 3D, developed by Autodesk. AutoCAD, this software is widely used by civil engineers, land developers, architects, mechanical engineers, interior designers and others.
Task 1 – List existing license keys on vCenter:
Figure 18 – Listing applied licenses on vCenter using PowerCLI
Task 2 – Add a license key to vCenter Server
Run the following to add a key to vCenter Server.
Figure 19 – Adding a license key to vCenter Server using PowerCLI
Conclusion
Here are a few references on the subject matter in addition to the information presented in this and other posts you’ll find on our VMware Blog.
Showing slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES} - Make an Offer
Installation
Easily install vSphere Hypervisor on your own or with some guided help. If you’re looking for a do-it-yourself approach, just download the installer, accept the end-user license agreement, and select which local drive you want to install it on.
Creating Virtual Machines
Once you’ve installed vSphere Hypervisor, there are three ways to create virtual machines:
Configuration
Once you’ve installed or imported your virtual machines, you’ll need to configure them. Refer to the installation and configuration video within resources to get started.
Upgrading to VMware vSphere
Moving up to a paid vSphere lets you further optimize your IT infrastructure. You'll be able to:
vSphere 6.0 released and we are started evaluating the features of our brand new hypervisor with our evaluation license. The evaluation period is 60 days but do you think 60 days is not enough to keep your hands dirty with ESXi 6.0. It will be time-consuming to re-install ESXi 6 every 60 days after your evaluation license is expired. Don’t worry, VMware provides us with the Free ESXi 6.0 Hypervisor with non-expired license keys. VMware ESXi Free version is the same download as the full ESXi with exact same ISO but stays unlocked only for 60 days. If you don’t enter the serial number for the free version, the product works as full version during 60 days. When the trial period ends and the product locks out the advanced features and becomes VMware ESXi free.
VMware ESXi Free vs PAIDWhat is VMware ESXi Free Limitations?
How to Download ESXi Free License?
Download Procedure for both Paid and ESXi Free is same and Moreover, both are the same ISO image. Download the VMware ESXi 6.0 Free Hypervisor installer image along with free license keys.
Register or Login with your VMware account credentials
Once you have logged in, you will be provided with the option to download the ESXi 6.0 Installation ISO and VMware vSphere client along with the VMware ESXi Free License Keys.
How to apply ESXi Free license to ESXi host?
Once the installers are download. Complete the ESXi 6.0 installation or upgrade. Connect to your ESXi host using vSphere Client.
Click on Configuration tab and select Licensed Features. Click on Edit. Below are the product features which are available as part of vSphere Evaluation License.
Enter the license key and Click on Ok.
ESXi is turned to Free ESXi now with No Expiration.
We are done with the free ESXi license key assignment with no expiration.
How to Perform Backup of VM’s running in Free ESXi?
Free ESXi does not support vStoage API and hence no native backup support for Free ESXi versions. If you are using Windows VM, use its native backup or agent-based backup for VM’s running on Free ESXi.
I believe this is informative for you. Thanks for Reading !!! Be Social and share it on social media, if feel worth sharing it.
Esxi 6.5 License Key Generator
vSphere 6.0 Related Articles:
vSphere 6.5 Blog posts:Vcenter 6.5 License Key Generator
What’s New with VMware vSphere 6.5?
vSphere 6.5 -What’s New with vCenter 6.5? What’s New with Virtual SAN 6.5? – New Features Overview vSphere 6.5 -What’s New with vSphere 6.5 HA & DRS vSphere 6.5 – What’s is in VMware vSphere 6.5 Fault Tolerance? Download VMware vSphere 6.5 – Get your Copy to Evaluate!!! vSphere 6.5 – Deploying vCenter appliance 6.5 Deploying vCenter 6.5 External Platform Services Controller Deploying vCenter Server appliance 6.5 with External PSC vSphere 6.5 – Configuring vCenter Server 6.5 HA vSphere 6.5 – vCenter 6.5 Native HA Failover Testing vSphere 6.5 Configuration Maximums – What’s New? vSphere 6.5 – How VM’s are Secured using vSphere 6.5 Security Features? Migrate Windows vCenter Server 6.0 to vCenter Server appliance 6.5 vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 Posts
The Ultimate Revelation Of Reset VCSA 6.5 Root Password in 60 seconds
6 Basic Commands to Interact with VCSA 6.5 Embedded VPostgres Database 6 Tips for Configuring Firewall To Manage VCSA 6.5 Postgres Database Remotely You Can Learn From VMwareArena How to Connect VCSA 6.5 Embedded Postgres Database using pgAdmin (With GUI) -VMware Unsupported WinSCP Connection to VCSA failed – “Received too large SFTP packet” How to Backup vCenter Appliance 6.5 Embedded Postgres Database How to Monitor vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 performance using vimtop Become an Expert on vCenter Server appliance Log File Location in 120 seconds How to Backup And Restore VCSA 6.5 – The Ultimate Cheatsheet How to Join VCSA 6.5 to Active Directory Domain from Web Client How to Configure Active Directory Authentication for vCenter Server 6.5 Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |