Like other VMware Aria Operations groups, you create a license group of objects as a way of gathering those objects for data collection. In this case, you are associating the objects with a product license.

How License Groups Work

License groups require that you select one or more keys that you already added for solution or product activation, and add objects as members to a custom group for those licenses. You might, for example, want to add objects into groups that are associated with a particular level of license key, and monitor or manage by level of key in order to control licensing costs.

Where You Find the License Groups

  1. From the left menu, click Administration, and then click the Licensing tile.
  2. Click the License Groups tab.

License Groups

vCloud Suite
Host CPU-based licenses applied to an object type "Host system" for a given set of clusters. When you apply a CPU license to a group containing Hosts, the VMs on the Hosts will still show "License is invalid" watermark.
VM Licenses
VM based licenses applied to an object type "Virtual Machine" for all other VMs except those on hosts licensed with vCloud Suite. When you apply a VM license key to Virtual Machines, the Hosts on which those VMs run will still show the "License is invalid" watermark.
Note: In VMware Aria Operations, it is possible to mix Operating System Instance (OSI) and CPU based licenses. By mixing difference kind of licenses, you will need to perform extra configurations, like creating separate license groups for each type of license keys (one for CPU and one for OSI (VM)). It is recommended that you use non overlapping exclusive Licensing Groups to have the best advantage when you mix OSI (VM) and CPU licensing.

However, in VMware Aria Operations you cannot mix standard edition of VMware Aria Operations with any other advanced and enterprise licenses.

Dynamic
Use dynamic membership criteria, not static "Always include/exclude" lists to avoid manual maintenance of license groups.
Note: When the license is applied to the respective Object type of each License key, the related objects (parent or children) are also going to have to be included in membership for the License Group. License in invalid" watermark appears in VMware Aria Operations 6.6 and later. For more information, see the following KB article 51556.

License Group Options

The license group options include toolbar and data grid options.

Click Add or click the Vertical Ellipses to edit, or remove items.

Table 1. License Group Toolbar Options
Option Description
Add

Launch a wizard to select licenses and objects, to create a new license group.

You can also associate the license group with a monitoring policy.

Edit

Launch a wizard to select licenses and objects, to change a license group.

You can also associate the license group with a monitoring policy.

Delete Remove a license group.

Use the data grid options to view item details.

Table 2. License Group Data Grid Options
Option Description
License Group Name of the license group
Total Members Number of objects in the license group
Licensable Usage Number of objects in the group that count against the license in order to monitor them. If you have a license for unlimited object monitoring, this number is zero (0).
License Group Information (below) Details for the selected license group
Overview Name, license serial number, and number of keys associated with the selected license group
Members List of objects associated with the selected license group