When deploying management components, VMware Cloud Foundation requires access to valid license keys, which are either keyed or keyless. You add keyed license keys to the SDDC Manager inventory so that they can be consumed at deployment time, but they are not synchronized between SDDC Manager and the underlying components.
- VMware vSphere
- VMware vSAN
- VMware NSX-T Data Center
- VMware vCenter Server
A combination of keyed and keyless licenses can now be used within the same VCF instance. The licensing within a given workload domain needs to be homogeneous (no mixing of keyed and keyless licensing within a workload domain).
After bring-up, these license keys appear in the Licensing screen of the SDDC Manager UI.
You must have adequate license units available before you create a VI workload domain, add a host to a vSphere cluster, or add a vSphere cluster to a workload domain. Add license keys as appropriate before you begin any of these tasks.