Depending on the license type, HCX provides various actions to manage HCX licenses.
For more information regarding the types of licenses available for HCX installation and activation, see About HCX Licensing.
- VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) license
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Sites licensed for VCF Solution Licensing capabilities, require no user intervention for license management. For installations running HCX 4.9.0 or later, VCF licenses have system-level precedence over other HCX licenses. This means that if the vSphere environment is currently licensed for VCF or updated to VCF, any new HCX installations or upgrades inherit that single VCF license and its entitlements.
HCX installations continuously monitor the vSphere environment for license upgrades. If HCX detects a vCenter Server license upgrade to VCF Solution Licensing, HCX inherits the VCF license and stores any previously active license key. HCX sites using the VCF license continue to poll the vCenter every 10 minutes for a valid VCF license. If a VCF license is removed or becomes invalid, HCX enters Evaluation Mode and any in-progress operations will complete, with an option to manually enter the previously active license key.
Important: HCX displays a warning when the VCF license approaches the expiration date. Note that the specified expiration date for a VCF license in not fully inclusive of the date. For example, a VCF license expiration date of May 8, actually expires at 12:00 a.m. on May 8 and not 11:59 p.m.If a VCF license expires, all datastores/ESX hosts managed by the vCenter become inaccessible. If appliance resources are unavailable, no HCX mobility or data protection operations can take place. Additionally, expiration of the VCF license can prevent Service Mesh creation and also generate various error messages indicating that HCX services are unavailable.
To view current and updated HCX license information, see View Site License Information.
- NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus license
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Sites that are not licensed for VCF with Single Key capabilities, can use the NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus license.
HCX sites using the NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus license can upgrade to use the HCX Enterprise services by adding the HCX Enterprise license. If the NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus license is removed or becomes invalid, HCX enters restricted mode. In this mode, in-progress operations will complete but no new operations are allowed.
Note: NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus licensed sites are automatically updated to use VCF Solution Licensing when the vCenter itself becomes licensed for VCF.To view current and changed license information, see View Site License Information.
- Evaluation license
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Sites that are not licensed for VCF, can run without a license in Evaluation Mode. These sites are automatically updated to a VCF license when the vCenter itself becomes licensed for VCF.
HCX sites in Evaluation Mode can add the NSX Data Center Enterprise Plus license and the HCX Enterprise license. When the Evaluation Mode expires, any in progress operations will complete, but no new operations are allowed.
Note: Evaluation mode sites are automatically updated to use VCF Solution Licensing when the vCenter itself becomes licensed for VCF.To view current and changed license information, see View Site License Information.
