You can add or update a perpetual or term license key in your Horizon 8 environment while your pod is running. You do not need to reboot the system, and access to desktops and applications is not interrupted.

SaaS subscription licenses for Horizon 8 do not require keys, but need the Horizon Cloud Connector virtual appliance or Horizon Edge (depending on the version of the control plane you are connecting to) for connecting to Horizon Control Plane for license enablement.
Note: A Horizon 8 pod can accept only one license key. If you have more than one license, you can use them for different pods. To use multiple keys in the same pod, work with your VMware representative to obtain an exception.

Horizon licenses include an additional 30 days beyond the written expiration date for continued access. For example, if you have a Horizon term license with the expiration date of 1 Jan 2022, the 30-day grace period means that you have access until 12:00 AM local time on 1 Feb 2022. When the grace period ends, you will be unable to add new pools or farms, expand existing pools and farms, or schedule push images for desktops and farms. You can continue to work with existing desktops, remote applications, and virtual machines. Note that the Horizon term license grace period only applies to Horizon 8. The vSphere for Desktop term license that is part of your Horizon term license bundle follows a different behavior when you reach the expiration date. vSphere will move to a degraded level of service as soon as the license expires, such as disabling VM power-on, new VM provisioning, or refreshing existing instant clone desktops. To ensure uninterrupted access you must contact your VMware representative to renew your license before the 30-day period ends.

Prerequisites

  • For a perpetual or term license, obtain a valid product license key. License keys can be found in your Customer Connect portal.
  • To use a subscription license, you must enable Horizon 8 for subscription licenses. See "Enabling VMware Horizon for Subscription Licenses and Horizon Control Plane Services" in the Horizon 8 Installation and Upgrade document
Note: Licenses for Horizon 7 do not work for Horizon 8 versions. If you have a Horizon 7 license, you must get a new license key for Horizon 8

Procedure

  1. In Horizon Console, select Settings > Product Licensing and Usage.
    The first and last five characters of the current license key are displayed in the Licensing panel.
  2. To edit the license key, click Edit License, Enter the license serial number and click OK.
    The Licensing Settings panel shows the updated licensing information.
  3. (Optional) To change from a subscription license to a term license for a Horizon pod, click Use Term License and click OK.
    The Licensing Settings panel shows the updated licensing information.
  4. (Optional) To change from a term or perpetual license to a subscription license for a Horizon pod, click Use Subscription License and click OK. The Horizon Cloud Service administrator can then enable the Horizon pod for a subscription license.
  5. Verify the license expiration date if you are using perpetual or term license. If you are using SaaS Subscription license, go to the Horizon Control Plane to see your licensing and usage details. .
  6. Verify that the component licenses are enabled or disabled, based on the edition of Horizon 8 that your product license entitles you to use. The features and capabilities of VMware Horizon depend on license editions. For a comparison of feature sets in each edition, see https://www.vmware.com/products/horizon.html.