You must assign a license to a vSAN cluster before its evaluation period expires or its currently assigned license expires.

If you upgrade, combine, or divide vSAN licenses, you must assign the new licenses to vSAN clusters. When you assign a vSAN license to a cluster, the amount of license capacity that used equals the total number of CPUs in the hosts participating in the cluster. The license use of the vSAN cluster is recalculated and updated every time you add or remove a host from the cluster. For information about managing licenses and licensing terminology and definitions, see the vCenter Server and Host Management documentation.

When you enable vSAN on a cluster, you can use vSAN in evaluation mode to explore its features. The evaluation period starts when vSAN is enabled, and expires after 60 days. To use vSAN, you must license the cluster before the evaluation period expires. Just like vSphere licenses, vSAN licenses have per CPU capacity. Some advanced features, such as all-flash configuration and stretched clusters, require a license that supports the feature.

Prerequisites

  • To view and manage vSAN licenses, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server systems, where the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to a cluster where you have enabled vSAN.
  2. Click the Configure tab.
  3. Under Configuration, select Licensing, and click Assign License.
  4. Select a licensing option.
    • Select an existing license and click OK.
    • Create a vSAN license.
      1. Click the Create New License (Create license icon) icon.
      2. In the New Licenses dialog box, type or copy and paste a vSAN license key and click Next.
      3. On the Edit license names page, rename the new license as appropriate and click Next.
      4. Click Finish.
      5. In the Assign License dialog box, select the newly created license, and click OK.