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

If you upgrade, combine, or divide Virtual SAN licenses, you must assign the new licenses to Virtual SAN clusters. When you assign a Virtual SAN license to a cluster, the amount of license capacity that is used equals the total number of CPUs in the hosts participating in the cluster. The license usage of the Virtual SAN 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 Virtual SAN on a cluster, you can use Virtual SAN in evaluation mode to explore its features. The evaluation period starts when Virtual SAN is enabled, and expires after 60 days. To use Virtual SAN, you must license the cluster before the evaluation period expires. Just like vSphere licenses, Virtual SAN 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 Virtual SAN 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 Virtual SAN.
  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 new Virtual SAN license.
      1. Click the Create New License (Create license icon) icon.
      2. In the New Licenses dialog box, type or copy and paste a Virtual SAN 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, select the newly created license and click OK.