To continue using product functionality, you must assign appropriate licenses to assets in evaluation mode, or assets with expiring licenses. When you upgrade a license edition, combine, or split licenses in Customer Connect, you must assign the new licenses to assets. You can assign licenses that are already available, or create licenses and assign them to the assets in a single workflow. Assets are vCenter Server systems, ESXi hosts, vSAN clusters, and other products that integrate with vSphere .

Prerequisites

  • To view and manage licenses in the vSphere environment, you must have the Global.Licenses privilege on the vCenter Server system, where the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client runs.

Procedure

  1. Click Menu > Administration.
  2. Expand Licensing and click Licenses.
  3. Select the Assets tab.
  4. On the Assets tab, click the vCenter Server systems, Hosts, Clusters, or Solutions tab.
  5. Select the assets to license.
    Note: In the vSphere Client, use Shift+click to select multiple assets.
  6. Click Assign License.
  7. In the Assign License dialog box, select the task that you want to perform.
    • In the vSphere Client, select an existing license or select a newly created license.
    Task Steps
    Select an existing license Select an existing license from the list and click OK.
    Select a newly created license
    1. Click the New License tab.
    2. In the Assign License dialog box, type or copy and paste a license key and click OK.
    3. Enter a name for the new license and click OK.

      Details about the product, product features, capacity, and expiration period appear on the page.

    4. Click OK.
    5. In the Assign License dialog box, select the newly created license, and click OK.
    • In the vSphere Web Client, select an existing license or select a newly created license.
    Task Steps
    Select an existing license Select an existing license from the list and click OK.
    Select a newly created license
    1. Click the Create New License (Create license icon) icon.
    2. In the New Licenses dialog box, type or copy and paste a license key and click Next.
    3. On the Edit license names page, enter a name for the new license and click Next.
    4. Click Finish.
    5. In the Assign License dialog box, select the newly created license, and click OK.

Results

The license is assigned to the assets. Capacity from the license is allocated according to the license use of the assets. For example, if you assign the license to 3 hosts with 4 CPUs each, the consumed license capacity is 12 CPUs.