You can view the licensing state of the vSphere environment from a central place by using the license management functionality in the vSphere Client . You can view the licenses that are available in vSphere, current license assignments and usage, available license capacity, licensed features in use, and so on. You can export licensing information about vSphere licenses, products, or assets in a CSV file.

You can also export information about licenses and their expiration dates, capacity, and usage. You can export data about the available products and assets in the vSphere Client by downloading a .CSV file.

How to View Licensing Information About Your vSphere Environment

You can view the available licenses in vSphere and their expiration dates, available capacity, and usage. You can also view the available products and assets.

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 runs.

Procedure

  1. Click Menu > Administration.
  2. Expand Licensing and click Licenses.
  3. Select a tab for the licensing information that you want to view.
    Tab Description
    Licenses Lists all licenses that are available in the vSphere environment. For every license, you can view the associated license key, license usage, license capacity, and expiration date.
    Products Lists the products that have licenses available in the vSphere environment. You can view the licenses that are available for every product, licensed features, license usage, and license capacity.
    Assets Displays licensing information about the assets that are available in the vSphere environment. Assets are vCenter Server systems, hosts, vSAN clusters, Supervisors, and other products that you use with vSphere that are listed under Solutions.

What to do next

If you have upgraded, split, or merged any licenses in the Broadcom Support Portal, you must not use these old license keys and should remove them from the inventory.

How to View Available Licenses and Features About Your vSphere Product

By using the vSphere Client, you can view information about a product, such as the available licenses, features, and license capacity.

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 runs.

Procedure

  1. Click Menu > Administration.
  2. Expand Licensing and click Licenses.
  3. Click the Products tab and select the product for which you want to view information.
  4. Select the task that you want to perform.
    Task Description
    View the licenses that are available for the selected product Click the Licenses subtab below the list of products.
    View the licensed features for the product Click the Features subtab below the list of products.

How to View the vSphere Features Тhat an Asset Can Use

Learn how to view the features that an asset in your vSphere environment can use based on the license that is assigned to the asset.

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 runs.

Procedure

  1. Click Menu > Administration.
  2. Expand Licensing and click Licenses.
  3. Select the Assets tab.
  4. Select vCenter Server systems, Hosts, vSAN Clusters, Supervisors, or Solutions.
  5. Select an asset from the list and click the Open button to the left of the asset name.
  6. Click the Features subtab.

How to View the License Key of Your License

In vSphere, a license holds a license key for a product. Learn how to view the associated license key for every license.

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 runs.

Procedure

  1. Click Menu > Administration.
  2. Expand Licensing and click Licenses.
  3. Select the Licenses tab.
  4. Select a license from the list, and click the Open button to the left of the asset name.
  5. Click the Summary subtab . Under General, you can see the license name, the license expiration date, the state of the license, and the license key.

How to View the Licensed Features for an Asset in Your vSphere Environment

Before you start to use a feature on an asset, you can check whether the asset is licensed to use this feature. For example, to use vSphere HA, you must check whether all hosts in a vSphere HA cluster are licensed for this feature.

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 runs.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the vCenter Server system, host, or cluster whose licensed features you want to view.
  2. Click the Configure tab.
  3. Under Settings, select Licensing.

Results

The list of features that you can configure on the asset appears on the right.

How to Export Licensing Information for Your vSphere Environment

You can export licensing information about vSphere licenses, products, or assets. The information is saved on your local system as a .CSV file. You can later open the .CSV file with third-party applications.

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 runs.

Procedure

  1. Click Menu > Administration.
  2. Expand Licensing and click Licenses.
  3. (Optional) Select an item to export.
    If you do not select a particular license, product, or asset, all items from the respective list are exported.
    • Click the Licenses tab to select one or more licenses to export.
    • Click the Products tab to select a product to export.
    • Click the Assets tab to select the vCenter Server instance, hosts, clusters, or solutions whose licensing information you want to export.
  4. Click the Export button at the bottom of the list.
    When prompted, save the CSV file in your file system.
    • If you selected one or more items to export, click Selected Rows.
    • If you selected one or more items but you want to export all items, click All Rows.
    • If you selected no items, all items from the respective list are exported.