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, merge, or split licenses in the Broadcom Support Portal, 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, Supervisors, and other products that integrate with vSphere.

How to Assign a License to Multiple Assets in Your vSphere Environment

Learn how to assign licenses that are already available, or create licenses and assign them to vSphere assets in a single workflow.

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, merge, or split licenses in the Broadcom Support Portal, you must assign the new licenses to assets. Assets are vCenter Server systems, ESXi hosts, vSAN clusters, Supervisors, 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 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, vSAN Clusters, Supervisors, or Solutions tab.
  5. Select the assets to license.
  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.
    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.

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.

How to Configure License Settings for Your ESXi Host

You must assign a license to an ESXi host before its evaluation period expires or its currently assigned license expires. If you upgrade, merge, or split vSphere licenses in the Broadcom Support Portal, you must assign the new licenses to ESXi hosts and remove the old licenses.

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 host in the inventory.
  2. Select the Configure tab.
  3. Under System, select Licensing.
  4. Click Assign License.
  5. 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.
    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.

Results

The license is assigned to the host. Capacity from the license is allocated according to the license use of the host.

How to Configure License Settings for Your vCenter Server

You must assign a license to a vCenter Server system before its evaluation period expires or its currently assigned license expires. If you upgrade, merge, or split vCenter Server licenses in the Broadcom Support Portal, you must assign the new licenses to vCenter Server systems and remove the old licenses.

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. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.
  2. Select the Configure tab.
  3. Under Settings, select Licensing.
  4. Click Assign License.
  5. 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.
    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.

Results

The license is assigned to the vCenter Server system, and one instance from the license capacity is allocated for the vCenter Server system.

How to Set Your vSphere Assets to Evaluation Mode

To explore the complete set of features available for an asset, you can set it to evaluation mode.

Different products have different terms for using their evaluation mode. Before you set an asset to evaluation mode, you should consider the specifics for using the evaluation mode of its associated product. For details, see the licensing model documentation for the relevant product at Licensing and Subscription in 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 runs.

Procedure

  1. Click Menu > Administration.
  2. Expand Licensing and click Licenses.
  3. Select the Assets tab.
  4. Select the vCenter Server systems, Hosts, vSAN Clusters, Supervisors, or Solutions tab.
  5. Select the asset that you want to set to evaluation mode.
  6. Click Assign License.
  7. Select the evaluation license, and click OK to save your changes.

Results

The asset is in evaluation mode. You can explore the entire set of features that are available for the asset.

Note: You must assign an appropriate license to the asset before its evaluation period expires. Otherwise the asset gets into unlicensed state and some functionalities are blocked.