As you can see, our vCenter server license is expired. If you needed to assign a license to an ESXi host, you would do it the same exact way, just selecting Hosts on the Assets tab. Click the Assets tab, and vCenter will be selected by default. Now, since we have entered our vSphere licenses into vCenter, we just need to assign the license to vCenter.

The next screen you see will tell you to name your license.Īssigning a License to vCenter or ESXi Hosts

In case you were wondering, you need to type the dashes too. Type it in, and without fail, you’re good to go. This is slightly different than the C# client, where you will only see the first part of the key. I try to take the dashes out, yet it still tells me “Cannot add the following license keys, because their format is incorrect.”. Perhaps this is a fluke of using a Mac (probably), but I encounter this every single time without fail. Now, here’s the tricky part: you need to actually, manually type out your license key! Otherwise, you may get the “Cannot add the following license keys, because their format is incorrect.” error message. Now, click on Licenses, then click the green plus button I’ve circled to add a new license. Then, click the home button and select Administration. The first step I always like to do is add all the licenses I need to vCenter. This video covers how to add licenses and assign them to vCenter, ESXi, and vSAN Adding Licenses to vCenter in the vSphere Web Client The vSphere Client is the way forward, so be sure to check it out if you have not already! If you are using the vSphere Client, which is the HTML5 based client included in vSphere 6.x and higher, here is a demo video showing you how to update assign your licenses. Updating an Expired vSphere License in the vSphere Client (vSphere 6.x +) If you’re looking information on how to update the license using the C# client, make sure to take a look at this post. This article will show you how to update a license in the VMware vSphere Web Client, and help you figure out one of the most commonly encountered issues when doing so. You will not able to do things like add a host to vCenter, as illustrated below. If your vCenter Server license is expired, believe me, you will know. In this case, my VMware vCenter Server license expired.

Always Add vSphere Licenses During the Build Process (and Validate Them!).

Assigning a License to vCenter or ESXi Hosts.

Adding Licenses to vCenter in the vSphere Web Client.

Updating an Expired vSphere License in the vSphere Client (vSphere 6.x +).

Obtain a vsphere license key