Reset Vcenter 6.5 Evaluation License

Are you working on lab VMWare ESXi which has got 60 days trial license? At times, you realize that you are almost end of the trial and you wont be able to use ESXi anymore until you install a license. Well, you can reset the license and you can again use ESXi for next 60 days. And when the trial ends again, reset the license again.

The evaluation mode provides the set of features equal to a vSphere Enterprise Plus license. Before the evaluation mode expires, you must assign to your hosts a license that supports all the features in use. For example, in evaluation mode, you can use vSphere vMotion technology, the vSphere HA feature, the vSphere DRS feature, and other. Here's a one liner to reset the eval period: cp /etc/vmware/.#license.cfg /etc/vmware/license.cfg && /etc/init.d/vpxa restartDownload ESXi: http://mgnet.me/.

READ THE WARNING:

Before we learn how to reset the license, i would like you to read the warning carefully.

Evaluation

WARNING: This is for education/informational testing/development purposes only. It should not be used on a production server.
WARNING: This trick will only work with an ESX(i) stand alone server. It will not work if the ESX(i) server is connected to a vCenter Server, as the vCenter Server knows better than to let you do this. (you can always remove and readd the ESX(i) server to vCenter.)

Enable SSH and Login to the server via Putty:

To reset the license, you need to first enable SSH on your ESXi Machine. If you are not sure how to enable SSH on ESXi, follow the article below –

  • Once SSH is enabled, Launch Putty and SSH to ESXi Server
  • Type the following command:

    rm /etc/vmware/vmware.lic —> This command will remove vmware.lic file
    rm /etc/vmware/license.cfg —> This command will remove license.cfg file
    ls /etc/vmware/ —> This command will list all the files present in the directory /etc/vmware/ . Make sure that vmware.lic and license.cfg is not present
    reboot —> This command will reboot the ESXi server

  • Once the ESXi is up, login to ESXi using Vsphere Client and you should be able to see “Your evaluation license will expire within 60 days!“

Vcenter License Free

Hope this helps!

Assign Vcenter License 6.7

Published by Team UC Collabing

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