"ESXi on DPU" license expiry on vSphere Distributed Services Engine enabled hosts configured with data processing units (DPU)

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

On vSphere systems with VMWare NSX installed, and the vSphere Distributed Services Engine feature enabled, some NSX configuration operations fail with an error for an expired license.

vSphere Distributed Services Engine feature enabled ESXi hosts are servers configured with data processing units (DPUs).
In NSX Manager, Transport Node configuration operations on such hosts fail with an error status of Partial Success. Error details point to the underlying license expiry with a message such as current license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation. This error prevents any further NSX configuration operations on the nodes with DPU.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Cause

The issue occurs 60 days after the first installation of "ESXi on DPU", which is the default evaluation license. vSphere Distributed Services Engine systems with DPUs do not require a separate ESXi license for "ESXi on DPU", but in certain scenarios, a license version validator on the DPU might trigger an error.

Resolution

The issue is resolved in Vmware vSphere ESXi 8.0c (build 21493926) release. The fix ensures license checks on vSphere systems with DPUs occur only on the ESXi host, not on DPUs.