Handling Tanzu License Assignment and Expiration in vSphere 7.0 Update 3

Products

• VMware vSphere with Tanzu

Issue/Introduction

Starting from vSphere 7.0 U1, when a vSphere cluster is configured as a Supervisor Cluster, you can use the full set of capabilities of the Supervisor Cluster within a 60-day evaluation period. You must assign a Tanzu edition license to the Supervisor Cluster before the 60-day evaluation period expires, to continue with the normal operations of the Supervisor cluster. We have received feedback on handling two scenarios in Tanzu license management: 

1. Insufficient License Capacity - The Tanzu license cannot be assigned to the Supervisor Cluster if the license key capacity is not sufficient to entitle the entire supervisor cluster. 

2. Tanzu License Expiration - When a Tanzu license key expires, you cannot upgrade, or scale the Supervisor Cluster as well as create new workloads, impacting the normal operation of your vSphere with Tanzu environment. 

vSphere 7.0 U3 provides additional flexibility to vSphere administrators in the above scenario to continue using the normal operations of the Supervisor Cluster while they procure additional license keys. This article explains the above scenarios and how these are addressed in vSphere 7.0 U3.

Resolution

1. License Assignment to Supervisor Cluster: 

• Upon the configuration of a vSphere Cluster as a Supervisor Cluster, a 60-day built-in evaluation period is enabled, allowing you as a vSphere administrator to use the full set of capabilities of the cluster. Any use of these evaluation capabilities is subject to the terms applicable to evaluation licenses in the VMware End User License Agreement available at https://www.vmware.com/download/eula.html. When the   60 day evaluation period expires or a valid Tanzu edition license expires,  you must assign a Tanzu edition license to the Supervisor Cluster. It is important to note here that the product allows only one license key to be assigned to a Supervisor Cluster.  This means that a single Tanzu license key must have sufficient license key capacity to entitle the full cluster. If not, the product does not allow the license key to be assigned to the Supervisor Cluster. 

For example, let us say Supervisor Cluster site-cluster-1, is consuming 50 units capacity. As a vSphere administrator, you attempt to assign license key XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXYY, which has capacity of 35 units. The system prior to vSphere 7.0 U3 does not allow you to assign the license to this Supervisor Cluster because of 15 unit of insufficient capacity.  

• Changes in vSphere 7.0 U3

Starting with vSphere 7.0 U3, the product allows you as a vSphere administrator to assign a license key to a Supervisor Cluster even if the key has insufficient capacity to entitle the Supervisor Cluster, as long as the license key has not expired. In the above example, you will be able to assign the license key to the Supervisor Cluster.

 

2. Tanzu License Expiration

• When a Tanzu edition license assigned to a Supervisor Cluster expires, license expiration rules come into effect. As a vSphere administrator, you cannot create new workloads on the Supervisor Cluster, scale the Supervisor Cluster, or updated it with new Kubernetes versions. You will be able to restore the normal operations after you assign the cluster a valid Tanzu license.

• Changes in vSphere 7.0 U3

vSphere 7.0 Update 3 introduces flexibility in the assignment of new licenses to replace expired Tanzu licenses. This means that Tanzu license keys will expire on the predefined date, however, the hard enforcement will not automatically occur on the expiration of the license. This provides you the flexibility to procure and assign a valid license without impacting normal operations. 

It is important to note that this flexibility is applicable only for the expiration of Tanzu edition licenses. This does not apply to the expiration of built-in evaluation, in which case, the enforcement of the licensing rules will apply. 

 

3. License Compliance

• The above changes introduced in the vSphere 7.0 U3 are intended to provide you as a vSphere administrator with more flexibility to run the operations in a seamless way without any challenges due to the license management. However, it is very important to always ensure that, customers have properly licensed the Tanzu software that they are using. As a vSphere administrator, you must ensure that the total license key usage across all the Supervisor Clusters does not exceed the total capacity of all the Tanzu license keys in the License inventory. 

• To check your total usage across all Supervisor Cluster, in the vSphere Client, navigate to Administration → Licensing → Licenses → Assets tab. You can find the usage for each Supervisor Cluster in the Usage column. The column total is your total usage across all Supervisor Clusters. 

Additional Information

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. When I attempt to assign a license to a cluster, I get the message - "License capacity is insufficient". I have procured sufficient Tanzu license capacity for our cluster spread across multiple license keys. I am unable to add the second license key to the cluster.

The product currently allows only one Tanzu license key to be assigned to the Supervisor Cluster. If the assigned key does not have the capacity to entitle the entire cluster, the above message is seen. As long as the organization has procured sufficient Tanzu license capacity to cover the total CPU usage, this message can be ignored. This does not cause an operational problem. Please ensure the license key is in the vCenter Server inventory. To add the license key to the vCenter Server Inventory, navigate to  Administration → Licensing → Licenses, and click Add License. 

2. When I attempt to assign a license key to the cluster, - License capacity is insufficient". However, I am able to use the product normally without any operational issues. Does it mean that I don't need to procure the deficit license capacity?

vSphere 7.0 U3 has introduced this flexibility to help vSphere administrators seamlessly run the operations on a Supervisor Cluster. However, the customer organization has to ensure that at all times, customers have properly licensed the Tanzu software that they are using. In the above case, it is important to procure the required license capacity.

3. The Licensing management screen is showing that the usage of my Supervisor Cluster exceeds the assigned license capacity. I have procured the required license quantity, but the system does not allow me to assign the additional license key to the Supervisor Cluster. How do I get rid of the Assignment Validation message?

The product currently allows only one Tanzu license key to be assigned to the Supervisor Cluster. To satisfy license compliance, you have to ensure total license key usage across all the Supervisor Clusters does not exceed the total capacity of all the Tanzu license keys in the License inventory. The assignment validation message can be ignored as long as you are in compliance. 

4. As a vSphere Administrator, how can I verify if I am satisfying the Tanzu License Compliance?

Verify Usage: To check your total usage across all Supervisor Cluster, in the vSphere client, navigate to Administration → Licensing → Licenses → Assets tab. You can find the usage for each Supervisor Cluster in the Usage column. The column total is your total usage across all Supervisor Clusters.
Verify Entitled Capacity: To verify the total entitled capacity, you can visit the VMware Customer Connect site. To remain in compliance, your usage should be within the Entitled Capacity