Standard ROBO license fails to apply to ESA 2-node stretch clusters with the below error:
The license does not support some of the features that assets currently use
vSAN ESA 8.x
This is caused due to ESA has Deduplication and Compression is enabled by default and can't be changed. Standard ROBO license doesn't support Deduplication and Compression.
An Advanced ROBO license or higher is required for ESA 2-node stretch clusters. See the VMware vSAN Licensing Guide attached to this KB.
vSAN 8.0 introduced Express Storage Architecture, the industry’s first single-tier, all-NVMe storage solution, designed to efficiently leverage multiple tiers of storage devices to deliver a wide range of performance targets. Express Storage Architecture is included in vSAN Advanced, Enterprise, Enterprise Plus, and vSAN+.