Power on task for a virtual machine failed with license key has expired

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Symptoms:

VM fails to power on with the error:

Operation failed

Task name: Power On virtual machine

Target: <VM_Name>

Status: License key has expired

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Resolution

Arrange a downtime for the vCenter, take snapshot for the vCenter (ONLINE for standalone vCenter and OFFLINE snapshot for ELM vCenter), see KB: 313886 and then reboot the vCenter.

If the VM still fails to power on, then try to power on the VM from the ESXi host it resides in, see KB: 345049.

If the VM still fails to power on then try to unassign and reassign the license.

If this fails please gather the support bundle for the vCenter and ESXi host where the VM resides in and upload it to us, see KB: 1011641, 653 and 140731