vMotion is not licensed for the host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Migration / vMotion of a VM from one host to another will fail with an error simlar to "vMotion is not licensed for the host".

The vCenter Server is part of an Enhanced Linked Mode group.

When checking the "Licenses" tab for Licensing in vCenter, it will show the license as unassigned. 

When logging into the host UI directly, it will show the host licensed as expected.  

From /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log, the asset will fail to be found:

####-##-##T##:##:##,###-##:## info vpxd[06918] [Originator@6876 sub=vmomi.soapStub[5] opID=LicenseClientProcessInventoryLoadedAsync-5ef3ecb4] SOAP request returned HTTP failure; <<cs p:00007fd2f0003e30, TCP:localhost:1080>, /ls/sdk>, method: searchAssets; code: 500(Internal Server Error); fault: (cis.license.fault.NotFoundFault) {
-->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->    faultMessage = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) [
-->       (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) {
-->          key = "cis.license.error.management.AssetNotFound",
-->          arg = (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) [
-->             (vmodl.KeyAnyValue) {
-->                key = "missingIds",
-->                value = "host-48729-########-####-####-####-############, host-48727-########-####-####-####-############, host-48735-########-####-####-####-############"
-->             }
-->          ],
-->          message = <unset>
-->       }
-->    ],
-->    ids = (string) [
-->       "host-48729-########-####-####-####-############",
-->       "host-48727-########-####-####-####-############",
-->       "host-48735-########-####-####-####-############"
-->    ]
-->    msg = "Received SOAP response fault from [<<cs p:00007fd2f0003e30, TCP:localhost:1080>, /ls/sdk>]: searchAssets
--> Assets not found: [host-48729-########-####-####-####-############, host-48727-########-####-####-####-############, host-48735-########-####-####-####-############]"
--> }
####-##-##T##:##:##,###-##:## error vpxd[06918] [Originator@6876 sub=licenseClient opID=LicenseClientProcessInventoryLoadedAsync-5ef3ecb4] Updating cost unit usages failed with Fault cause: cis.license.fault.NotFoundFault

From the /var/log/vmware/cis-license/license.log

####-##-##T##:##:##,###-##:## invocation-vmomi-executor-2 operationID=wcp-licenseRefreshMonitor  ERROR server.core.management.vmomi.SystemManagementServiceMoImpl Assets not found: [host-48729-########-####-####-####-############, host-48727-########-####-####-####-############, host-48735-########-####-####-####-############]
com.vmware.cis.license.embedded.server.core.management.exception.NotFoundException: Assets not found: [host-48729-########-####-####-####-############, host-48727-########-####-####-####-############, host-48735-########-####-####-####-############]

In /var/log/vmware/vmdird/vmdird.log you will see errors / warnings similar to the following: 

WARNING: DetectAndResolveAttrsConflicts: Possible conflict 
ERROR: VmDirEntrySanityCheck failed  
NOT resolving this possible replication CONFLICT. For this object, system may not converge. Partner USN #######

Environment

vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

This is caused by an inconsistency within VMDIR for ELM replication.

Resolution

To validate there are inconsistencies within VMDIR, see Using vmdir_tool.py to identify vmdir/ELM replication inconsistencies 

To resolve the inconsistencies within VMDIR, see Fixing VMDIR inconsistencies with SSO domain repoints