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 similar 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 there will see error 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