Unable to apply license to vSphere 8 Enterprise Plus for VCF Edge hosts

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

VCF Enterprise Plus 8 license has been uploaded to vCenter but it cannot be applied to the hosts.

Environment

VCF 8
ESXi 8.0

Cause

License version doesn't match the ESXi version. VCF 8 licenses can be specific to major update revisions within vSphere 8 (i.e. a license valid for 8.0 u3 might not be valid for 8.0 u1).

Most commonly customers encounter the issue that, as of ESXi 8.0 Update 2b, Broadcom changed its licensing model.

If you are running an ESXi version older than 8.0 Update 2b, you may need to "upgrade" your existing license to one compatible with 8.0 Update 2b or newer before it can be applied to hosts running those newer versions. VCF 8 licenses can also be specific to major update revisions within vSphere 8 (i.e. a license key valid for 8.0 u3 might not be valid for 8.0 u1).

Resolution

Upgrade ESXi version to match the license version before applying the license.