Warning "License not available to perform the operation. The vSphere 7 Essentials Plus license for "Host" Upgrade the license." while performing svMotion of powered on VM.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

When attempting to perform a Storage vMotion operation of one of the VMDK's, you may encounter the following error message:

License not available to perform the operation.

The vSphere 7 Essentials Plus license for "Host" <hostname> does not include "vSphere Storage vMotion". Upgrade the license.

On vCenter UI, upon selecting the storage vMotion of a powered-on VM

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 7.x

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

VMware ESX Server

Cause

The issue occurs because the vSphere 7 Essentials Plus license does not include the Storage vMotion feature.

Storage vMotion is only available with the following license editions:

• VMware vSphere Standard
• VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus
• VMware vSphere Foundation (discontinued)

The host where the virtual machine is running must have one of the above licenses to use Storage vMotion.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, upgrade the license of the ESXi host to one that supports Storage vMotion (Standard, Enterprise Plus, or Foundation).

Additional Information

Workaround

If upgrading the license is not possible, use one of the following alternatives:

1. Cold Migration

   • Power off the virtual machine.

   • Perform a Storage vMotion (cold migration) of the VM disk(s) to the target datastore.

2. Manual Relocation (if Storage vMotion is still restricted)

   • Power off and unregister the virtual machine from vCenter/ESXi.

   • Manually copy the VM disk and configuration files to the desired datastore.

   • Re-register the virtual machine from the new location in vCenter/ESXi.

Note: Both of the above workarounds require the virtual machine to be powered off.

• For details on VMware vSphere license feature comparisons, refer to the official VMware Product Line Comparison Datasheet.

• vSphere Foundation is now discontinued. Customers should plan for supported license editions that meet their workload and feature requirements.