vCenter License Inventory Appears Empty and Prevents Adding Licenses

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms: 

The user is unable to add a license to vCenter because the licenses do not appear in the inventory. Even after attempting to add licenses, the inventory remains empty.

Cause

The issue occurs when the vCenter License service becomes unresponsive, preventing licenses from being displayed in the inventory.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, the vCenter License service should be restarted using the following commands:

• service-control --stop vmware-cis-license && service-control --start vmware-cis-license

After restarting the service, the license inventory will populate, allowing licenses to be added successfully.