Duplicate license assignments to the same entity seen under Licensing -> Assets

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• On the vSphere Client, under Menu-> Administration-> Licensing-> Assets -> vCenter Server Systems, there are duplicate instances seen for the same vCenter Server.
• The duplicate instances for the same vCenter Server are assigned with the same License key.
• The same can be seen for any other asset like Hosts, vSAN Clusters, etc.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

• Stale or duplicate VMware Directory (vmdir) entries in the likewise database can cause multiple asset references for the same vCenter/vSAN entity.
• This typically happens when a vCenter is re-registered, repointed, or replication inconsistencies occur in Enhanced Linked Mode.

Resolution

Ensure that the replication is working between all the vCenter Servers in Enhanced Linked Mode. Refer: Determining replication agreements and status with the Platform Services Controller (PSC)

Note : Take offline snapshots for all the vCenter Servers in Enhanced Linked Mode before proceeding with the following changes.

Step 1 : Identify the duplicate asset entity

• Connect to the vCenter Server using JXplorer : Using JXplorer to connect to the vSphere Single Sign-on
• Navigate to Services -> License Services
• Compare all the entries with CN = AssetEntity_#### for the vCenter Server and identify the stale entity.
  For eg: The duplicate entity had assetversion 8.0.3.1, rest all Asset entities had assetversion 8.0.4.1 marking the previous one as duplicate.

Step 2 : Remove the duplicate asset entity

• Using JXPlorer:
  • Right-click the AssetEntity_#### that was identified as duplicate -> Delete.
• Using ldapdelete command:
  • SSH to the vCenter Server as root and run the command below to delete the asset entity:
    /opt/likewise/bin/ldapdelete -r "cn=AssetEntity_####,cn=LicenseService,cn=Services,dc=vsphere,dc=local" -D "cn=Administrator,cn=Users,dc=vsphere,dc=local" -w 'Password'