HCX under VCF not automatically acquiring licenses

Products

• VMware HCX

Issue/Introduction

• The HCX Manager is registered to a VCF 5.2 vCenter.
• When you assign licensing through the SDDC Manager, it is not automatically detected by HCX.
• Manually adding the NSX license works.

• A red error alert is present when logged into the HCX UI:

  HCX Licensing : The HCX license is expired. Apply a valid license to continue using HCX services.

• The following type of errors appear in /common/logs/admin/app.log:

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.000UTC [QuartzScheduler_Worker-1, , , TxId: ] INFO  c.v.vchs.hybridity.messaging.Job- Added newly queued job (jobId: ####################) in JobSchedule collection, for jobScheduleId: ####################
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.000 UTC [LicensingService_SvcThread-22620, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: ####################] INFO  c.v.v.h.s.l.DiscoverVCLicenseJob- Starting to Run Job (####################): CHECK_VCF_LICENSE_NON_STANDALONE, workflow type: VCF_LICENSE_DISCOVERY
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.000 UTC [LicensingService_SvcThread-22620, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: ####################] INFO  c.v.v.h.dao.EndPointLinkUtils- HCX Activation type is Standalone Mode(Connected/Air-gapped), getHCXNode will be null
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.000 UTC [LicensingService_SvcThread-22620, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: ####################] INFO  c.v.v.h.s.l.DiscoverVCLicenseJob- DiscoveryLicense - No license details found, appliance is running in HCX Eval mode. And no action required.
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.454 UTC [LicensingService_SvcThread-22621, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: ####################x] INFO  c.v.v.h.s.l.DiscoverVCLicenseJob- Starting to Run Job (####################): COMPLETE, workflow type: VCF_LICENSE_DISCOVERY
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.000 UTC [LicensingService_SvcThread-418, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId: ####################] INFO  c.v.v.h.s.l.DiscoverVCLicenseJob- Starting to Run Job (####################): CHECK_VCF_LICENSE_STANDALONE, workflow type: VCF_LICENSE_DISCOVERY
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.000 UTC [LicensingService_SvcThread-418, Ent: HybridityAdmin, , TxId:####################] INFO  c.v.v.h.s.l.DiscoverVCLicenseJob- DiscoveryLicense - VC License details not found. Neither in VCF or eval mode and completing the job.

Environment

HCX 4.11.x

Cause

This issue happens if there are both a valid Standard and a valid VCF license assigned to vCenter. This causes HCX to only recognize the Standard license, preventing activation because it does not qualify for the required feature set.

Resolution

Remove the Standard license and keep only the VCF license in vCenter, as vCenter should only have one license active at any given moment. 

Additional Information

Managing HCX Licenses