Unable to activate license key on standalone ESXi host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Newly acquired license key when assigned (Manage > Licensing > Assign license) passes all the checks with no errors but is not installed in the license window.

The license configuration file (license.cfg) still holds the old or evaluation license.

/etc/vmware/license.cfg
<ConfigRoot>
...
  <mode>eval</mode>
  <owner/>
</ConfigRoot>

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

Insufficient number of CPU cores as the host does not meet the required number of CPU cores for the license

Resolution

Please use the core key that matches your environment as referenced in KB: Counting Cores for VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation and TiBs for vSAN.

Additional Information

Under the Broadcom licensing model, a minimum of 16 cores are required per socket