Error: "License key has expired" Prevents Powering On VCF Operations Appliance in VCF 9.0

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere Foundation
• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi hosts enter a "Disconnected" or "Not Responding" state within the inventory.
  
  
• Virtual Machines (VMs), including the vCenter Server and the VCF Operations appliance, cannot be powered on.
  
  
• The ESXi host client returns the error indicating that the current license has expired, restricting power-on operations : License key has expired.
  
  

Cause

VCF 9.x uses centralized licensing via the VCF Operations appliance. If ESXi evaluation licenses expire before the appliance is active, a circular dependency occurs: hosts require licenses to power on management VMs, however the VCF Operations appliance must be running to assign them. Standard ESXi or vSphere clients cannot bypass this deadlock.

Resolution

1. Redeploy one ESXi host from the management domain to initiate a new 60-day evaluation period.
   
   
2. Deploy and power on the VCF Operations appliance directly on the host using the ESXi Host Client.
   
   
3. Assign the licenses to the components from the VCF Operations appliance, refer : Add a License to VCF Operations

Additional Information

Unable to commission an ESXi host from VCF SDDC manager after re-imaging - Fails with error "Host(s) already present in Inventory, validation failed"