Error: "The current vCenter Server is not licensed by a licensing server. Go to VCF operations to view license server details." displayed during ESXi upgrade process

Products

• VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to upgrade ESXi hosts, the upgrade fails with a licensing error.
• The license manager within VCF Operations shows as disconnected following a vCenter Server upgrade to version 9.1.

Environment

• VCF Operations 9.0 & 9.1
• vCenter Server 9.1.0 

Cause

The licensing communication between VCF Operations and vCenter Server is broken due to an incorrect upgrade sequence. The vCenter Server was upgraded to version 9.1 while VCF Operations remained on an older version. As per the official VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 documentation hierarchy, VCF Operations must be upgraded before the vCenter Server to properly establish the new decoupled licensing architecture. In VCF 9.1, the license server is deployed during the VCF Operations upgrade and acts as the central authority responsible for propagating license allocations across the SDDC components.

Resolution

To restore license server connectivity and unblock the ESXi lifecycle operations, VCF Operations must be upgraded to version 9.1 and re-registered with the infrastructure environment.

1. Download the VCF Operations 9.1 .pak upgrade file from the Broadcom Support Portal.

   Note: The VCF Operations 9.1 upgrade cannot be performed via the legacy Fleet Management Lifecycle interface. It requires the manual application of the .pak file.

2. Upgrade VCF Operations environment as per the steps outlined in the Perform the Upgrade to VCF Operations 9.1 section of the product documentation to apply the upgrade package.
3. Once the VCF Operations upgrade finishes successfully, navigate to the administration interface and re-establish the connection component. Follow the Register VCF Operations and Your License Server in Connected Mode documentation.
4. Verify that the central licensing server pushes the licenses to the target vCenter Server. Once the vCenter Server updates its licensing state, retry the ESXi host upgrade.