Error: An asset added to vCenter could not be licensed due to insufficient license capacity in VCF 9.1.

Products

• VCF Operations

Issue/Introduction

• Under Manage > Licensing > Licenses & Registration in VCF Operations, the following error is displayed in the Issues column of the License and vCenter Systems section: "An asset added to [vCenter_FQDN] could not be licensed due to insufficient license capacity. Allocate more capacity to the license assigned to [vCenter_FQDN]."

• ESX host remains in "Evaluation" license state after upgrading to version 9.1.

• vCenter reports as not fully licensed in VCF operations: Manage > Licensing > Licenses & Registration > vCenter Systems

• The environment may contain a mix of ESX 9.x and ESXi 8.x hosts.

• The total core count reported in the Asset License Status exceeds the core count designated in the Allocated Capacity of the primary license in Licenses & registerations tab.

Environment

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.1

• VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF) 9.1

• VMware vCenter 9.1

• VMware ESX 9.1

• VMware ESXi 8.x

Cause

In VCF 9.1, the license capacity displayed and enforced in VCF Operations includes all hosts managed by the vCenter instance (versions 9.1, 9.0, and 8.x). Even if an ESXi host is running version 8.x and is licensed with a pre-version 9 perpetual key, it still consumes core capacity from the version 9+ subscription (VCF or VVF). If the total core count of all managed hosts (9.x + 8.x) exceeds the entitlement, further license assignments are blocked.

Resolution

1. Identify and remove any ESXi hosts that no longer need to be managed by the vCenter instance:

   1. For hosts that can enter maintenance mode, remove the host from the vCenter inventory: How to Remove an ESXi Host from Your vCenter Server Instance

   2. For hosts with powered-on virtual machines (VMs) that cannot enter maintenance mode, disconnect and then remove the host from the inventory: Disconnecting and Reconnecting an ESXi Host

   3. For hosts managed by SDDC Manager, decommission the host through the SDDC interface: Decommission ESX Hosts

2. Allow 5–10 minutes for the VCF Operations inventory to refresh and reclaim the core capacity.

3. If all hosts are required, increase the license capacity of the VCF or VVF subscription to cover the total core count of the entire inventory: Change License Capacity

Additional Information

Mixed-Version Environments