vCF Installer giving error after upgrading vCenter/ESXi to 9.1 during Validate & Deploy: vCenter Server does not have valid license to allow convert to SDDC

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

Getting error during validate & deploy in vCF Installer:
 vCenter Server does not have valid license to allow convert to SDDC
Remediation: Please apply VCF or Evaluation License to vCenter Server to allow convert to SDDC

Operationsmanager.log

2026-06-22T14:47:36.726+0000 INFO  [vcf_om,0000000000000000,0000] [c.v.v.b.v.u.vc.VcLicenseInfoUpdater,pool-5-thread-16] Found VC licenses with display names <Host fqdn>,<vCenter fqdn>
2026-06-22T14:47:36.726+0000 INFO  [vcf_om,0000000000000000,0000] [c.v.v.b.v.u.vc.VcLicenseInfoUpdater,pool-5-thread-16] Found VC license info: 
2026-06-22T14:47:36.726+0000 DEBUG [vcf_om,0000000000000000,0000] [c.v.v.b.v.u.vc.VcLicenseInfoUpdater,pool-5-thread-16] Supported License EditionKeys: [vcEval, vc.vcf]
2026-06-22T14:47:36.726+0000 DEBUG [vcf_om,0000000000000000,0000] [c.v.v.b.v.u.vc.VcLicenseInfoUpdater,pool-5-thread-16] Supported licenses for vcenter <vCenter fqdn>: {}

Environment

vCF 9.1

Resolution

Workaround:

To skip the check, we can change its severity to WARNING, then it becomes non-blocking: 
Verify manually the licensing is correct, then:

SSH to the installer as root:
1) # Backup the import.json guardrails file

root@sddc-manager [ ~ ]# cp /opt/vmware/vcf/operationsmanager/scripts/assessment/guardrails/operations/import/import.json /opt/vmware/vcf/operationsmanager/scripts/assessment/guardrails/operations/import/import.json.bk

2) Edit the import.json guardrails file, set the vc-license-support-for-convert severity to WARNING so it can be skipped acknowledged and ignored:

root@sddc-manager [ ~ ]# vim /opt/vmware/vcf/operationsmanager/scripts/assessment/guardrails/operations/import/import.json

# Find
          {
            "id": "vc-license-support-for-convert",
            "runCondition": "'${isDeployNsx}' == 'true' && #isVersionGreaterThan(version, '9.0.0.0')",
            "constraintExpression": "isVcLicenseSupportedForConvert == true",
            "validationCode": "VcenterResourceConstraintsMessages.VCENTER_LICENSE_SUPPORT_FOR_CONVERT",
            "severity": "CRITICAL"
          },

# Replace "severity": "CRITICAL" with severity": "WARNING", e.g.
          {
            "id": "vc-license-support-for-convert",
            "runCondition": "'${isDeployNsx}' == 'true' && #isVersionGreaterThan(version, '9.0.0.0')",
            "constraintExpression": "isVcLicenseSupportedForConvert == true",
            "validationCode": "VcenterResourceConstraintsMessages.VCENTER_LICENSE_SUPPORT_FOR_CONVERT",
            "severity": "WARNING"
          },
# Save the file

3) Retry the workflow.