Adding ESX Host to vCenter 9.x fails with "license capacity is insufficient"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article addresses the steps to review and remediate license capacity issues encountered when adding ESX host(s) to vCenter Server. Below are some of the errors that might be encountered:

• When attempting to add ESX host to vCenter Server 9.x, the operation encounters below error message on vCenter UI:
  
  This host cannot be automatically licensed at this time. The evaluation license of the host has expired, and the primary license assigned to the vCenter instance does not have sufficient capacity to license the host.

The license capacity is insufficient
  
  

Environment

vCenter 9.x

 

Cause

The primary license assigned to the vCenter Server instance lacks sufficient available core capacity to license the incoming ESXi host.

Licensing strictly requires a minimum of 16 cores per CPU. For instance, a 2-CPU host requires a minimum of 32 free cores. If the primary license pool contains fewer available cores than the hardware requires (e.g., 20 available cores remaining out of 140), the capacity deficit prevents successful assignment.

Resolution

1. Identify the number of occupied CPU sockets and the physical core count per CPU on the concerned ESX host.

2. Calculate Required Capacity while ensuring the 16-core minimum per physical CPU socket capacity is met:
   
   Total Capacity Needed = (Number of CPUs) x (Max(16, Physical Cores per CPU)). 

3. Access the Broadcom Business Service Console to review current license capacity and utilization.

4. Adjust license capacity by following Change License Capacity to ensure the required number of free cores are available on the primary vCenter license:
   
   NOTE: If the physical core count exceeds the total entitlement, contact the Broadcom Sales Representative or Reseller to purchase additional core add-ons.

   1. If the target vCenter uses the default primary license:
      
      Reduce the core count allocated to other split licenses. This action returns capacity to the default license pool.

   2. If the target vCenter uses a split license:
      
      Increase the capacity of the target split license. This action reallocates cores from the default license pool to the split license.

5. Depending on the version of VCF Operations, navigate to the the license management page within VCF Operations:

   1. VCF Operations 9.0:
      
      License Management > Registration

   2. VCF Operations 9.1:
      
      Manage > Licensing > Licenses & Registration
      
      

6. Update the license inventory within VCF Operations to ensure capacity changes done on Business Console are reflected:

   1. Connected Mode:
      
      Use UPDATE LICENSES to initiate a synchronization and pull the updated license capacity from the Business Service Console.

   2. Disconnected Mode:
      
      Download the updated license key file directly from the Business Service Console and upload it to VCF Operations using IMPORT LICENSE FILE . 
      
      For more details refer to Report License Usage and Update Licenses in Disconnected Mode

7. Verify within vCenter Server and the Business Service Console that the primary license now reflects the required free core capacity.

8. Retry adding the ESX host to the cluster and assigning the license.

Additional Information

vSphere 9 implements a per-core licensing model with a mandatory minimum of 16 cores per physical CPU (socket)

1. 16-Core Minimum Requirement: Even if a physical CPU has fewer than 16 cores (e.g., an 8-core or 12-core processor), vCenter will utilize16 cores of license capacity for that CPU.
2. High Core Count: If a CPU has more than 16 cores (e.g., 32 cores), it requires 32 cores of license capacity.
3. Calculation: Total Capacity Needed = (Number of CPUs) x (Max(16, Physical Cores per CPU)).

For more details, refer to Counting Cores for VMware Cloud Foundation and vSphere Foundation and TiBs for vSAN