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I have my own VMware account that I set up when I needed to download the ESXi 6.7 installer to test on a Parallels VM, so I understood the install process. Reason being, I have a client with totally incompetent IT consultants, who after 4 years STILL can provide a VM host that is stable and performant. Long story short, after years of misery we repurposed an old BIM workstation, got ESXi installed, and now have a VM that is perfectly functional. Now we just need to activate the Free Version license, since the 60 day demo is ending.

1: The IT consultants say the 60 day demo will automatically convert to the free license at the end of the demo period. This makes no sense to me, as then why would VMware provide free version license keys in my account? Can someone verify if this is true or not?

2: I found a web site somewhere (can't provide a link at the moment) that said something to the effect of "you must activate the license during the demo period", but it felt a bit like a translation error. Is this true? What happens if the 60 days expires before you activate? Can you still activate, and just not use the VMs prior to activation? Or is the warning above real, and if you fail to activate during the demo period the host is somehow bricked?

3: The customer is buried in issues right now, many related to the IT consultants, who among other things allowed a server failure to happen and took a week to recover. I am hoping that since I already have my account set up, and it has a license key that has never been used, I could just change the profile info to use their contact info and their company info, and then also activate with the key we already have. Not really a technical question like the first two, but maybe someone can tell me yea or nay on that idea? It would be great to be able to quickly get them set up with both an activated license and a company VMware account without them needing to do anything, given the situation they are already in.

Gordon
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  • Does this answer your question? [Can you help me with my software licensing issue?](https://serverfault.com/questions/215405/can-you-help-me-with-my-software-licensing-issue) – Greg Askew Aug 23 '22 at 11:05
  • No, no it does not. And at least the first two questions are TECHNICAL questions about how licenses are activated in a particular software, rather than non technical questions about license terms. So very much an appropriate couple of question in my book. The last question is admittedly off topic, but I am hoping that someone knowledgable enough about implementing ESXi 6.7 to answer the first two technical questions can also weigh in on the last one without it being an issue. – Gordon Aug 23 '22 at 11:26
  • Vendors are the best contact for licensing questions. – Greg Askew Aug 23 '22 at 11:28
  • Sure, and they also often have a response time measured in days or weeks, especially when the question is about free or demo versions. Also, I don't TRUST vendors to answer questions about their own software. Something about 20 years of listening to Autodesk lies. So, I am hoping that someone with in the trenches experience with ESXi can answer at least the two technical questions. I am pretty sure doing so won't taint Stack Overflow forever. :) – Gordon Aug 23 '22 at 11:32

1 Answers1

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"The IT consultants say the 60 day demo will automatically convert to the free license at the end of the demo period"

This is true, the evaluation licence is 'fuly featured' whereas the free licence has significantly-reduced features.

"you must activate the license during the demo period", but it felt a bit like a translation error. Is this true?"

No, you may do whatever you like with licences at any time, certainly you can apply a paid licence over either an evaluation or free licence.

Regarding your third question - yes you can keep moving from one evaluation licence to another, it works, though I seem to recall is against the licence agreement and is also obviously morally wrong, but yes it does work.

Chopper3
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  • Thanks @chopper3! If I may, can I ask some clarifying questions? With regards to the free license vs the demo, my understanding is the free license doesn't support 3rd party backups and also doesn't support vCenter Server, as well as limiting the number of logical CPUs per host and VM. None of which is an issue for us. Is there anything else "missing" that would preclude using a single VM for very basic testing on a single host? – Gordon Aug 23 '22 at 12:06
  • Also, this page regarding ESXi 7.0 (https://www.virten.net/2020/04/free-esxi-7-0-how-to-download-and-get-license-keys/) also has similar language to the page I found about 6.7, namely "vSphere 7.0 has been released and as known from previous versions, VMware provides a free version of their Hypervisor ESXi for everyone again. The license key can be created for free at VMware's website. It has no expiration date." I am curious what this license key is for, if not for activating the free version? It is that language that has me totally confused. – Gordon Aug 23 '22 at 12:08
  • And lastly, as far as the key I do have, as I understand it, it is not an evaluation key but a free key, and it has never been used. So the question is more one of, can an entire VMware account and unused keys be effectively "transferred" to another business entity when it has been used for nothing other than downloading an installer? – Gordon Aug 23 '22 at 12:12
  • Definitely this last one is off topic, and I do have an email in to VMware, but I don't expect a response in the next 24 hours, and our 60 days is up so I need to do whatever I can to ensure that the host and VM are still working at the end of the week. Though it sounds like (for once) the IT consultant may be right, and once the 60 days is up it will keep working, just with limits that are still well above our needs. – Gordon Aug 23 '22 at 12:12
  • Hi, I'm not so much of an expert in the free licences but I think regarding your second comment I used the wrong term - I should have said 'Evaluation mode' as you're right, it's not a licence in itself. This is a good guide for the limitation of the free ESXi v6.7 - (https://www.virtualizationhowto.com/2019/11/esxi-6-7-free-limitations-and-features/). And yes you can transfer licences (as in move, not duplicate) but if you're paying for support you need to update details on the licenced account. – Chopper3 Aug 23 '22 at 13:07
  • Oh and yes it does just keep working once the evaluation period has ended, the issues would come once you restart the VMs or host depending on affected limitation. – Chopper3 Aug 23 '22 at 13:07
  • Well, if it keeps working, with the limitations of the free version, even after a reboot, we will be golden. But it still has me wondering what the use is for the "free version" license key that is provided in my VMware account. If it becomes a free version automatically, providing the key just seems like added effort for VMware, as well as added confusion for people like me. Seems... odd. – Gordon Aug 24 '22 at 11:27
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    https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/com.vmware.esxi.upgrade.doc/GUID-17862A54-C1D4-47A9-88AA-2A1A32602BC6.html For ESXi hosts, license or evaluation period expiry leads to disconnection from vCenter Server. All powered on virtual machines continue to work, but you cannot power on virtual machines after they are powered off. You cannot change the current configuration of the features that are in use. You cannot use the features that remained unused before the license expiration. So after expiration you may install free key and continue using ESXi host with free license limitations – gapsf Aug 24 '22 at 12:51
  • @gapsf Thanks for that link. That definitely tells me I need to get this host activated. Currently it's not on battery backup, so a power outage would mean all the VMs are stopped and can't be restarted, and we would be dead in the water. Definitely explains why those keys are made available. :) – Gordon Aug 24 '22 at 17:37