licensing_howto_guide(VMware vSphere 4 许可指南)


1


VMware
vSphere
4
License
Activation
Guide


Contents


Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................................3
How
to
Use
This
Guide................................................................................................................................................3
Activation
Process
Overview.......................................................................................................................................3
Section
1:
Pre‐Activation
Steps........................................................................................................................................4
Step
0.1:
Receive
Your
Keys
through
Email.................................................................................................................4
Step
0.2:
Familiarize
Yourself
with
the
vSphere/vCenter
License
Portal.....................................................................5
Step
0.3:
Prepare
Your
Keys
for
Activation..................................................................................................................6
Alternate
Steps
for
Existing
VMware
Infrastructure
3
Customers..............................................................................7
Section
2:
Activation
Steps..............................................................................................................................................8
Step
1:
Entering
License
Keys
into
vCenter.................................................................................................................8
Step
1.1:
Open
the
vSphere
Client...............................................................................................................................8
Step
1.2:
Assign
License
Keys
to
vCenter
Servers........................................................................................................9
Step
2:
Entering
License
Keys
into
vSphere
Hosts.....................................................................................................11
Step
2.1:
Assign
License
Key
to
First
vSphere
Host....................................................................................................11
Step
2.2:
Assign
License
Key
to
Second
vSphere
Host...............................................................................................13
Step
2.3:
Assign
License
Key
to
Third
vSphere
Host..................................................................................................14
Step
3:
Activation
is
Complete...................................................................................................................................14
Section
3:
Additional
Resources....................................................................................................................................16




2



Introduction


This
Licensing
Activation
Guide
describes
the
process
for
activating
your
vSphere
4
and
vCenter
Server
4
licenses.

It
includes
the
following
sections…


• • •

Section
1:
Pre‐Activation
Steps:
Key
steps
to
help
you
prepare
for
licensing
activation


Section
2:
Activation
Steps:
Step
by
step
instructions
for
activating
your
vSphere
4
and
vCenter
Server
4
license
keys
Section
3:
Additional
Resources:

Links
to
additional
resources,
including
details
on
complex
activation
scenarios


How
to
Use
This
Guide


• •

This
guide
shows
step
by
step
instructions
using
hypothetical
examples
with
screenshots


This
guide
uses
simple
examples
to
illustrate
the
activation
process.

For
more
complicated
cases,
refer
to
the
additional
resources
in
Section
3.


Activation
Process
Overview


The
activation
process
has
been
simplified
for
vSphere.
License
keys
are
sent
in
email
and
can
be
copied
directly
into
the
product
(portal
activation
step
that
was
required
with
VI3
is
no
longer
necessary).


Step
0: • • • Step
1: • Step
2: • • Step
3: •

License
activation
brings
the
product
out
of
Evaluation
Mode
and
ready
for
use
with
defined
feature
set
Assignment
of
license
keys
to
assets
(hosts
or
VC
itself)
is
what
really
activates
the
product
License
keys
can
also
be
assigned
directly
to
ESX
hosts
without
use
of
vCenter

Adding
license
keys
to
vCenter’s
inventory
makes
them
available
for
assignment

Licensing
email
from
VMware
contains
actual
product
license
keys
–
sent
to
individuals
listed
on
P.O.
At
the
same
time,
license
keys
are
added
to
portal
accounts
of
all
license/support
admins



Optional
step:
divide
or
combine
license
keys
into
different
quantities
to
align
with
deployment



3


Section
1:
Pre‐Activation
Steps


This
section
covers
key
steps
to
help
you
prepare
for
licensing
activation,
including
1)
Receive
your
keys
through
email
2)
Familiarize
yourself
with
the
vSphere/vCenter
license
portal
3)
Prepare
your
keys
for
activation.


For
existing
customers
of
VMware
Infrastructure
3
products,
please
see
additional
information
at
the
end
of
this
section.


In
the
hypothetical
example
used
in
this
section,
we
follow
Bill
Typical,
who
purchased
the
following
products
from
a
VMware
reseller:


1
instance
of
VMware
vCenter
Server
4
Standard

8
CPUs
of
VMware
vSphere
4
Enterprise


Step
0.1:
Receive
Your
Keys
through
Email


After
Bill
places
the
order,
the
VMware
reseller
sends
the
order
to
VMware.
Once
VMware
processes
the
order,
an
order


confirmation
is
sent
to
Bill
via
email.
Shortly
afterwards,
a
second
email
is
also
sent
to
Bill,
which
contains
his
license
keys
for
the
purchased
product
as
shown
in
Figure
1.

Note:
unlike
previous
product
versions,
this
email
contains
the
actual
license
keys
and
can
be
used
immediately
to
activate
you
VMware
products.


Figure
1:
Product
licensing
order
email
with
license
keys
for
purchased
products



4


Because
there
were
two
different
products
on
the
order
(vCenter
Server
4
Standard
and
vSphere
4
Enterprise)
the
email
above
contains
two
license
keys.
Please
note
that
the
license
key
for
vSphere
is
for
8
CPUs
because
that
is
the
quantity
purchased
on
this
order.
Regardless
of
the
quantity
of
the
product,
customers
will
always
receive
a
single
license
key
for
each
vSphere
or
vCenter
product.


The
license
keys
included
in
this
email
are
the
active
product
license
keys.
These
keys
are
ready
to
be
inserted
into
the
product
via
the
graphical
user
interface
(GUI)
in
the
vSphere
Client
by
typing
in
the
keys
or
copying
and
pasting
(see
Activation
Steps).


Step
0.2:
Familiarize
Yourself
with
the
vSphere/vCenter
License
Portal


For
customers
purchasing
vSphere
4
and
vCenter
Server
4,
license
keys
are
always
generated
and
emailed
as
soon
as
the
order
is
processed.
No
registration
step
is
necessary
(except
in
the
case
of
Partner
Activation
Codes
when
VMware
licenses
are
purchased
through
an
OEM,
which
is
not
covered
in
this
article).

For
these
customers,
there
is
no
need
to
visit
the
VMware
License
Portal
in
order
to
activate
the
licenses
or
the
product.


At
the
time
when
the
license
keys
are
generated
and
emailed
to
the
customer,
the
keys
are
automatically
added
to
the


customer’s
License
Portal
account.
The
customer
can
then
log
into
the
License
Portal
using
the
same
email
address
they
used
when
they
placed
the
order.
The
vSphere/vCenter
section
of
the
VMware
License
Portal
can
be
found
at
http://www.vmware.com/licensing/license.portal.
Screen
shots
are
shown
in
Figures
2
and
3:


Figure
2:
Default
view
of
vSphere/vCenter
license
homepage



5


Figure
3:
Expanded
view
of
vSphere/vCenter
license
homepage


Figure
2
shows
that
the
customer
has
previously
purchased
other
vSphere/vCenter
licenses.
When
expanding
on
the
product
names
(Figure
3),
the
actual
license
keys
appear.
When
further
expanding
on
the
individual
license
keys,
the
order
details
and
comment
fields
appear.
The
comment
field
can
be
edited
by
the
customer
and
should
be
used
to
keep
track
of
where
license
keys
have
been
deployed.


Step
0.3:
Prepare
Your
Keys
for
Activation


Although
the
same
keys
that
were
sent
by
email
are
in
the
licensing
portal,
there
are
still
a
few
reasons
to
visit
the
portal
before
activation:




1. The
customer
wants
to
verify
their
overall
entitlement
before
deploying
additional
instances
of
vSphere
or
vCenter.

2. The
licensing
email
may
have
been
misplaced,
or
it
was
not
received
by
the
user
who
needs
to
deploy
a
vSphere
or


vCenter
product.
VMware
only
sends
the
licensing
email
to
customers
specified
at
the
time
of
order.
License


Administrators
and
Support
Administrators
typically
do
not
receive
the
licensing
email,
but
they
do
have
access
to
license
keys
in
their
portal.


3. The
customer
wants
to
divide
license
keys
into
smaller
increments.
In
this
example,
the
vSphere
4
Enterprise
license


key
contains
8
CPUs.
If
the
customer
wants
to
deploy
4
CPUs
each
to
two
different
data
centers,
the
“Divide”
functionality
in
the
portal
allows
the
customer
to
replace
the
8‐CPU
license
key
with
2
new
4‐CPU
license
keys.



6


4. The
customer
wants
to
combine
several
license
keys
into
a
single
“master”
license
key.
An
example
of
this
would
be
if


the
customer
has
previously
purchased
6
CPUs
of
vSphere
4
Enterprise
and
now
receives
a
second
license
key
for
8
CPUs
on
the
new
order.
This
customer
may
prefer
to
track
their
entire
entitlement
on
a
single
license
key.
To
this
end,
the
two
(or
any
larger
number
of)
keys
can
be
joined
using
the
“Combine”
functionality.
Please
note,
VMware
allows
customers
to
divide
and
combine
their
license
keys
to
ease

license
management.
When
dividing
or
combining
license
keys,
the
original
license
is
always
deactivated
and
replaced
by
new
license
keys.
Customers
are
required
by
their
license
agreement
to
cease
all
use
of
the
original
license
keys
immediately.
Further,
if
several
individual
accounts
(i.e.
email
addresses)
share
access
to
the
same
license
keys,
any
use
of
the
Divide
or
Combine
functionality
will
affect
the
other
users
of
these
license
keys.
Customers
should
exercise
caution
and
communicate
clearly
before
modifying
their
license
keys.


Alternate
Steps
for
Existing
VMware
Infrastructure
3
Customers


There
are
two
additional
situations
in
which
vSphere
4
customers
will
need
to
use
the
License
Portal:


1. VMware
Infrastructure
3
customers
who
were
provided
upgraded
vSphere
4
and
vCenter
Server
4
licenses
under
the


terms
of
an
active
VI3
Support
and
Subscription
contract.

For
these
upgraded
licenses,
the
license
keys
are
not


distributed
in
email.
In
this
case,
the
customer
must
log
into
their
vSphere/vCenter
License
Portal
to
obtain
the
license
keys.
Please
see
the
licensing
section
of
the
vSphere
Upgrade
Center
for
additional
details.


2. Customers
who
purchase
new
vSphere
4
and/or
vCenter
Server
4
licenses
but
wish
to
deploy
to
the
previous
version
of


the
software
(ESX
3.x
and
vCenter
Server
2.x)
can
downgrade
their
license
keys
via
the
License
Portal.
A
downgrade
results
in
new
VI3
licenses
being
added
to
the
VI3
license
portal
for
the
same
customer
accounts.



7


Section
2:
Activation
Steps


This
section
includes
step
by
step
instructions
for
activating
your
vSphere
4
and
vCenter
Server
4
license
keys.


Activation
refers
to
the
act
of
inserting
(or
“installing”)
license
keys
into
the
installed
software,
thus
enabling
it
for
use.
Note
that
vSphere
4
and
vCenter
Server
4
have
a
built‐in
Evaluation
Mode
which
enables
operation
for
up
to
60
days
after
the
initial
installation
of
the
software.



Please
note
that
evaluation
Mode
is
intended
for
new
and
potential
customers’
experimental
use
only.

Any
use
of
Evaluation
Mode
in
support
of
production,
development,
or
other
workloads
adding
value
to
an
IT
operation
while
in
Evaluation
Mode
is
prohibited
by
the
End
User
License
Agreement
(EULA)
accepted
during
installation.


The
60‐day
Evaluation
Mode
serves
a
useful
purpose
during
deployment,
in
that
all
instances
can
be
installed,
and
ESX
hosts
can
be
added
to
vCenter
Server
without
license
keys.
Once
this
setup
is
complete,
activating
the
product
is
a
quick
and
simple
operation
as
described
in
this
section.


Step
1:
Entering
License
Keys
into
vCenter
Step
1.1:
Open
the
vSphere
Client


Figure
4
shows
a
vSphere
Client
logged
into
a
vCenter
Server
called
SILLK‐VCLIC‐REG.
In
this
example,
the
customer
has
already
installed
one
instance
of
vCenter
Server
4
and
three
instances
of
ESX
4,
each
running
on
a
server
with
2
physical
CPUs.


Figure
4:
vSphere
client



8


From
the
Home
screen,
go
to
Licensing.
As
seen
below
in
Figure
5,
all
software
is
running
in
Evaluation
Mode
as
no
license
keys
have
been
added
yet.


Figure
5:
“By
Asset”
view
of
the
licensing
report
(default
view
is
“By
Product”)


Step
1.2:
Assign
License
Keys
to
vCenter
Servers


Right‐click
the
vCenter
Server
name
in
the
Asset
column
and
select
“Change
license
key…”
(see
Figure
6)



9


Figure
6:
Right‐click
view
of
server
name


Next,
a
dialog
box
appears
as
seen
in
Figure
7,
presenting
all
available
license
keys
matching
the
type
of
asset,
in
this
case
a
vCenter
Server.
Since
no
license
keys
have
been
added
to
the
product
yet
select
“Assign
a
new
license
key
to
this
vCenter
Server”
and
hit
the
“Enter
Key…”
button.



10


Figure
7:
Dialogue
box
presenting
available
license
keys
matching
the
type
of
assets


Copy
the
vCenter
Server
4
Standard
license
key
received
in
email
(or
from
the
License
Portal)
and
paste
it
into
the
New
license
key
field
as
seen
in
Figure
8.
The
label
field
can
be
used
to
track
PO
numbers
or
any
other
relevant
data:


Figure
8:
“Add
License
Key”
pop‐up


After
hitting
OK
twice,
the
vCenter
Server
is
now
licensed
as
a
vCenter
Server
4
Standard.



Step
2:
Entering
License
Keys
into
vSphere
Hosts
Step
2.1:
Assign
License
Key
to
First
vSphere
Host


To
insert
the
vSphere
4
Enterprise
license
key
from
the
licensing
email
(and
the
license
portal)
start
by
right‐clicking
the
host
name
and
selecting
‘Change
license
key…’
as
shown
in
Figure
9.



11


Figure
9:
View
of
all
available
license
keys
matching
the
ESX
host
asset
type
(with
first
host
right‐clicked)


An
optional
label
can
be
added
to
this
key
as
shown
in
Figure
10:


Figure
10:
Add
license
key
view
with
optional
label



12


Now,
the
vCenter
Server
and
the
first
vSphere
host
have
been
assigned
license
keys.



Step
2.2:
Assign
License
Key
to
Second
vSphere
Host


Right‐click
the
second
vSphere
host
and
select
‘Change
license
key…’
as
shown
in
Figure
11:


Figure
11:
View
of
all
available
license
keys
matching
the
ESX
host
asset
type
(with
second
host
right‐clicked)


As
a
vSphere
4
Enterprise
license
key
was
already
assigned
to
the
first
host,
that
license
key
is
now
part
of
the
license
key


inventory
of
the
vCenter
server.
It
will
be
presented
as
an
option
in
the
“Assign
license”
dialog
for
all
subsequent
vSphere
hosts
as
shown
in
Figure
12.
Recall
from
the
licensing
email
and
the
license
portal
that
this
license
key
has
a
value,
or
“capacity”
of
8
CPUs.
Since
2
CPUs
are
already
consumed
by
the
first
host,
osdc‐pdpvc077,
the
license
key
shown
in
Figure
12
has
6
CPUs
available.
As
soon
as
the
key
is
selected,
the
available
count
decreases
to
4
CPUs
as
the
host,
osdc‐pdpvc036,
is
also
a
2‐CPU
machine:



13


Figure
12:
Assign
license
view
after
first
key
has
been
entered
(with
mouseover
popup)


Step
2.3:
Assign
License
Key
to
Third
vSphere
Host


To
assign
a
key
to
the
third
host,
repeat
the
process
outlined
in
Step
2.2


Step
3:
Activation
is
Complete


The
vCenter
Server
and
vSphere
hosts
are
now
fully
activated
and
ready
for
use!



After
all
three
hosts
have
been
assigned
the
same
vSphere
4
Enterprise
license
key,
6
of
the
8
CPUs
on
the
key
are
used.
The
“by
Product”
view
(default)
shows
this
data
rolled
up
for
all
license
types
added
to
the
vCenter
Server
as
shown
in
Figure
13:



14


Figure
13:
By
Product
view
after
all
three
hosts
have
been
assigned
to
keys


This
view
is
collapsed
by
default,
showing
only
the
product
names
along
with
their
total
license
capacity
and
how
much
of
that
capacity
is
assigned.
By
expanding
once,
the
individual
license
keys
are
shown
along
with
their
counts.
Here,
the
8
CPUs
of
vSphere
4
Enterprise
are
all
contained
on
a
single
license
key.
The
assigned
quantity
is
6
CPUs
and
when
expanding
one


additional
level
in
the
report,
it
shows
the
specific
assets
(hosts)
to
which
the
6
CPUs
are
assigned.
2
CPUs
remain
unassigned
and
available
for
an
additional
2‐CPU
host
to
be
added
later.



15


Section
3:
Additional
Resources


This
guide
covers
basic
examples
for
a
common
license
activation
situation.
For
more
complex
usages,
additional
resources
can
be
found
on
the
VMware
web
site.


To
supplement
this
guide,
additional
information
can
be
found
using
the
links
below.
The
administrative
guide
for
using
the
vSphere
product
can
be
found
at
vSphere
4
Administration
Documentation


(http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esx40_vc40.html)


Answers
to
frequently
asked
vSphere
licensing
questions
can
be
found
here:
vSphere/vCenter
Licensing
FAQ


(http://www.vmware.com/support/licensing/vsphere_faqs.html)


Upgrade resources, step-by-step videos and migration guides are available in the vSphere Upgrade Center


(http://www.vmware.com/go/vsphere-upgrade-center)

Support resources for vSphere can be found in the vSphere Support Center

(http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere.html)


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