Procedure Obtain the vSphere 7.0 license key by redeeming the vSphere The free ESXi license (also known as the vSphere Hypervisor license) only allows read-only access to the vSphere API. VMware offers various paid versions of ESXi, but also provides a free version available for anyone to use.Downgrade to VMware vSphere 6.7 If the customer has a vSphere 7.0 license key, they must downgrade it to a vSphere 6.7 license key using the VMware License Portal. IT professionals regard ESXi as the go-to hypervisor for running virtual machines - and it's available for free. VMware's ESXi is the world's leading virtualization hypervisor. VMware ESXi Free vs Paid: A Look at License Limitations. Now I find out I can't boot any VMs because my evaluation license for ESXi has expired.
Today, I did a RAM upgrade to my host and powered it back on. I assumed I was on the free version of ESXi since I couldn't do things like clone VMs and whatnot.
The license will have an associated capacity, that is the number of processors you can apply it to. (Download Client) The client will work without a licence but ESXi will require the free ESXi License Key to activate it. Next I will send you to a link where you can get download the vSphere client. From this link you can also get your Free ESXi License Key.
License Expiration Upon license expiration, the vCenter Server software and the ESX/ESXi software continue to run, but certain operations stop working.
In the window that opens, select Assign a new license key to this host and then type the license key when prompted. On the right panel, click the Configuration tab.
vCenter Server allows virtualization administrators to centrally manage and monitor their vSphere environments. UPDATED (October 18th, 2018): The vCenter Server features by licensing chart has been updated to reflect that the vCenter Server Migration Tool is included in the ISO and is available to use with all vCenter Server licensed versions.
VMware resolved this issue in this patch for VMware vSphere ESXi.