Today, I had a conversation with a customer who had recently completed the setup of the Tanzu K8S supervisory cluster. Post-setup, he upgraded vCenter from 7.0 to 7.0U1 and encountered an unexpected issue. Instead of displaying the Enterprise Plus license, the Kubernetes cluster began showing a 60-day evaluation license. He sought my assistance to resolve this issue.
Upon investigating, I discovered that the vCenter Server 7.0U1 license splits into separate license keys for VMware Tanzu Basic and vSphere Enterprise Plus after the upgrade. Consequently, when vCenter is upgraded to 7.0U1, the existing supervisory cluster automatically initiates a 60-day evaluation license.
This is a known behavior associated with vCenter Server 7.0 Update 1. VMware announced the introduction of vSphere 7.0 on April 2, 2020, which included the vSphere add-on for Kubernetes as part of the release. This behavior change is a part of this update.
Between April 2, 2020, and October 5, 2020, vSphere add-on for Kubernetes was fulfilled with three license keys:
- vSphere 7 Enterprise Plus with Kubernetes for 1 processor.
- Hybrid Infrastructure Services for VMware vSphere add-on for Kubernetes (Per CPU).
- Tanzu Kubernetes Grid for VMware vSphere add-on for Kubernetes (Per CPU).
To address this behaviour, we need to install a VMware Tanzu Basic license key and assign it to the existing Supervisory Cluster within 60 days. This has to be done on all the hosts in the cluster.
Here is how we can do that:
- Login to My VMware.
- Select Accounts > License Keys from the top left-hand side of the My VMware homepage or Manage Licenses Quick Link option in the middle of the My VMware homepage.
Alternatively, when you receive an alert for subscription upgrade, click Upgrade Licenses in the alert. This takes you to the License Keys page.
- Select By Product tab on the License Keys page.
- Select I want to Upgrade License Keys.
Note: If no products appear, you may not have permission to upgrade license keys, or there may not be any license keys available for upgrade.
- Filter on “Hybrid” in the Product column and select “Hybrid Infrastructure Services for VMware vSphere add-on for Kubernetes (Per CPU)”.
- Select desired license keys and quantities to transition to Tanzu Basic and click Continue.
- You will see a screen that confirms the product you are going to receive after the upgrade and the quantity. Review to optionally edit the quantities and click Continue.
- Finally, check the box to indicate that you have read and understood the warning, then click Confirm.
Ref:
Kb: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/80868
Release Note: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/7.0/rn/vsphere-vcenter-server-701-release-notes.html