VM /ETC

Here’s another upgrade to ESX 3.5 issue reported to me by Mohammad, a UK VMware professional and VM /ETC reader. This issue is specific to ESX hosts that have 4 or more CPU sockets and are using a host based license. VMware has now released a patch to resolve this issue – http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003214

From our email conversation:

Mohammad:

Just a quick question on ESX 3.5 note.. Have you come across using 4x CPU (quad core, so 16cores total) host-based license with ESX 3.5 yet? One of my customers got an issue with that and VMware’s response was that they need a patch to fix the issue which sounds little strange.

Me:

I have not come across this yet. Just so I understand, your customer has a 4 physical socket ESX server that is also quad core and ESX host based licensing won’t work? Meaning what, that they have at least a 4 cpu license but ESX can’t read it correctly on this particular platform? It was not a problem in ESX 3.0.2 or earlier?

Mohammad:

Yes thats right, 4 sockets, 4 CPUs and all quad core, ESX 3.5, hostbased lic. On Vi Client, when pointing to lic file, ESX shows licensed, but when clicking on ESX edition to select lic type starter or standard, clicking on standard and OK, still shows ESX unlicensed. Lic file is correct. Apparantly VMware has just said there this is an issue (ESX 3.5 with 4 or more CPUs, host-based lic) which they will fix in patch release..

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