The 60-day trial period has ended, and no commercial or free key was assigned. Virtual machines (VMs) will continue to run, but you cannot power them on if they are powered off, and management features are restricted.

This issue is resolved in vCenter Server 8.0 U3e. For existing hosts still within their 60-day evaluation period, you must remediate them as soon as possible. Options include:

VMware ESXi License Key Fixed: How to Resolve Activation Issues and Expiration Errors

The post became a popular resource for VMware administrators facing similar issues, and Rajesh received numerous comments and messages from people thanking him for sharing his story.

Maintain a central record of all license keys, including:

Rajesh tried to renew the license, but to his dismay, he realized that the license key was no longer valid. He had been using the same key for years, and it seemed that VMware had changed its licensing model, rendering his existing key obsolete.