To renew the trial status of an existing ESXi 5.1 install:
- Perform a fresh install of ESXi 5.1 in a virtual machine (choose your poison for hypervisor – I use VirtualBox)
- Copy the /etc/vmware/license.cfg and /etc/vmware/vmware.lic files or contents of the files from the fresh install you just performed to the existing ESXi 5.1 host
- /sbin/services.sh restart vpxa
- Viola!
To renew the trial status of an existing vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA):
- Backup DB:
service vmware-vpxd stop
mkdir /tmp/bakup
chown db2inst1: /tmp/bakup
su – db2inst1
db2 force applications all
db2 backup db vcdb to /tmp/bakup - Copy the file locally (winscp from /tmp/bakup)
- Remove the VCSA VM and rename the folder to something like VCSA.old
- Re-import the appliance from scratch via OVF, sys and data disks
- Reduce the vRAM from 8GB to 4GB and start the new VCSA VM
- Configure the IP address and time settings
- Connect to https://<IP address of VCSA>:5480
- Accept the EULA and login (user: root, pass: vmware)
- Configure DB
- Restore DB
service vmware-vpxd stop
mkdir /tmp/bakup
chown db2inst1:/tmp/bakup
Copy file to new VCSA (winscp to /tmp/bakup)
chown db2inst1:/tmp/bakup/VCDB*
su – db2inst1
db2 restore db vcdb from /tmp/bakup replace existing
exit
service vmware-vpxd start - Connect to new VCSA via vSphere client
- Reconnect to each ESXi server by right clicking on each in the VCSA inventory
Disclaimer: I haven’t read the full trial licensing agreement for vSphere 5.1 and don’t condone the use of this information to break that or any licensing agreement… ever… for any reason… nuff said…
Try the following for ESXi 5.1 build 1065491 and 1117900
rm -r /etc/vmware/license.cfg
cp /etc/vmware/.#license.cfg /etc/vmware/license.cfg
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart
Thanks for that tip – this worked perfectly on my ESXi 5.1 lab machine.
This worked for me also – thanks
Prefect!
I just set up a 5.1 lab and am very interested in your post. Do you know whether I have to download a fresh copy of the installation software for ESXi and the VCSA if I want to restore my lab to evaluation licenses? Or can I use the same software that I previously downloaded and use your method? Thanks. I’m very interested to give this a try.
Your original downloads should work as the source for install.
Looks like VCSA 5.5 switched to postgres for the DB.
Do you happened to have instructions for postgres?
Nope – I don’t yet, but I’ll have to work my way through it soon! Stay tuned!
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