Vcenter License Key Command Line

Best for: Modern scripting on standalone hosts.

The esxcli command is newer than vim-cmd and is generally preferred for modern scripting.

$license = New-VMLicense -LicenseKey "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" vcenter license key command line

vim-cmd vimsvc/license/add <LICENSE_KEY>

In a large deployment, licensing 50 hosts manually in the GUI is tedious. The CLI simplifies this to a single line: Best for: Modern scripting on standalone hosts

Get-VMHost | Set-VMHost -LicenseKey "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"

If a license expires and blocks new operations:

Get-VMLicense | Where-Object $_.Expiration -lt (Get-Date) | Remove-VMLicense -Confirm:$false

Managing licenses through the vSphere Client (GUI) is standard, but automating license injection or managing hosts without a GUI requires the Command Line Interface (CLI). This guide focuses on the vSphere CLI (vCLI) and PowerCLI, the two primary methods for this task. If a license expires and blocks new operations:

To view the current license information, use:

Get-LicenseAssignment | Select-Object -Property LicenseKey,AssignedTo,@N='ProductName';E=$_.LicenseProduct.Name

$remainingHosts = Get-VMHost | Where-Object $_.LicenseKey -eq $oldKey if ($remainingHosts.Count -eq 0) Write-Host "No hosts remain on old license. Removing old key." Remove-VMLicense -LicenseKey $oldKey -Confirm:$false else Write-Warning "Some hosts still use the old license."

Disconnect-VIServer -Server $vcServer -Confirm:$false