License Migration in VxRAIL Environment: Perpetual OEM to VCF without Downtime

[dpinheiro]

Dear experts,

I am managing a VxRAIL environment with 13 nodes in production, all currently licensed with perpetual VMware OEM licenses. The support contracts for 8 of these nodes are about to expire, and we are planning to migrate specifically these 8 nodes to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) licenses.

My main concern is the impact of this migration on production workloads. Based on the documentation I've consulted, my understanding is that applying new VCF licenses to ESXi hosts is a purely administrative process that doesn't require service interruption, host reboots, or scheduled maintenance periods. VMs would continue to run normally while the new licenses are applied through vCenter.

To confirm this understanding, I would like to validate some specific points:

1. Is it correct to state that migrating from perpetual OEM licenses to VCF licenses on VxRAIL hosts doesn't require any downtime for hosts or VMs?
2. Is there any VxRAIL particularity that would make this process different from the standard ESXi host licensing process?
3. How would license management work in a mixed environment, where 8 nodes would have VCF licenses and 5 would remain with perpetual OEM licenses? Are there any special considerations for hybrid configurations of this type?
4. Considering a complete VCF environment (with NSX, vSAN, etc.), are there additional components that would need to be relicensed beyond the ESXi hosts?
5. After applying the VCF licenses, would we need to perform any additional configuration or activate specific features, or would this happen automatically?

I appreciate your guidance in advance. 

[Mohamed Omar]

Hi @dpinheiro,

You're mostly correct - here are short answers to your points:

1. No downtime is required when migrating from OEM to VCF licenses on VxRail hosts. It's handled via vCenter without service interruption.

2. No VxRail-specific change - it's the same as standard ESXi licensing.

3. A mixed environment (VCF + OEM) works, but it may complicate lifecycle operations and support alignment. Ideally, keep licensing consistent per cluster.

4. For full VCF (vSAN, NSX, etc.), make sure those components are also covered and properly configured.

5. Licensing doesn't auto-enable features - you'll need to configure NSX, vSAN, etc., manually via vCenter or SDDC Manager.

Let me know if you'd like help with the next steps.

Best regards,
Mohamed Omar