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Updating the VMware vCenter License Key using PowerCLI

Published on 14 June 2019 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 232. Reading Time: 2 mins.

Out of the blue this week, I had a query from a colleague about being able to update the vCenter License key programmatically via PowerShell/PowerCLI. This is something I have done before so luckily I had a script.

The main license update component is here:


$LM = get-view($vCenter.ExtensionData.content.LicenseManager)
$LM.AddLicense($vCenter6License,$null)
$LAM = get-view($LicenseManager.licenseAssignmentManager)
$LAM.UpdateAssignedLicense($vCenter.InstanceUuid,$vCenter6License,$Null)

Note:

This is not an original script, I found the original script online somewhere. So I definitely do not take the credit!

For a fully working script we can top and tail the above code with the usual variable and connectivity statements for vCenter:


$vCenterServer=[vCenter FQDN]
$User=[vCenter Username]
$Password=[vCenter Password]
$License = [vCenter License Key]

$EncryptedPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "$Password" -AsPlainText -Force`

$Credential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $User, $EncryptedPassword`
  
Disconnect-VIServer -confirm:$false -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Write-Host "Connecting to $vCenterServer"
$vCenter = Connect-VIServer -Server $vCenterServer -Credential $Credential
$LM = get-view($vCenter.ExtensionData.content.LicenseManager)
$LM.AddLicense($License,$null)
$LAM = get-view($LicenseManager.licenseAssignmentManager)
$LAM.UpdateAssignedLicense($vCenter.InstanceUuid,$License,$Null)

And hey presto!

The script can also be found in my PowerShell github repo.

Note:

If you are running PowerShell Core and trying to use the Connect-VIServer command then you may get the following error:

<figure  class="blog">
     <a href="/img/2019/06/14/screenshot.png"> 
    <img src="/img/2019/06/14/screenshot.png"    /> 
     </a> 
    
</figure>

If this is the case, you may need to run the following additional PowerCLI command enable this functionality to work:

Set-PowerCLIConfiguration -InvalidCertificateAction:Ignore

Once that change has been made, the script should work.

If it doesn’t please let me know via social media!

Published on 14 June 2019 by Christopher Lewis. Words: 232. Reading Time: 2 mins.

Blog Categories: VMware PowerCLI

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