Veeam incorrectly detecting ESXi as Free version

[bitbite]

Hello,

I've installed Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5.0.109 x64 inside a VM on a licensed ESXi host. Backup jobs are failing with the following:

SetVmChangeTracking failed, vmRef '2', changeTrackingEnabled 'True' Failed to execute SOAP command "CReconfigVmOperation". Details: "<RestrictedVersionFault xmlns="urn:vim25" xsi:type="RestrictedVersion" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instan ... rsionFault>" fault.RestrictedVersion.summary

I checked and followed KB1251 (http://www.veeam.com/KB1251) but I'm getting the following output from QuerySupportedFeatures\Invoke Method:

Method Invocation Result: InvalidArgument
dynamicProperty DynamicProperty[] Unset
dynamicType string Unset
faultCause MethodFault Unset
faultMessage LocalizableMessage[] Unset
invalidProperty string "featureKey"

This is what the Licensed Features section in vSphere Client is showing:

Product: VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor Licensed for 1 physical CPUs (unlimited cores per CPU)
License Key: (license key here...)
Expires: Never

Product Features:
Up to 32 GB of memory
Up to 8-way virtual SMP

Can anyone please advise how I can resolve this issue?

Thanks in advance!

[foggy]

This is what the Licensed Features section in vSphere Client is showing:

That means that you have free version of ESXi (VMware vSphere 5 Hypervisor), which is correctly detected by Veeam B&R as unsupported.

[Vitaliy S.]

Foggy is correct - even free version of ESXi has a license key that has this output in the Licensed Features section.

[Gostev]

Yep, 32GB is quite famous free ESXi limitation, too...

[bitbite]

Thanks, for some reason I thought it was 8GB...

Anyway the issue was I didn't register the HP license with VMWare (a process I wasn't aware required) to receive a valid license key from VMWare. It took HP support reps 3 days to provide me with a solution (not before I was endlessly bounced around between VMWare and HP) which ended up being vague instructions on how to receive the correct license key from VMWare.

This is the info I got from HP, should anyone face the same difficulty in the future:
Note: At the "Welcome HP Customers -- VMware Product Registration" page you need to log in with a VMWare account to ACTUALLY perform the process. This isn't mentioned in any of the steps!

Please register your Partner Activation Code (PAC) at VMware portal in order to get the License key (LAC) that would allow you to use the software. In order to do so, please follow the below steps:

• Registering your PAC on VMware Portal

1. Go to http://www.vmware.com/partners/alliance ... -code.html
2. Select “Click to register your product activation code(s)”
3. After the procedure is completed License Activation Code (LAC) will be provided, this code will be required to successfully install the software

Note:
• HP Partner Activation Codes (PAC) are in an alpha/numeric format XXXXX-XXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX and can be found printed on the Software License Activation Code Certificate(s) you received from HP
• VMware License Activation Codes (LAC) are in the format XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX and can be found in the e-mail you received from VMware after you registered your HP Partner Activation Code
For more details, please consult the following website: http://blogs.vmware.com/kbtv/2010/04/ho ... e-pac.html
In case you wish to obtain any support regarding VMware portal, please log a case with VMware Support Team directly at
https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/login or call your regional VMware center at http://www.vmware.com/support/us_support.html
The VMware agent will guide you through the PAC registration process step by step.

[foggy]

Thanks for sharing with the community. Hope you will be able to successfully back up the newly licensed host now. In case of any other questions feel free to contact us via forums or technical support (in case of technical issues).

[bitbite]

Hi just wanted to say the backup job now started successfully, so I can safely say issue is resolved.

Thanks again for your assistance!