Hello,

I have followed all the steps and I have the job added to the Crontabs/root file
however, I have not been able to actually test it using the command suggested.

$ chmod +x reset-eval.sh
./reset-eval.sh

I don't understand what is being asked to do here.
This does not work when sending in via SSL client.
What am I doing wrong?

https://www.cyberciti.biz/f...

Thank you.

Is there a similar thing to this for the vCenter Server evaluation license?

Still works on 7.0

Thanks a lot !
I use version 6.7.0 U3
But i have this issue :

syntax error: unexpected end of file (expecting "then")

Try to modify but no succes, could you help please ?
Thanks

Hi Everybody,

First of all thx for this great post

Comming to you to get some help or clarification

I'm running 6.7.0 Update 3 (Build 15160138) I did follow you guide When I
run all command one by one it does reset the evaluation period

When running the script same no issue

But when I run the scrip with crontabs for some reason it does not work properly

It manage to remove license and replace it but it doesn't seems to restart vpxa

Here's content of my cron jobs

#Add those line in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
/bin/echo "@monthly /bin/ResetEval.sh" >> /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
kill $(cat /var/run/crond.pid)
crond

Could someone give me a hand on this please

The section "Finally add the following to the end of ‘/etc/rc.local.d/local.sh’ to regenerate the job as ESXi clears the crontab on reboot" seems to be the above instructions only different. It doesn't touch the local.sh

There is no need to run /etc/init.d/vpxa restart if you already have a free license. Once you have copied over the new eval license file.
Log into vSphere client then go to Configuration -> Licensed Features -> click Edit -> Select the Evaluation Mode license then click OK.

Hi

a newbie here trying ESXi. how do i get a new license file before the end of 6 months?

FYI...

' * * 59 * * ' does not set cron to run every 59 days. Valid options here are 1-31 as these are days of the month.

I found out the hard way by watching my VM's reboot every minute!!!!!!!!!! Explanation below...

Field values are: #min hour day mon dow(day of week)

You can verify this here... https://crontab.guru, and also check man pages for crontab

The easiest thing to do here is to set it to run at certain hour(don't use * * for min/hour) because that says "any minute/hour... or every minute/hour" and since the first value is minute, and ' * ' means any or every... this cron job was running every minute... doh!

Instead, use a certain time... in my case, I'm using ' 0 9 1 */1 * '

ESXi time is in UTC, since I'm in central time, this cron entry will run at 3amCST on the 1st day of every month.

checked against crontab.guru ------> “At 09:00 on day-of-month 1 in every month.” But, because I'm Central Time, that translates to UTC-6... or 3am on day 1 of every month...

Hope this helps!

Does this affect vCenter? If not, does anyone know to reset the license for vCenter? My vCenter trial ends before my ESXi license, so in some way they must be individualized.

I replace the license as shown above, but I only have disconnect, remove then add back to vcenter to reflect the changes.

have you figure this out yet? i have same issue

See my response.
It works.

Replace the licence file using the .#license file (see above for filename and location). All I did was remove the host from vcenter and readd it. All works and no reboot needed.
ginettanyk

This is great. Do I need to select "Public Evaluation" version of vSphere while downloading?
http://www.vmware.com/try-v...

It works great, but not need shutdown vm, just suspend and working too, short time to start .... Thanks!!!!

How did you modify the script for the "suspended" mode? I tried a few ways but I can't get it to work...

Thanks!

It works Great....Thanks

Does works this trick with ESXi 6.5??

Worked like a charm on my 6.5 server.

Thanks dude! +1

ahaa!! you made my life EASY. Thanks for this great blog!! license expired and I tried the trick, it worked and ESXi back to evaluation mode for 60 Days!!. Whoo..

Figured I'd post my experience with this in case others come here with the same problem. I've been unable to get this trick to work in my ESXi 6.0 environment. I suspect my problem may be due to the fact that I've applied an ESXi free license to my environment. Maybe someone else can confirm?

try flicking the license back to evaluation mode and then retry.

Removing the existing Free license did the trick. The application of the free license seems to have prevented the demo license from becoming active.

I've been aware of the license reset for sometime. I had meant to configure a script to this for sometime but kept putting it off until we had a power outage and I could not start VM's.. Found this great blog. Saved $1200. Thanks.

Great script. Never though it would be this easy.

Hey nice tutorial and nice blog, i just came across to find a solution how to setup a cronjob. You wrote already many interesting tutorials which I'll test in the upcoming weeks.

Back to topic:
When setting up the cronjob I verified the time zone and found out that esxi is using UTC and it's not changeable. So I guess I have to setup the cronjob for the system(UTC) time and not the timezone I setup with the vSphere Client?

I found this howto to setup the system time:
http://www.empirion.co.uk/v...

Reference only UTC:
https://kb.vmware.com/selfs...

Hi Calvin,
Would you know if APC's Powerchute Network Shutdown will work with an evaluation copy of ESXi 6? It does not with the free version, no matter how I tried.

Awesome! Thanks for the hack.

There's any chance to do something similar with the vCenter?.

Thank you!

Not that I know of, sorry

Hi, very interesting article !

I've a little doubt so I've Eset Cyber Security Pro... and is possible use similar method (with modifications) for my iMAC ? really will be a great idea, if you have something like that for Eset I'll be very glad.
Thank you very much !

Gabry

Strange thing to comment...but no

Hi Calvin,
thanks for the job.
Actually i'm evaluating vsphere on my LAB. i have to clarify one step of your procedure, when you talk about .#license.cfg; that is a new license trial or so what? where i can get a new 60 day trial license?
Thanks

sam

yes, obviously.

Hey Calvin, good job with the blog!

I currently have a free license which I obtained from VMWare.

Apart from using flings, will reverting to an evaluation license allow me to do backups with VMs that are powered on (free license doesn't allow this)?

You also mentioned Vsquare in another blog entry but I think it requires backup APIs that aren't available with the free license so does evaluation enable Vsquare?

Is the 60 day evaluation license something that I need to (register for and obtain from vmware) or does installing ESXi automatically start the 60 day demo?

Do i need to do anything else but run the first commands manually every 59 days? Do I need to register for a new 60 day trial?

Meaning - will the 60 day reset itself just by running the command or is there more to it?

why not give it a try?