HP ESXi 5.0 iso image - licensing change issue

 

I found an issue with the HP’s ESXi 5.0 installer CD (5.0_Aug_2011_ESXi_HD_USB_SDImgeInstlr_Z7550_00204.iso): when you try and change the license you get an error message when you click apply.

The error message is:

Call “LicenseManager.UpdateLicense” for object “ha-license-manager” on ESXi “” failed.

After investigation it seems that the culprit is the /etc/vmware/vmware.lic file: in HP iso image it is flagged as read only (-r–r–r–), but in VMware ESXi 5 image (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.0.0-469512.x86_64.iso) it is flagged as read write with special permission (-rw——T).

To fix this, connect to the ESXi console and  change the permissions on /etc/vmware/vmware.lic:

chmod 600 /etc/vmware/vmware.lic

chmod +t /etc/vmware/vmware.lic

Now it will be possible to change the license key.

I think that HP need to fix the OEM install image posted on Software depot…

Thanks to dcolpitts from vmware communities for heading me in the right direction.

Update: the fix survived a reboot, but after a full poweroff, some change in the hardware and a reboot, the fix was lost…I think that a more in depth change is needed, stay tuned

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