HP's ESXi 5.0 ISO image - "Write failed file:/etc/vmware/vmware.lic" when adding license to host

[dcolpitts]

I've downloaded HP's ESXi 5.0 installer CD (5.0_Aug_2011_ESXi_HD_USB_SDImgeInstlr_Z7550_00204.iso) from the HP software depot and installed it on one of my test Proliants here using the default settings that weasel presents.  When the installer is completed and ESXi has rebooted, I connect to the host via the vSphere client.  The first I went to do is apply our Enterprise Plus license key and I noticed that a pre-existing key already exists (H541G-40353-08081-0PAAK-AEQ4Z).  When I fill in our key and click apply, I get the following error:

"A general system error occurred: Write failed file:/etc/vmware/vmware.lic"
Call "LicenseManager.UpdateLicense" for object "ha-license-manager" on ESXi "10.10.10.101" failed.

Upon further investigation after SSHing into the host, I discovered that /etc/vmware/vmware.lic appears to be flagged as readonly (-r--r--r--) when viewed as ls -la from a console session.

I then wiped my test server, and reinstalled clean using VMware's iso (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-5.0.0-469512.x86_64.iso).  I can confirm that in the VMware build, /etc/vmware/vmware.lic is flagged as readwrite (-rw------T) when viewed as ls -la from a console session (side note - the VMware ISO uses a license key of 00000-00000-00000-00000-00000).

To fix this, I had to change the permissions on /etc/vmware/vmware.lic in the HP build of ESXi 5.0 using the following two commands:

chmod 600 /etc/vmware/vmware.lic
chmod +t /etc/vmware/vmware.lic

Once I did this, I was able to successfully install my Enterprise License key.

HP - you need to fix your OEM install image that you have posted in the Software Depot.

dcc

[deceit]

I can confirm i am experiencing this with my image too.

This is a shop stopper at the moment due to the problem reappearing as soon as you reboot.

I've opened a support request with vmware to see what they suggest.

[dcolpitts]

Let me know what they come back with...

dcc

[AutoMatt]

I had the same issue..  the temporary workaround was fine until you had to apply a patch.

HP has released a more permanent patch and claims that a new ISO will be out in mid-September (any day now?).

http://vibsdepot.hp.com/hp-esxi-5.0-license/

The patch seems to do the trick... I imported it into Update Manager and added it to my baseline group.

[meteorx]

I have downloaded the latest patch and try to install it using the described command via putty. However I get an error:

# esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/hp-esx-license-1.0.5.zip
 [MetadataDownloadError]
 Could not download from depot at zip:/tmp/hp-esx-license-1.0.5.zip?index.xml, skipping (('zip:/tmp/hp-esx-license-1.0.5.zip?index.xml', '', "Error extracting index.xml from /tmp/hp-esx-license-1.0.5.zip: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/hp-esx-license-1.0.5.zip'"))
        url = zip:/tmp/hp-esx-license-1.0.5.zip?index.xml
 Please refer to the log file for more details.

The file is in the tmp directory, and there is an index.xml inside the zipfile.

[Tsukraw]

You ran "esxcli software vib install -d /tmp/hp-esx-license-1.0.5.zip"  the file name is 1.0-5.zip  (DASH 5 not DOT 5)

I did the exact same thing.  For some reason if you copy paste from the txt file it changes it to a . instead of a -

[Wilson010]

Hey guy,

Do you know the new iso is ready?

Regards,

Wilson