VxRail: vSAN Witness OEM License is Lost after Upgrade to 7.0.xxx

Summary: Due to a known VMware issue in the virtual storage area network (vSAN) Witness, the internal OEM license of the vSAN Witness becomes unavailable. This leaves the Virtual Witness host in an eval/expired licensing state. This affects VxRail stretched clusters upgrading from 4.5.xxx and 4.7.xxx to 7.0.xxx, no known VMware and VxRail release contains a fix. ...

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Symptoms

After the upgrade to 7.0.xxx is completed, on the vSAN Witness host a message is seen: License assignment on the host fails. Reasons: The license key cannot be assigned.
 
License information

In vCenter > Administration > Licenses > Assets > Hosts, notice that the witness host has an expired license:
 
License expired

On The ESXi host, this is shown in more detail under Configure > System > Licensing:
 
License information

Cause

This is a known issue by VMware due to the licensing changes between 6.x and 7.x as described in VMware article vSAN 7.0 Witness Appliances losing embedded license after upgrade or new deployment and "Signing certificate is not valid" or "No healthy upstream" error in vCenter Server Appliance (External Link)

Resolution

From VxRail testing, this can be resolved by performing the below steps (reference walk-through in the additional info section):

  1. Enter the vSAN Witness host in Maintenance mode.
  2. Right-click the vSAN Witness host and choose to disconnect.
  3. Once disconnected, proceed with reconnecting the vSAN Witness host.
  4. Validate the licensing status.
  5. Exit the vSAN Witness host from maintenance mode.

The vSAN Witness host Maintenance Mode is technically not required but an added precaution if there is unexpected behavior.

In case the above provided resolution does not work as expected, follow VMware guidance. Plan to replace the vSAN Witness which is a customer administration option, Dell Support can help in this scenario through a Service Request engagement:

For all Stretched/ROBO clusters running vSAN 7.0 replace existing witness with new 7.0 witness that includes the Embedded OEM license.

Additional configuration may be required if there is custom network configuration or if Witness Traffic Separation (WTS) is used.

Review these VMware documentations:

In case changing the Virtual vSAN Witness host is not an option or difficulties are encountered, open a Support Request for assistance on the same.



 

Additional Information

  • After upgrade to 7.0.xxx, completed licenses cannot be applied:
completed licenses cannot be applied 
License expired
  • Enter the Virtual VSAN Witness host in Maintenance mode.
Entering Maintenance Mode
  • Right-click the Virtual VSAN Witness host and choose to disconnect.
Disconnect the selected host?
  • Once disconnected proceed with reconnecting the Virtual VSAN Witness host.
reconnecting the Virtual VSAN Witness host
  • Validate the licensing status.
License information
  • Exit the Virtual VSAN Witness host from maintenance mode.
Exit the Virtual VSAN Witness host from maintenance mode

Videos

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Affected Products

VxRail Appliance Series

Products

VxRail Appliance Family, VxRail Software
Article Properties
Article Number: 000181908
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 07 May 2026
Version:  5
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