VMware: Combining .lic license files

As you may know, the license server for VI3 (provided by FlexLM) can only use 1 license file. This file is called vmware.lic and is stored (latest version) in C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware License Server. As the .lic file is a plain text file, it is easy to combine 2 .lic files into one.

The first part looks like this, don't touch it!:

SERVER this_host ANY 27000
VENDOR VMWARELM port=27010
USE_SERVER

Then you have the VC license:

INCREMENT PROD_VC VMWARELM 2007.03 permanent 1 \
VENDOR_STRING=licenseType=Server ISSUED=12-Jan-2007 \
NOTICE=FulfillmentId=1234 SIGN="1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 \
1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 \
1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234"

Now comes the fun part :)

• Stop the VMware License server service via services.msc
• Make a backup of your vmware.lic file
• Open vmware.lic file with wordpad (NOT notepad)
• As the license file uses increments, you can just copy/paste INCREMENT parts in the .lic file (in any order you would like). Example to combine an 8+8 license:

INCREMENT VC_ESXHOST VMWARELM 2006.07 permanent 8 \
VENDOR_STRING=licenseType=Server;capacityType=cpuPackage \
ISSUED=21-Jan-2007 NOTICE=FulfillmentId=1234 SIGN="1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 \
1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 \
1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234"

INCREMENT VC_ESXHOST VMWARELM 2007.07 permanent 8 \
VENDOR_STRING=licenseType=Server;capacityType=cpuPackage \
ISSUED=21-Jun-2007 NOTICE=FulfillmentId=1234 SIGN="1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 \
1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 \
1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234 1234"

• Restart the VMware License server service
• Go to VMware License server tools
• Perform a status Enquiry in the Server Status tab to see if it has combined all available licenses (the screenshot shows 16 VC_ESXHOST licenses: succes :) )