Once you have installed an ESXi server, open your web browser and enter the IP address of your ESXi host to open VMware Host Client. When you have downloaded the installer and received ESXi free license key, you can install the ESXi server according to the process described in this blog post. You can get the key on the License & Download tab of the vSphere Hypervisor Download Center page. Where can you get a free license key? When you have registered on VMware website, you can request a free license key for ESXi. You'll need to apply a license (free or paid) to make your ESXi server work again. ESXi hosts connected to vCenter Server are disconnected in this case.

If 60 days have passed and no license was applied, then all advanced features are locked, running VMs continue to run but you cannot start powered off VMs.

If you apply your license before the evaluation period expires, you can only use features allowed by your license. You can use all features available for the Enterprise Plus edition during the 60-day evaluation period. After installing ESXi, a full-featured 60 day evaluation period is started. A different set of features and capabilities is defined after applying the appropriate license. The installer file of a particular version (for example, 6.7) of an ESXi hypervisor is the same for all editions. You can download an ESXi installer ISO image from VMware website, for which you'll need to have a VMware account. With our special trade-in promotion, you can switch to NAKIVO Backup & Replication at only $149/socket and adopt a new data protection approach in your environment. NAKIVO Backup & Replication is a comprehensive solution which can safeguard your business workloads in a fast and reliable manner. Today’s blog post explores features of free VMware ESXi as well as restrictions and limitations that await you if you use this version of an ESXi hypervisor.

Each VMware vSphere edition has its own price but VMware also provides a free version of ESXi. An ESXi hypervisor is provided as a part of VMware vSphere which, in turn, comes with different licensing options for each edition.

More and more people as well as companies are deploying ESXi servers in their environments for running virtual machines. VMware is one of the market leaders of virtualization solutions and VMware ESXi is a well-known type 1 hypervisor that is highly respected by IT specialists. By Michael Bose Free VMware ESXi: Restrictions and Limitations

Esxi 6.0 free license