Current license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation

Problem

You’ve configured VMware Hypervisor (free edition of VMware ESXi) and deployed few virtual machines. You free host does not support clustering, so there is not possible to use vMotion and things like that, but your major idea is to consolidate your Virtual Machines having the basic benefit of virtualization in place. Afterwards you have CloudBerry lab installed and trying to configure your CloudBerry Backup for VMware and Hyper-V, but you get the following error: “Current license or ESXi version prohibits execution of the requested operation”. The problem is that free VMware does not provide full support of VMware vSphere Storage APIs – Data Protection (formerly known as VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection or VADP).

Resolution

There are several ways of resolving this situation. All VMware centric backup tools (3d party) will tell you to upgrade your VMware to at least Essentials (SMB solution), as any commercial license supports VADP in its full size. If it is not possible for certain reason (no budget etc), there is agent for certain OS platform, that you can deploy and use (i.e. CloudBerry Backup for Windows or Linux backup or Mac OS X). This is not something you would like to have with your Virtual ecosystem, but at least it guarantees protection of your data at a lower cost.

Nota bene!

• VMware in trial mode (30 - 60 days trial) is not free, it is commercial license and have full VADP support.
• The easiest way to support VADP is to upgrade your VMware farm to commercial license (at least essentials). Check https://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/compare for more details.