Symptoms
Deploying a new witness appliance version 7.0 released before 4/20/2020 will not have an embedded license or upgrading an existing witness appliance to vSAN 7.0, will cause the witness appliance to lose its embedded license after upgrade. In both scenarios the witness appliance defaults to a 60 day Evaluation license
Cause
The OVF file doesn't contain the embedded license.
Impact / Risks
Once the evaluation license expires the witness will disconnect from vCenter and will not be able to reconnect.
Resolution
This issue has been partially fixed in 7.0 U1 but will result in an extra step of requiring to disconnect/reconnect the witness appliance as outlined in KB License status of the Witness in the vCenter UI shows as expired (81007).The full fix can be found in 7.0 U2 and later
Workaround
Deploy a new witness appliance ensuring to use the below link or the release date is after 4/20/2020:https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/get-download?downloadGroup=WITNESS-OVA-700Steps to replace the witness can be found in the documentation: Change the Witness HostFor solution-based environments like VxRail/VCF, please engage the respective vendor that deployed the environment for further assistance.
