Summary: This fix changes the MAC address for a VMware ESX VM.
Date: Around 2013
Refactor: 2 January 2025: Checked links and formatting.

After changing the virtual hardware for one of our database servers I got a message from the database administrator that the database in question wouldn't start anymore. The errorlog gave me these errors:

00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:49.97 kernel  SySAM: Using licenses from: C:\sybase\\SYSAM-2_0\licenses
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: Failed to obtain 1 license(s) for ASE_CORE feature from license file(s) or server(s).
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: License file does not support this version. ASE requires a license version of 2010.0204 or greater but only licenses for previous releases are available. If you are entitled to use this version of ASE then check for updates at the Sybase Product Download Center and regenerate and deploy your license updates.
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: License feature name:  ASE_CORE
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: Application version > License version: 2010.0204 > 2009.1231
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: License search path:   C:\sybase\\SYSAM-2_0\licenses\SYBASE.lic;C:\sybase\\SYSAM -
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM:    -2_0\licenses\SYBASE_ASE_DE.lic
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: FLEXnet Licensing error:-21,126
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: For further information, refer to the Sybase Software Asset Management website at http://www.sybase.com/sysam
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: Failed to obtain 1 license(s) for ASE_CORE feature from license file(s) or server(s).
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: Invalid host.
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM:  The hostid of this system does not match the hostid
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM:  specified in the license file.
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: License feature name:  ASE_CORE
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: Hostid:        0050568975XX
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: License search path:   C:\sybase\\SYSAM-2_0\licenses\SYBASE.lic;C:\sybase\\SYSAM -
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM:    -2_0\licenses\SYBASE_ASE_DE.lic
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: FLEXnet Licensing error:-9,57
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  SySAM: For further information, refer to the Sybase Software Asset Management website at http://www.sybase.com/sysam
00:00000:00000:2011/10/05 16:08:50.02 kernel  There is no valid license for ASE server product. Installation date is not found or installation grace period has expired. Server will not boot.

Note: I changed the nr of the MAC address after the Hostid.

Turned out that the 9,57 error was new and prevented the database from starting. After some searching it turned out that this particular Sybase edition defines the Hostid, and because of the hostid, also the license on the network card, or more specific the MAC address.
Luckily, this was a virtual machine so I could solve it to change the MAC address to the old value:

• Locate the vmx file on the file system
• Remove the VM from inventory
• Change the vmx file to reflect the old MAC address
  • MAC address is set in this property: ethernet0.generatedAddress
• Add the vm again to the inventory

Problem solved.