The base license that is provided with your system includes the use of its basic
functions. However, there are also extra licenses that can be purchased to expand the capabilities
of your system. Administrators are responsible for purchasing extra licenses and configuring the
systems within the license agreement, which includes configuring the settings of each licensed
function on the system.
The system supports differential, capacity,
and key-based licensing. For example, with external virtualization differential licensing charges
different rates for different types of storage, which provides cost-effective management of capacity
across multiple tiers of storage. Licensing for these functions is based on the number of storage
capacity units (SCUs) purchased. With other functions, like remote mirroring and FlashCopy®, the license grants a specific number of terabytes
of capacity for that function. Key-based licenses require an authorization code and key to be
downloaded to the system before the function can be used.
Differential licensing is the term that is used to refer to the measurement of external
virtualization and compression licenses, where different types of storage are charged at different
rates.
Differential licensing uses a storage capacity unit (SCU)-based license scheme. For each SCU, a
client is entitled to manage different amounts of usable capacity based on a storage category
classification.
Table 1 identifies the storage
categories and SCU ratios for each category.
Table 1. Supported SCU licenses, drive classes, and ratios
| License |
Drive Classes |
SCU
Ratio |
| SCM |
Storage Class Memory (SCM) devices |
1 SCU equates to 1.00 TB usable of Category 1 storage |
| Flash |
All flash devices, other than SCM drives |
1 SCU equates to 1.18 TB usable of Category 1 storage |
| Enterprise |
10K or 15K RPM drives |
1 SCU equates to 2.00 TB usable of Category 2 storage |
| Nearline |
Nearline Serial ATA (SATA) drives |
1 SCU equates to 4.00 TB usable of Category 3 storage |
provides an example of how SCU
licensing might work based on category types.
Table 2. Example of SCU usage
| Storage category |
TB usable |
SCU ratio |
Total SCUs |
| 1 |
42 |
1.18 |
35 |
| 2 |
400 |
2.00 |
200 |
| 3 |
800 |
4 |
200 |
| Totals |
1242 |
|
435 |
The system supports the following licensed
functions:
- External Virtualization
- Enter the total number of storage capacity units (SCUs) you are licensed to virtualize across
tiers of storage on your system. The system supports virtualization licensing for different tiers of
storage. A license can be purchased for a specific quantity of storage capacity units (SCU) which
can be used to virtualize a designated number of tebibytes (TiB) of storage. The used capacity for
each tier can be monitored to learn how the virtualization license is distributed across the
following tiers of storage:
- Storage class memory (SCM)
- Tier 0 Flash
- Tier 1 Flash
- Enterprise
- Nearline
- FlashCopy
- A FlashCopy base license provides you with an amount of capacities equal to the internal
storage. Beyond this capacity, FlashCopy requires additional licensed capacity, which is charged per
terabyte. The FlashCopy function copies the contents of
a source volume to a target volume. The FlashCopy
function is also used to create cloud snapshots of volumes in systems that have transparent cloud
tiering enabled. The used capacity for FlashCopy
mappings is the sum of all of the volumes that are the source volumes of a FlashCopy mapping and volumes with cloud snapshots. The Used TiB value indicates
the amount of TiB that this system has used of the total amount of licensed TiBs for all FlashCopy operations on the system.
Note: For the 4983-AH8 model, FlashCopy license is applicable to external storage only
and is charged per terabyte. FlashCopy operations that are used on internal storage are part of the
base license.
- Encryption
- In addition to these licensed functions, you can also purchase a separate license to use
software-based encryption. Software-based encryption protects data at rest and protects other keys
that are used on self-encrypting drives. For each enclosure in the system, you must have an
encryption license.