IBM Storage Scale license designation

According to the IBM Storage Scale Licensing Agreement, each server that is licensed with IBM Storage Scale Standard Edition or IBM Storage Scale Advanced Edition in the cluster must be designated as possessing an IBM Storage Scale Client license, an IBM Storage Scale File Placement Optimizer (FPO) license, or an IBM Storage Scale Server license.

There are three basic storage cluster models, which are storage area network (SAN), network shared disk (NSD), and shared nothing. IBM Storage Scale supports all three of them. For SAN and NSD clusters, various Server licenses are required in addition to Client licenses. For shared nothing clusters of storage rich servers, FPO licenses are required on each of those servers.

The type of license that is associated with any one server depends on the functional roles that the server is designated to perform.

IBM Storage Scale Client license: The IBM Storage Scale Client license permits exchange of data between servers that locally mount the same IBM Storage Scale file system. No other export of the data is permitted.
IBM Storage Scale Server license: The IBM Storage Scale Server license permits the licensed server to perform management functions, such as cluster configuration manager, quorum node, manager node, AFM gateway node, and Network Shared Disk (NSD) server. In addition, the IBM Storage Scale Server license permits the licensed server to share IBM Storage Scale data directly through any application, service protocol or method such as Network File System (NFS), Server Message Block (SMB), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Object Protocol (OpenStack Swift, Amazon S3 API). Therefore, protocol nodes also require an IBM Storage Scale Server license.
IBM Storage Scale FPO license: The IBM Storage Scale FPO license permits the licensed server to perform the NSD server functions for sharing IBM Storage Scale data with other servers that have an IBM Storage Scale FPO or an IBM Storage Scale Server license.

The full text of the Licensing Agreement is provided with the installation media and can be found at the IBM® Software license agreements website (www.ibm.com/software/sla/sladb.nsf).

Use the guidance in Figure 1 to decide which IBM Storage Scale license to buy for your requirements.

Figure 1. Guidance on which license to buy

These licenses are all valid for use in IBM Storage Scale Standard Edition and IBM Storage Scale Advanced Edition. For more information, see IBM Storage Scale product editions.

With IBM Storage Scale Data Access Edition, IBM Storage Scale Data Management Edition, and IBM Storage Scale Erasure Code Edition, you must use capacity-based licensing. For more information, see Capacity-based licensing.

You can view the number and type of licenses that are currently in effect for the cluster by using the mmlslicense command.
If needed, you can change the type of license that is assigned to a node by using the mmchlicense command.

For more information, see mmchlicense command and mmlslicense command.

The following are IBM Storage Scale licensing considerations including considerations for using IBM Storage Scale with other offerings.

AFM-based Async Disaster Recovery (AFM DR) with multicluster: When using AFM-based Async Disaster Recovery (AFM DR) in a multi-cluster environment, both the home and the cache cluster require the IBM Storage Scale Advanced Edition, IBM Storage Scale Data Management Edition, or IBM Storage Scale Developer Edition.
AFM to cloud object storage with multi-site replication: When using AFM to cloud object storage multi-site replication, the cache cluster requires IBM Storage Scale Advanced Edition, IBM Storage Scale Data Management Edition, or IBM Storage Scale Erasure Code Edition.
Encryption: The encryption function that is available in IBM Storage Scale Advanced Edition, IBM Storage Scale Data Management Edition, or IBM Storage Scale Developer Edition requires a separate IBM Security Key Lifecycle Manager (ISKLM) license.
Encryption with multi-cluster: When using the IBM Storage Scale encryption function in a multicluster environment, each server in an IBM Storage Scale cluster requiring access to another cluster's encrypted file system must be licensed with IBM Storage Scale Advanced Edition (Client, Server, or FPO as appropriate) or IBM Storage Scale Data Management Edition.
Hadoop access: The IBM Storage Scale Hadoop connector can be used with all license types (Client, Server, FPO) and all Editions (Standard, Advanced, and Data Management). There is no additional license requirement for Hadoop access. A Hadoop node using the connector needs no IBM Storage Scale license. The Hadoop node can connect to a node in the IBM Storage Scale cluster, which is licensed as Server because it is exporting data, and access the file system directly by using the Hadoop connector.
ILMT service: The IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) ensures efficiency in inventory deduction and better estimation of license consumption. To use the ILMT service, you must schedule the command mmlslicense --ilmt-data to run once a week, by using mechanisms like cron. For more information, see mmlslicense command
IBM Storage Scale with IBM Storage Protect: When using IBM Storage Scale with IBM Storage Protect for backup and restore, each IBM Storage Scale node performing data movement requires an IBM Storage Protect license.
IBM Storage Scale with IBM Storage Protect for Space Management: When using IBM Storage Scale with IBM Storage Protect for Space Management for migration and recall, each IBM Storage Scale node performing data movement requires an IBM Storage Protect for Space Management license.
IBM Storage Scale with IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition (EE): In addition to an IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition (EE) license, a server in the IBM Storage Scale cluster which is being used for IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition (EE) requires IBM Storage Scale to be installed with the correct license (ordered separately). The IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition (EE) server requires an IBM Storage Scale Server license, if the IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition (EE) server is also being used for any of the functions requiring an IBM Storage Scale Server license, such as NSD server, quorum, management, etc. Otherwise, the IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition (EE) server can be licensed with an IBM Storage Scale client license. The IBM Spectrum Archive Enterprise Edition (EE) server's function of moving data from the file system to a tape drive is not considered as a type of data export that requires an IBM Storage Scale server license.
Virtualization licensing: In an IBM Storage Scale environment containing VMs or LPARs, licenses are required for the sockets available to the IBM Storage Scale VMs or LPARs on a physical server. The number of licenses required is the number of cores available to IBM Storage Scale. For more information, see Virtualization questions in IBM Storage Scale FAQ in IBM Documentation.